invariant null interval
Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion
Editorial synthesis · provisional
Definition
An invariant null interval is the lightlike relation between emission and absorption events connected by a photon. In the transactional spacetime-growth proposal, an actualized exchange establishes this link rather than merely occupying a pre-existing container. Null means zero interval and zero photon proper time, not nothingness, coincident endpoints or zero elapsed coordinate time for observers; its generative interpretation remains an adopted physical account.
Explanation
RB2 reproduces Kastner’s description of emission, absorption and the photon-defined interval as a link, with the displayed lightlike relation. The accompanying note distinguishes standard physics, where it is a separation between photon-connected events, from RTI’s stronger claim that the transaction creates the spacetime path. This distinction belongs in the proposed definition.
The emission remains parent to absorption, so the absence of elapsed photon proper time does not abolish directed transfer or observer coordinate duration. AB likewise says the exchange leaves emission, absorption and a new link while retaining their order. Its narrated offer-answer-settlement sequence is not a hidden succession measured by a separate physical clock.
The growing-network interpretation is one ontological reading of the formal interval. RB2 qualifies its emergent-gravity extension as debated and unnecessary to Law 8, and RB3 declares RTI adopted rather than proved. The entry therefore does not infer that every relational pattern, every possible exchange or every closed mathematical diagram creates a verified photon interval.
Scope and attribution
Preserve the geometrical meaning and the adopted generative reading without conflating them.
AB — The Actual Book
The completed exchange leaves ordered emission, absorption and link, without a hidden negotiation clock.
Occurrence locators: 33.
RB1 — The Real Book, Volume I: The Possible Is Real
The null link is the basic element of the transactional spacetime-growth proposal.
Occurrence locators: 59, 92, 110, 118.
RB2 — The Real Book, Volume II: Becoming Is Being
The source distinguishes standard null separation from the stronger generated-path claim and from observer coordinate time.
Occurrence locators: 263; Notes: 263.
Background used in the editorial explanation
Named theories and mechanisms are distinguished from neighboring background, homonyms and the author’s own synthesis. Reproduced AI passages retain their separate voice.