The speed of light

Mind the speed-limit sign

The speed of light is not a maximum speed through space.
It is a maximum coupling and reaction speed.

In other words, $c$ is the limit of how coherently acceleration and interaction can be shared across the universe.

Introductory question

Can two objects attract and accelerate each other indefinitely?
Or do they eventually saturate their mutual resonance, reaching a maximal, optimal relative speed beyond which further acceleration is no longer possible?

Standard physics perspective

In relativistic physics, as an object approaches $c$:

• additional energy no longer increases velocity,
• instead, it increases inertia (effective mass).

Acceleration tends toward zero as velocity approaches the limit $c$.

Rotonal interpretation

From the Rotonal Quantum Model (RQM) viewpoint:

Objects close to the speed of light cannot accelerate further because no remaining resonance capacity is available to couple to.

Two bodies do not exchange “forces” in a primitive sense;
they exchange acceleration and reaction offers.

This coupling cannot be increased arbitrarily. Once the maximal resonance coupling is reached, acceleration vanishes.

This is the key indication that $c$ is not a property of light itself, but a property of the global coupling structure of reality.

Historically, this was identified by Einstein, but it aligns naturally with a resonance-based formulation.

Added energy

If an object reaches the speed where it can adhere to all offered resonance potentials, there is no way to accelerate it further. If further energy is added as acceleration, the resonance coupling will slow down the system again.

Once all accessible resonance channels are saturated, extra energy cannot produce further coherent motion.

What happens to excess energy: (A) Stored internally: Further energy temporarily fully goes into internal degrees of freedom (rotational, vibrational, phase). Externally this appears as reduced acceleration response (increased inertia). (B) Radiated away: if the object has open resonance channels, it might induce phase shift saturation leading to counter-attractions via coupled objects. (C) Reconfiguration: stress exceeds structural stability. Particles decay, objects fragment, new degrees of freedom open. This is not speed, it is loss of original object.

Why no engine can exceed the resonance sum: Once phase alignment, directional coupling, resonance channels are saturated, there is nothing left to additionally couple to. No engine can create new external resonance potentials, it can only redistribute energy.

No energy source can accelerate an object beyond the sum of accessible resonance potentials; additional energy is either stored as inertia, radiated away, or destroys the object—but it never produces further coherent acceleration.

Photons

A photon accelerates because it tends to escape its own energy-density field. It can do so because it is effectively a planar, one-dimensional rotatory object.

A photon reaches its maximal speed $c$ when its translational motion synchronizes with its intrinsic rotational frequency.

In vacuum:

• there is no alternative spatial resonance channel,
• no competing coupling that would cause drift or tilt,
• therefore the photon immediately snaps into its stable resonance channel at $c$.

This raises the question: Can the rotonal angular velocity (soliton rotation) of a photon be derived as a fixed quantity?

At present, this condition alone is not sufficient.

Background fluctuations

Even though photons are effectively lower-dimensional Rotons, background fluctuations may weakly pull them into higher-dimensional structure.

This could induce a minimal intrinsic inertia, dependent on:

• local background fluctuations,
• nearby matter and fields.

Such inertia would be local and relational, not fundamental.

The maximum speed of an electron

Inertia reconsidered

A central puzzle is inertia itself.

Why should matter possess a static property (“mass”) that dictates how it reacts to attempted acceleration?

Consider gravity on Earth: Earth does not accelerate us downward; it prevents us from following our natural inertial motion.

In the RQM view:

• Matter is a rotonal compound,
• coupling to a field of resonance potentials originating from the universe.

Inertia plays a dual role:

1. It measures how strongly an object couples to these resonance fields.
2. It measures how resistant the object is to re-aligning its internal structure to adopt new resonance conditions.

Adhering to resonance potentials requires extensive internal realignment:

• rotation axes,
• phases,
• angular momenta,
• stability of sub-structures.

Resonance alignment mechanisms

Two objects may satisfy resonance conditions in different ways:

• By changing relative velocity until rotational attraction locks in (e.g. gravitating masses).
• By keeping distance fixed but aligning phase and angular momentum (e.g. 1-D Rotons such as photons).
• By reorganizing internal degrees of freedom to absorb resonance torque.

For electrons, the three resonance channels are not independent. They share the same spatial span and center, which makes rapid phase changes energetically costly. This resistance manifests as inertia.

The core question

Can two objects accelerate each other without bound?

The RQM introduces a distance-independent interaction component. Does this interaction vanish once resonance coupling is fully saturated?

At that point, the system has reached the optimal compromise: the center of all available acceleration offers.

Is there a speed at which further acceleration becomes impossible?

The speed of light strongly suggests itself as that limit.

Side remark: the fine-structure constant

Speculatively, the fine-structure constant may reflect:

• the ratio between the rotational speed of an electron (≈ $c$) and the intrinsic rotation speed of a quon (≈ quark/2),
• defining an equilibrium between attraction and internal energy repulsion within quon pairs.

Mass revisited

Mass is information that has reached the coupling limit.

$c$ is the maximum causal slope with which information can propagate through the universe.

Anything beyond this limit:

• cannot be externally communicated,
• remains internally bound,
• and appears macroscopically as mass and inertia.

Information density and the speed limit $c$

Information is not content, but distinguishable change.
A difference only becomes information if a system can physically respond to it.

If there exists a universal maximum coupling speed for macroscopic objects, then:

• No system can react to or distinguish changes faster than $c$.
• Consequently, there is a maximum rate of information transfer across macroscopic distances.

Because propagation is finite:

• Only a finite spacetime region (a causal cone) is accessible per unit time.
• Therefore, accessible information density is bounded per spacetime volume.
• This naturally enforces an effective quantization of spacetime at the macroscopic level.

When energy is added beyond this coupling capacity:

• It can no longer increase external reaction speed.
• Instead, it accumulates in internal, causally inaccessible degrees of freedom.

Possible manifestations:

• In atomic nuclei (e.g. alpha particles), stability may require extensions into degrees of freedom not accessible to our macroscopic spacetime, allowing bound leptonic structures (maybe even into further dimensions) while preserving nuclear and atomic stability.
• A similar saturation of accessible information may occur in black holes.

Externally, this saturation appears as:

• increased inertia (effective mass),
• higher energy density,
• loss of informational content to the macroscopic causal world.

In short:
$c$ is not fundamentally the speed of light, but the maximum causal slope of information flow.
Mass is information that has reached this causal saturation limit.

Below this energy-density threshold, strictly one-directional causality dissolves, and bi-temporal or symmetric causal structures may re-emerge in spacetime.