Essentially, the energy of the electron is increased above that of the reference state in free space by the space-time curvature. The steady state is then determined by the balance of the attractive electrostatic potential and the energy of the electron in the curved space-time at radius r; the space-time energy. The electrostatic potential is negative (attractive) and increases negatively as the separation decreases. As the distance between the proton and electron decreases, r decreasing, the energy required to curve space-time increases. As such, the electrostatic field attracts the electron and the space-time field repels the electron.