THE SANNER MODEL - Towards a quantum aether dynamic

The Sanner Model (TSM) has been presented as a classical, rigid-space aether framework that reproduces the classical tests of general relativity without curved spacetime or gravitational force, and with a strict null prediction for frame-dragging. This paper extends the model into the quantum domain. Drawing on analogue gravity, pioneered by Unruh (1981), it treats the aether as a quantum fluid. Linearizing the TSM field equation yields a wave equation for phonons propagating in the aether. At the horizon r_s = 2GM/c^2, where the aether flow speed reaches c in the xyz frame, these phonons experience a thermal spectrum. The aether acceleration gradient at the horizon is kappa = c^3/(4GM), which gives the Unruh temperature T = hbar*c^3/(8*pi*k_B*G*M) - identical to Hawking's original result. A postulated Planck-scale quantum microstructure of the aether yields the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy-area law S = A/(4*l_P^2), and the horizon area satisfies dA/dt >= 0. The framework is situated within superfluid vacuum theory: the Standard Model fields emerge as low-energy collective excitations of the quantum aether, and Lorentz symmetry is emergent rather than fundamental, with Lorentz violation addressed through the Standard Model Extension (SME). TSM in its quantum extension thus matches the explanatory power of GR + QFT in the semi-classical regime, while offering a simpler ontology: rigid space, a flowing quantum aether, and the aether load. Open questions are identified, including the full back-reaction, the trans-Planckian problem, and the derivation of the evolution equation from the quantum microstructure. Three laboratory challenges are proposed: detect acoustic Hawking radiation, measure the entropy-area law in analogue systems, and constrain Lorentz violation.