A proton’s charge is one, the simple sum of its constituent quark charges, but it has a hundred times their mass. Charge adds when quarks combine but mass multiplies a hundredfold, so why? The standard model attributes the extra mass to the gluons it says bind them, but how can massless gluons make mass? And if they do, why don’t they increase charge as well? The mass problem is that the standard model can’t explain why its particles have the masses that they do:
“… though the actual value of the basic electric charge … remains a theoretical mystery … all other charges found in the universe are … multiples of this value. Nothing like this appears to be the case for rest-mass, and the underlying reason for the particular values of the rest-masses of … particle types is completely unknown.” (Penrose, 2010), p153.
However a processing model can explain why mass varies but charge doesn’t. An electron’s charge is the processing left-over when the channels of a point of space overload. Each channel can handle one Planck process and the colliding photons contribute twice that, so the left over can’t exceed one Planck process. If all mass arises from similar collisions, all charge is then a multiple of the electron charge.
In contrast mass, as the net processing done, isn’t limited like this because processing can interfere. Interference occurs when network processes try to access the same resource at the same time. Road networks also have interference, as if two cars at an intersection try to use the same space they collide. This wastes time, so interference slows down road networks as it does computer networks. Roads use traffic lights to avoid collisions but on computer networks, this was found to be inefficient. Instead, protocols like Ethernet let processes access network resources freely, and if a collision is detected, they just try again after a random time, to avoid a repeat. This protocol is ten times faster than using controls, so the quantum network is expected to be the same.
The quantum network is then a first-come-first-served system where photons compete for channels as we compete for roads, but with no traffic lights, so if two photons try to access a channel that can only handle one, they interfere. One channel can’t handle two photons from the same direction at once, so one must try again elsewhere. Interference then increases processing, which in this model is mass.
The mass increase caused by interference then depends on how many photons compete for channels, which in turn depends on the photon structure. For an electron, two photon streams access the same channels from opposite directions with no interference, so all its mass comes from its photons. But quark photon streams intersect at an angle, so they will compete for channels and hence interfere. If an electron is two photon streams colliding and a quark is three, one might expect quarks to have 50% more mass, but thanks to interference, a quark has about ten times the mass of an electron.
For a proton, the channel interference is even greater. Every time two photons compete for the same channel they interfere, which increases the processing that is mass. Interference then explains why a proton has more mass than its quark constituents without the need for gluons.
Processing interference can now explain the masses observed. For example, in Table 4.1, down quarks have over twice the mass of up quarks for no known reason. Now if an up quark is two photon tails colliding with one set of photon heads, and the tails fill channels first, leaving one set of heads to fill the remaining channels. In contrast, for a down quark, one tail set gets first access, leaving two sets of photon heads to fight over the rest, giving more interference and thus mass.
Also, the quark masses of Table 4.1 vary over a range of values when observed, but shouldn’t identical elementary particles have the same mass? In contrast, this model lets quark masses vary because each observation is a new event that can unfold differently, just as the rush-hour traffic delay can vary every day despite the same number of cars. Processing interference then explains not only the mass problem of physics, but also why its particles have the masses they do.