Mach’s principle and the creation of matter

Abstract

This is a short report of a small contribution to a very old problem, the problem expressed by Newton in the following well-known words: ‘The effects which distinguish absolute motion from relative motion are the forces of receding from the axis of circular motion. For there are no such forces in a circular motion purely relative, but in a true and absolute circular motion they are greater, or less, according to the quantity of the motion. After this, Newton went on to discuss his experiments of a rotating water-filled bucket suspended from a twisted thread. The crucial point was that whenever rotation occurred relative to some particular reference frame the surface of the water became depressed; an absolute effect not a relative one. It was also clear that the reference frame, relative to which inertial forces were observed, coincided within experimental error with the frame in which distant objects in the universe were non-rotating. More accurate later experiments have confirmed this coincidence. Since the coincidence can scarcely be accidental it is necessary to attempt an explanation of it.