Suppose you have a Device that creates an 'artificial gravity' (AG) inside a Box, with these properties:
- the system does not use inertial forces (like centrifugal force) or a huge mass to create AG
- the AG 'feels' just like gravity/inertia over most of the volume of the box
- the Device, the Box and its content are still subject to any gravitational forces that may be present, but the AG force adds to other gravity/inertia forces, net force may be zero
- Matter, Energy and Information can leave and enter the box
- there is a smooth but strong gradient in the AG at the walls of the box -
- conservation of energy still holds: if the AG does work, this energy has to be supplied to the device in some way, vice versa for work done against the AG
- conservation of momentum still holds: for every force due to the AG on an object, there is a corresponding counteracting force on the device
There's two ways this could be ruled impossible:
- Something in our current understanding of gravity rules out such a system - though our current understanding
- AG like this could be used as a perpetuum mobile, a time machine that can create paradoxes or another device that can be shown to be impossible.
Even if AG can be easily ruled out by the first way (our understanding of Gravity), I'd be interested in the kinds of shenanigans one could pull of with such a system!
Edit: I'll rephrase what I want to achieve with this question. I'm trying to sketch an AG system that 'looks' like the plot device known from many SF-Movies, and I try to define it in a way that does not obviously violate basic laws of conservation. Now, I ask you, esteeemd SE-Physicists to take this device and find ways to break the laws of physics (or maybe even logic) with it. In other words, I'm looking for a thought experiment to test the idea of AG to destruction.