The strongest test of a new physical theory is whether it makes predictions beyond the data used to derive it. The Selective Transient Field passes this test spectacularly.
The STF mass was derived from cosmic ray and gamma-ray burst timing around stellar-mass black hole mergers — systems with masses around 30 times the Sun. But if STF is a fundamental field, it should apply at all scales.
What does it predict for supermassive black holes?
STF Resonance Frequency
What NANOGrav Sees
NANOGrav (North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves) uses an array of millisecond pulsars as a galaxy-sized gravitational wave detector. These pulsars are nature's most precise clocks, and gravitational waves passing through space cause tiny timing variations.
In 2023, NANOGrav announced evidence for a gravitational wave background — the collective hum of supermassive black hole binaries throughout the universe. But their 15-year data set showed something unexpected: the spectrum wasn't a smooth power law. There was structure.
The anomaly: NANOGrav's spectrum shows flattening and deviation from the expected power law at frequencies around 9-10 nHz — exactly where STF predicts resonance effects should appear.
STF prediction matches NANOGrav spectral anomaly
Scale Independence
This cross-scale validation spans 8 orders of magnitude in black hole mass:
Same STF mass, different scales
The fact that a single field mass — derived entirely from stellar-mass observations — correctly predicts features in supermassive black hole observations is remarkable. It's exactly what you'd expect from a fundamental field that operates at all gravitational scales.
Why This Matters
Independent predictions are the gold standard in physics. Anyone can fit a model to existing data. The test is whether it predicts something new.
- STF mass derived from: UHECR-GRB timing (stellar-mass BBH)
- STF prediction made for: SMBH gravitational wave spectrum
- Prediction matches: NANOGrav 15-year spectral anomaly at 9.5 nHz
The prediction wasn't adjusted after seeing the NANOGrav data. The field mass was fixed by stellar-mass observations; the nanohertz resonance followed mathematically. Finding that NANOGrav sees something at exactly that frequency provides independent confirmation that the STF framework captures real physics.
The Broader Picture
If STF is real, it connects phenomena that were previously thought to be unrelated:
- Ultra-high-energy cosmic ray origins (stellar-mass scale)
- Gamma-ray burst production (stellar-mass scale)
- Pulsar timing anomalies (supermassive scale)
- Supermassive black hole binary evolution (supermassive scale)
A single field, with a single mass, explaining observations across the full range of black hole masses in the universe.
← Read the full discovery story