Four-space hyperfluid flow as a model of electromagnetism

Abstract

A formal model of the electromagnetic field, which is based upon the equations of ordinary three-space incompressible, inviscid, rotational fluid flow, is introduced. This model is a four-space theory which, however, reduces to the three-space picture of fluid flow in any three-dimensional subspace of four-space. It is for this reason that the entity considered by the model is called a four-space hyperfluid. Vector operations and fluid concepts are defined in four-space according to their reduction to customary concepts in three-space. It is found that if the electromagnetic field four-potential is considered to be the velocity potential for the four-fluid, the electromagnetic field arises as the rotational flow of this fluid. Two of Maxwell's equations arise from the four-space identity div curl A = 0, and the other two arise from curl curl A, provided charge and current are considered to be regions of four-space flow vorticity. The energy-momentum relations of the electromagnetic field arise from considering the forces associated with vortex flow of the fluid in any three-subspace. The model is not an ether theory since electromagnetic radiation arises from the space metric and not from any assumed compressional or inertial properties of the fluid. The model is not related to the flow of a relativistic fluid because the velocity is a second-rank tensor and not a vector field.