Abstract

We develop a unified physical framework in which a single medium — the ether, modelled as a superfluid quantum condensate — accounts for electromagnetic wave propagation, weak-field general relativity, the dark sector, quantum ground states, the Schrödinger equation, and quantum non-locality. The programme synthesises three existing but previously disconnected research traditions: the Unruh–Visser analog gravity programme, Stochastic Electrodynamics (SED), and Nelson's stochastic mechanics.

In the gravitational sector, we prove that the Painlevé–Gullstrand form of the Schwarzschild metric is exactly the acoustic metric for an ether flowing radially inward at the Newtonian free-fall velocity (Theorem 3.2), reproducing all classical tests of Schwarzschild gravity. We derive the MOND phenomenology — including the Radial Acceleration Relation — from the ether's superfluid equation of state without invoking dark matter particles or modified gravity (Theorem 4.1). We show that the ether's phonon zero-point energy produces a cosmological constant with $w = -1$, with the energy scale set by the condensate healing length rather than the Planck length, reducing the vacuum catastrophe from a 122-order-of-magnitude discrepancy to a question about the value of a single condensate parameter (Theorem 4.2).

In the electromagnetic sector, we derive the complete plasma dielectric tensor from the ether's SED dynamics (Theorem 5.1) and prove that Alfvén wave propagation realises the elastic-ether structure that Young postulated in 1801 (Theorem 5.2), with magnetic tension providing the shear rigidity.

In the quantum sector, we show that the ether's electromagnetic zero-point field maintains atomic ground states at the correct quantum energies (Boyer's Theorem 6.1), that stochastic diffusion through the ether yields the Schrödinger equation (Nelson's Theorem 7.1), and that the ether's long-range correlations at zero temperature produce Bell violation saturating the Tsirelson bound (Theorem 8.5).

The framework generates a falsifiable prediction that differs from standard quantum mechanics: the thermal degradation of Bell correlations follows $|S(T)| = 2\sqrt{2}/(1 + 2n_{\text{th}})^2$ — algebraic with exponent 2, rather than the exponential decoherence predicted by standard decoherence theory (Theorem 8.8). This prediction is testable with current superconducting circuit technology.

We present a complete empirical programme identifying 15 quantitative predictions across three domains (cosmology/gravity, quantum foundations, electromagnetic propagation), connected by a small number of fundamental parameters. We provide explicit falsification criteria and a prioritised ten-year research roadmap.