That's really an interesting theory, and a good one also. Nothing in the books, as far as I am aware, says that the Ring really worked this way, but nothing also says that it didn't and the theory is believable at least.
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Originally Posted by Gordis
The problem of the nazgul was that only the Witch-King and Khamul could sense the Ring really well. And neither of them was in Bree while the hobbits were there. The WK was still at Andrath and Khamul was at Crickhollow. The rest of the nazgul were just... well...not too good to put it mildly.
The two in Bree were especially bad: they had almost captured Merry, but panicked when Nob came shouting with a lantern... Pitiful indeed. Also, finding nothing at the Pony, the two nazgul got upset and went south to Andrath to report to the WK - leaving Bree and the East Road unguarded. That's how they lost the trail of the hobbits between Bree and Weathertop.
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I like the analysis of the two Nazgul - it's interesting how this brings some information about the individual Nazgul. In fact, it will make an interesting thread to try to find what we can collect about every individual Ringwraith, to give them some - though only very little - personality. Hmm...
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Originally Posted by Gordis
Unfortunately, the incidents that happened later (Emyn Muil, Dead Marches), are more difficult to explain. Well, perhaps there were lesser nazgul involved, whose ability to sense the Ring was no match for the WK's and Khamul's. Also, they were not expecting to sense the Ring at all, were not "listening" to its signal.
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I think there is no problem with this theory. Indeed, the Nazgul are not "listening", probably they are other Nazgul than Khamul or WK (maybe even these "losers" from Bree?
), and they are flying, which is, I can't actually explain why, but I think different than if they were riding on the ground. They probably cannot concentrate much when flying anyway - less than on a horse, probably.