LEISTENSTEIN'S WINDOW (also called LEISTENSTEIN'S WELL) is the name given both to the apparatus and to the resulting phenomenon from which gravity beds and sodomite propulsion are derived.
Nomenclature
While sometimes used interchangeably, Leistenstein's Well is increasingly applied to the apparatus, with Leistenstein's Window being reserved for the mercury interface effect. This article will follow that use. Dommety, Sodor and Leistenstein's original paper referred to the entire system as "the Window", while later works of the three have only served to confuse the terminology.
Apparatus
While more commonly (and more reliably) encountered in the form of a Gravity Trellis comprising multiple wells, the Leistenstein's Window can be achieved with an individual well of 16 iron rods arranged in three layers. The bottom and top layers are of four rods (of length six units) arranged in a noughts-and-crosses-style grid (two unit squares). The middle layer is another such grid of four rods (of length 3√2 units) rotated by 45 degrees about the centre of the grid. The top and bottom layers are held two units apart, as a cube, with the middle layer sandwiched at the mid-way point. The three layers are joined at the four central nodes of each grid by four 'vertical' rods (of length nine units). Each rod describes a (c.4.5 units long) right-handed hyperbolic tangent across the central 22 units of height so as to interact with the node-points of the middle layer (in this way, a rod touching the top layer at the top right will touch the middle layer at the right and the bottom layer at the bottom right). The rods extend vertically by two units above the top layer and two units below the bottom layer. Lengths of the rods in all cases may be approximated, but should approach the appropriate ratios outlined. Crystal size is the only limiting factor (to date the largest viable unit length has been 4"). The resulting structure, called the H-frame, broadly resembles a 3D noughts-and-crosses grid:
Leistenstein's Well: Top view (left); Side view (right)
Middle layer (pink) ; Leistenstein's Window (blue pecked)
The H-frame, thus constructed, serves as an electrode in an electrolytic sodomite solution until triangular crystals span each corner of the frame. Viewed from above, the top layer of crystals will mirror the lattice of the middle layer. The crystals on the middle layer will surround a central window of one unit square (depicted by the blue pecked line in the diagram above).
The crystalised apparatus is removed from the sodomite solution but a current is maintained through the H-frame at a sufficient strength as to gently fluoresce the highly energetic crystals.
Mercury is then poured into the well where an attractive force suspends the liquid metal as a film across the aperture at the centre of the middle layer: the Leistenstein's Window proper. Filming may also occur across other parts of the framework, although such films will not exhibit the more advanced phenomena outlined below.
Development of the apparatus
The H-frame was ascertained by Swarna Dommety at the Plaza in 2014, originally as a personal development exercise to create a sculpture in honour of Hull's UK City of Culture win. She noticed a small but palpable energy discharge from the crystals she'd grown on the frame, and began tinkering with the design to investigate the phenomenon. In this process she was assisted by her colleague, James Sodor, with whom she had previously worked on the sodomite project. Alexander Leistenstein was then invited to overlook the work and it was his suggestion to introduce the mercury in a desperate effort to track possible field effects. What he could not have anticipated was the glazing effect achieved. In an effort to test the resilience of the mercury film, the trio turned the apparatus on its side, and it was at that point that the gravitational effect became apparent. Sodor tested the effect with a ball bearing, before Leistenstein introduced first a plumb-line and later a camera into the experiments. A full account of the trio's original investigations can be found in Dommety, S., Sodor, J.E., and Leistenstein, A.A. (2016). "A laboratory-produced worm-hole phenomenon, and resultant gravity and energy effects", New Journal of Physics, 18 112003.
Gravity effect
A Leistenstein's Window exerts a gravitational pull in line with the location in which the crystals were formed. This pull decays as an inverse Fibonacci sequence at a rate of one step per 22 unit lengths: i.e. the first 44 units from the Window maintain a constant pull of g, reducing rapidly to 1/2 g at 66 units, 1/3 g at 88 units, 1/5 g at 110 units, 1/8 g at 132 units etc.
A Gravity Trellis, consisting of a number of linked H-Frames covered with a floor, is used to provide artificial gravity, not only in space but also in specialist applications on Earth.
A Gravity Trellis masks the effects of Earth gravity, casting an anti-gravitational shadow that ablates in equivalence to the aforementioned Fibonacci decay. This is especially beneficial as it means that any spacecraft built within such a shadow will effectively weigh only as much as the Gravity Trellis on which it stands, therefore requiring less energy to attain escape velocity. The same effect (in conjunction with the Fibonacci decay) can be employed in a spherical arrangement to create a gravity baffle, permitting near-zero-gravity environments on Earth.
Wormhole effect
Without the addition of an intervening floor, an object attracted to a Leistenstein Window will pass through the window and disappear. The mercury of the window is observed to glow a magenta pink when matter passes through; the glow being more intense in proportion to the speed and density of the transmitted object. An object partially passed through the Window will behave in a cohesive way (so a plumb line can continue to be manipulated as such once the plumb has disappeared through the mercury). Experiments with video cameras discovered early on that a second 'world' exists beyond the Window, although the precise location has been a matter of some debate.
The location beyond the window (the so-called Window World) is arid and atmospherically hostile: volcanic rock dominates the landscape, often at some distance below the window; there is a high density, high carbon, and often highly acidic atmosphere that led to early speculation that the location may be Venus. However, the climate is mild in comparison (the recorded temperature generally falls within 250-300°C, below Venus's coldest regions). Limited astronomical observations suggest a celestially local location, but there is debate as to precisely how local (studies are confounded by the atmospheric conditions). Leistenstein himself has speculated that the world may represent a parallel Earth of some kind, although he admits to having no evidential basis for this conjecture.
Energy effect
A Leistenstein Window radiates a small amount of heat from the Window World. Unchecked, the incremental effect of this heat can damage the surrounding sodomite crystals, potentially destroying the Window. However, it appears that most of the heat that ought otherwise to pass through from the Window World is somehow employed in maintaining the Window itself. Attempts to calculate the cooling effect this dissipation has upon the Window World have so far been inconclusive.
Perhaps most astonishingly, the high temperature atmosphere of the Window World can be employed as a heat reservoir energy source: the principle behind what is known as 'sodomite propulsion'. While a Leistenstein Window requires a constant supply of electrical energy to remain open, plus the necessary cooling (as well as the initial energy investment in the creation of the apparatus), this may be offset by the energy which can be generated from within the system. Indeed, a Gravity Trellis can be equipped to power and cool itself indefinitely. This, of course, raises significant questions, not least with respect to conservation of energy.
The crystalised apparatus is removed from the sodomite solution but a current is maintained through the H-frame at a sufficient strength as to gently fluoresce the highly energetic crystals.
Mercury is then poured into the well where an attractive force suspends the liquid metal as a film across the aperture at the centre of the middle layer: the Leistenstein's Window proper. Filming may also occur across other parts of the framework, although such films will not exhibit the more advanced phenomena outlined below.
Development of the apparatus
The H-frame was ascertained by Swarna Dommety at the Plaza in 2014, originally as a personal development exercise to create a sculpture in honour of Hull's UK City of Culture win. She noticed a small but palpable energy discharge from the crystals she'd grown on the frame, and began tinkering with the design to investigate the phenomenon. In this process she was assisted by her colleague, James Sodor, with whom she had previously worked on the sodomite project. Alexander Leistenstein was then invited to overlook the work and it was his suggestion to introduce the mercury in a desperate effort to track possible field effects. What he could not have anticipated was the glazing effect achieved. In an effort to test the resilience of the mercury film, the trio turned the apparatus on its side, and it was at that point that the gravitational effect became apparent. Sodor tested the effect with a ball bearing, before Leistenstein introduced first a plumb-line and later a camera into the experiments. A full account of the trio's original investigations can be found in Dommety, S., Sodor, J.E., and Leistenstein, A.A. (2016). "A laboratory-produced worm-hole phenomenon, and resultant gravity and energy effects", New Journal of Physics, 18 112003.
Gravity effect
A Leistenstein's Window exerts a gravitational pull in line with the location in which the crystals were formed. This pull decays as an inverse Fibonacci sequence at a rate of one step per 22 unit lengths: i.e. the first 44 units from the Window maintain a constant pull of g, reducing rapidly to 1/2 g at 66 units, 1/3 g at 88 units, 1/5 g at 110 units, 1/8 g at 132 units etc.
A Gravity Trellis, consisting of a number of linked H-Frames covered with a floor, is used to provide artificial gravity, not only in space but also in specialist applications on Earth.
A Gravity Trellis masks the effects of Earth gravity, casting an anti-gravitational shadow that ablates in equivalence to the aforementioned Fibonacci decay. This is especially beneficial as it means that any spacecraft built within such a shadow will effectively weigh only as much as the Gravity Trellis on which it stands, therefore requiring less energy to attain escape velocity. The same effect (in conjunction with the Fibonacci decay) can be employed in a spherical arrangement to create a gravity baffle, permitting near-zero-gravity environments on Earth.
Wormhole effect
Without the addition of an intervening floor, an object attracted to a Leistenstein Window will pass through the window and disappear. The mercury of the window is observed to glow a magenta pink when matter passes through; the glow being more intense in proportion to the speed and density of the transmitted object. An object partially passed through the Window will behave in a cohesive way (so a plumb line can continue to be manipulated as such once the plumb has disappeared through the mercury). Experiments with video cameras discovered early on that a second 'world' exists beyond the Window, although the precise location has been a matter of some debate.
The location beyond the window (the so-called Window World) is arid and atmospherically hostile: volcanic rock dominates the landscape, often at some distance below the window; there is a high density, high carbon, and often highly acidic atmosphere that led to early speculation that the location may be Venus. However, the climate is mild in comparison (the recorded temperature generally falls within 250-300°C, below Venus's coldest regions). Limited astronomical observations suggest a celestially local location, but there is debate as to precisely how local (studies are confounded by the atmospheric conditions). Leistenstein himself has speculated that the world may represent a parallel Earth of some kind, although he admits to having no evidential basis for this conjecture.
Energy effect
A Leistenstein Window radiates a small amount of heat from the Window World. Unchecked, the incremental effect of this heat can damage the surrounding sodomite crystals, potentially destroying the Window. However, it appears that most of the heat that ought otherwise to pass through from the Window World is somehow employed in maintaining the Window itself. Attempts to calculate the cooling effect this dissipation has upon the Window World have so far been inconclusive.
Perhaps most astonishingly, the high temperature atmosphere of the Window World can be employed as a heat reservoir energy source: the principle behind what is known as 'sodomite propulsion'. While a Leistenstein Window requires a constant supply of electrical energy to remain open, plus the necessary cooling (as well as the initial energy investment in the creation of the apparatus), this may be offset by the energy which can be generated from within the system. Indeed, a Gravity Trellis can be equipped to power and cool itself indefinitely. This, of course, raises significant questions, not least with respect to conservation of energy.
