Negative Mass Chase: Exotic Matter Dynamics

Exotic Matter

Positive mass Negative mass

Positive mass m₊ 6

Negative mass |m_-| 6

Coupling constant G 3.0

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Bodies

Peak speed

0.00

Total momentum |Σ m·v|

0.000

How it works

Every pair of bodies attracts under Newtonian gravity, F = G m₁ m₂ / r², directed along the line joining them. The acceleration of body i from all others is:

a_i = Σ_j  G · m_j · (r_j − r_i) / |r_j − r_i|³

Note m_i itself cancels out of a_i — only the other body's mass sets the acceleration. That is the whole trick of negative mass:

A positive body next to a negative body is pushed by a mass with the "wrong" sign, so it accelerates away — it is repelled.
The negative body feels the positive body's ordinary attractive pull, but F = m·a with m < 0 flips its acceleration, so it accelerates toward the very body that is fleeing it.

The negative-mass body chases, the positive-mass body flees at the same rate — both keep accelerating in the same direction forever, "bootstrapping" the pair to ever higher speed while producing zero net momentum change overall (Σ m·v is conserved even though m is negative for one member). This constant-acceleration runaway is the textbook "negative-mass propulsion" thought experiment, and small-scale analogues of effective negative mass have been observed in Bose–Einstein condensates and exciton–polariton fluids.

The "Add Random Field" button drops several bodies of mixed sign into the scene at once — watch pairs spontaneously lock into chases while same-sign bodies simply orbit or scatter under ordinary attraction/repulsion.

drag to orbit · scroll to zoom

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