Particle Lifetimes as a Mechanical Product of Speed and Mass
Standard special relativity attributes the extended lifetime of fast-moving particles (e.g., atmospheric muons) to time dilation: τ = γτ0. While empirically successful, this explanation treats time as a geometric quantity without a physical mechanism. The Absolute Medium (AM) model offers an alternative: the universe is filled with an elastic, ultra-stiff medium that interacts mechanically with matter.
A particle’s decay is a response to the medium’s “dissociative pressure,” and its stability is enhanced by two independent factors:
• Kinetic satiation: high speed reduces the coupling between the particle and the medium’s agitation.
• Mass shielding: the particle’s own mass creates a local stabilizing “wake” in the medium, shielding its interior.
These two effects multiply, giving a universal stability index Ω = γ · M (m). This paper derives Ω from first principles, calibrates the mass-shielding coefficient K_P using the neutron lifetime puzzle, and demonstrates that the same law explains muon, tau, and heavy hadron lifetimes. A critical mass boundary M_crit ≈ 97.6 mn emerges naturally, separating the unsaturated particle regime from the saturated aggregated-matter regime.