Effective Vacuum Dynamics and Testable Predictions

This preprint proposes that gravitational attraction can be modelled as an emergent response to energy-density gradientsin the vacuum’s effective degrees of freedom. Matter is treated as a localised, dynamically maintained excitation that modifies the surrounding energy-density landscape. In this picture, “gravity” corresponds to a restorative tendency toward equilibrium—objects accelerate toward regions of lower effective energy density—rather than being interpreted as a fundamental pull between masses. Interpretation note: In this paper, “superfluid” language is used as an effective mathematical description of vacuum behaviour. The claim is not that space is a material fluid or that there exists a preferred rest frame. Rather, the point is that some aspects of the vacuum’s dynamics can be modelled using the same mathematics that describes superfluids, while remaining consistent with operationally accessible Lorentz invariance and purely relational motion. The framework preserves Newtonian phenomenology (recovering the inverse-square law at the level of effective dynamics) while offering a proposed mechanism. It discusses scale separation (the relative weakness of gravity compared with electromagnetism), contrasts with historical push-gravity models, and connects to prior effective-vacuum approaches including superfluid-vacuum and induced-gravity programmes. Optical effects normally discussed in the language of spacetime curvature are treated here through an equivalent refractive-index/metric viewpoint within the chosen formalism. A central empirical proposal is that certain atmospheric electrical signatures may track rapid pressure-gradient changes, suggesting a testable correlation structure distinct from standard microphysical explanations. The manuscript presents multiple experimental protocols and differential predictions; the framework is intended to stand or fall on measurement. Companion papers: “Hydrodynamic Quantum Gravity: Theoretical Foundations” (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18210462). A complementary derivation treating gravity as an acoustic-radiation-pressure interaction between oscillatory structures is given in “Gravity as Acoustic Radiation Pressure” (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/PA3CG).