Nature Has No Faithful Mathematical Representation by Roger Schlafly

Hi Roger,

Quoting your essay, "The most puzzling quantum experiments are the double-slit experiment and the spin measurement of entangled particles. Quantum mechanics predicts these outcomes without difficulty, but these experiments have been described as impossible to understand or as proof that there is no reality."

I'm still writing my paper, but I came to the conclusion that the double-slit experiment makes perfect sense and is perfectly natural, provided that you make one assumption. You have to assume that an aether exists, but not just any aether. You have to assume that an aether made of waves exists, perhaps even probability amplitude waves. In the two slit experiment, a single photon or particle can be fired at the two slits. It's not the particle that interferes, it's the wave-function that describes its pathway. The pathway/quantum wave/aether wave is what interferes, not the particle. The particle only exists as an excitation of the waves of the aether. The aether waves interact with the slits as interfereing waves (no suprise there). The particle is just an excitation of the waves of the aether. The information about which slit it went through just doesn't exist.

But I think the physics community might be reluctant to embrace wave phenomena as an aether medium. For one, a lot of people have had the Michelson-Morley drilled into their heads. So now it's more of a reflexive answer: "No there's no aether!" than it is a well contemplated answer.

Jason

But what are waves, what is the physical reality of them? And a wave sounds like a sequence of different physically existent states. So one cannot talk of a wave as if it is one physical reality.

Paul

Hi Paul,

I think the aether exists and is made out of waves; I call them aether medium waves. Quantum Mechanics describes quantum systems with wave-functions. I modeled my aether medium waves after wave-functions. Wave functions/wave amplitudes are a mathematical description of aether waves.

Wave-functions have eigenstates for position and momentum. Eigenstates for position translate into available space for particles. Aether waves create the properties of the vacuum.

AM waves are the embodiment of the speed of light. I'll explain this better tomorrow.

The physical reality of aether medium waves is that they are subtle and difficult to detect. Wave functions are like fluffy clouds compared to particles which are like airliners.

Photons are excitations of aether waves. Photons and AM waves share a dual causality relationship. Where there are photons, there are also AM waves. Likewise, AM waves make it possible for photons to exist.

Last thing. What does the wave-function of a photon in a strong acceleration field look like?

Jason

I am not sure you have answered my question. Which was, what is the physical reality corresponding to the concept 'wave'.

Paul

Paul,

I'm not sure I understand your question. Are you asking what I mean by a wave? Or are you asking if waves have ever been detected?

Jason

Here is a picture of a typical physics wave. http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1260&bih=640&tbm=isch&tbnid=QzjfmAsUPbmrDM:&imgrefurl=https://sites.google.com/a/ggwo.org/ggca_science_lab/Home/physics/physics-light-and-optics/physics-waves&docid=UMm9Kh95pRdWjM&imgurl=http://eesc.columbia.edu/courses/ees/slides/climate/wave_props.gif&w=613&h=442&ei=ImcAULGKEMHLqgGai6G-Bw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=171&vpy=183&dur=1234&hovh=191&hovw=264&tx=133&ty=86&sig=109702152363049456989&page=1&tbnh=120&tbnw=166&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:90

Jason

My question was as stated, given the concept wave, irrespective of which particlar 'wave', then, generically, what physically constitutes this. The reason I ask this is because I suspect that once wave is so defined, then what one actually finds is a sequence of physically existent states, not 'something'.

Paul

I'm somewhat in sympathy with Jonathan Burdick's pithy response, but of course in ten pages you do more that say that the map is not the territory. I take you also to say that the territory (reality) is not mathematical. I suppose that as a positivist, albeit I think you are too influenced by the post-positivists to really claim the name, you might accept that Physics is the systematic description of reproducible experimental results. Whatever systematization we use would then seem to be a part of mathematics, which leaves me wondering what principle or postulate you are proposing, or critiquing, to speak to the theme of the competition? [An empirical principle is, I take it by definition, a systematic view of some large body of experience, which to be successful must allow the construction of a tractable mathematics, whereas a postulate is something more in the realms of convention. Interesting that the competition is phrased in terms of postulates rather than principles.]

It is true that there are some parts of Physics that are apparently less systematized --more empirical or phenomenological, one might say-- than other parts, but where there is chaos there is the presumption that a better systematization might be possible if a good enough mathematician comes along. What is left to do is very hard, in the usual story of all the low-hanging fruit having been picked, but we have made better tools than our forebears. It is also possible that there is some part of the territory that only ever happens once, so that it cannot be subject of Physics taken to be a repeatable experimental subject. Indeed, the irreproducibility of quantum mechanical phenomena at the finest level of detail precisely underlies the turn to statistics, where there is reproducibility, and the idealization of statistics as probability.

In any case, there has been a constant interplay between Mathematics and Physics, a "battle" that has recently been going relatively less well for the Platonists, which I think many creative theoretically-inclined Physicists continually renegotiate in their attempts to construct new models, sometimes stepping into high theory, sometimes stepping into phenomenology, anything that helps in the construction of a new systematization of experimental data.

Paul,

It sounds like you're referring to quantum eigenstates. For example, in the hydrogen wave-function, there are 4 quantum numbers (n, l, m_l, m_s). I'm just not sure what you mean by a "sequence of physically existen states, not "something"."

Wave-function are, to some extent, a descrption of aethe waves. The hydrogen wave-function is a representation of the aether form of the atom. Eigenstates for energy level, momentum, position, angular momentum, spin, are all places that an electron can exist in a hydrogen atom. For an aether hydrogen atom, there are available position that that the electron can be (space), there are possible values for momentum, etc.

Does this sort of answer your question?

"I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars."- Og Mandino

We keep shining a brighter light ( mathematics ) looking for the stars ( answers ). My interpretation of Roger's essay is to consider radically revising the approach to answering the big questions about the nature of reality. Could it be as simple as metaphorically turning out the lights to see the stars? The answer is surely that simple, and no doubt all around us. We may be blinded to seeing seeing the answer by the bright light of academic thinking. As the daddy goldfish said to the baby goldfish as they swam in circles around the tiny fishbowl: " Even though you can't see it, I assure you water exists". The great mystery of reality and existence can be torn down to it's basic components through the language of mathematics, but can only be understood by seeing the deepest truths we are already experiencing by our very existence.

Roger

A great essay, thank you. Well-written and accessible.

You tackle the assumption that mathematics is always a faithful representation of reality, and find it wanting. As you say, 'hardly anyone distinguishes between scientific realism and some sort of mathematical idealization of the world.' Indeed, physics journal papers are invariably stuffed full of mathematics but devoid of interpretation, and often don't even show the courtesy of providing a conclusion. Apparently most authors do not see that they have any responsibility to explicitly communicate the implications of their work for interpretation of the natural world. Your essay incisively identifies the tacit premises and underlying mental models that lead to this kind of mathematical idealisation.

As you point out, our current best theory of physics, quantum mechanics, uses mathematics to construct a representation of reality, but is unable to provide a descriptive explanation of reality. You also say that, 'It seems unlikely that mathematical structures would be suitable for a true physical reality.' What structures (or methods) would be, in your opinion?

Thank you

Dirk

Dear Roger Schlafly,

I think, adaptations of wave mechanics with strings as particles, emerges with faithful mathematical representation that demonstrates the function of group homomorphism for this particles of strings.

With best wishes,

Jayaker

Roger,

An excellent essay which I fully agree with. Math is the map(s) of reality, not the bedrock on which it rests. There is though a further argument that might help to support your point:

What is the function of a map? To isolate out and distill the salient points one wishes to focus on. Necessarily many different maps can be created of the same or adjacent territories; road, topographic, butterfly ranges, algebra, geometry, calculus, QM, GR, etc. Each having their advantages. To paraphrase The Lord of the Rings; Why don't we have a math to rule over all the other maths? and give a complete description of everything?

Because that defies the function of math! Which is to focus, isolate, distill out that particular aspect of reality which best serves the purpose at hand. This goes to the nature of perception. It is inherently subjective. Information tends to cancel out other information. Consider a camera. To get the clearest photograph of an object in motion, we use as short a shutter speed as possible. Yet actually we gather much more light and thus information, if we were to leave the shutter open longer, but the result would blur the image. Not only is information very much a function of perspective, but even the creation and destruction of information is itself information. Can't have your cake and eat it too. There is no God's eye view and a theory of everything is seeking that God's eye view. The problem goes to the concept of God. The absolute is the elemental from which reality rises, not an ideal form from which it fell. Everything and nothing are the same, because everything cancels itself out. The happy medium is a big flatline on the universal heart monitor.

You want a theory of everything? "Stuff happens."

Good luck in the contest. You get a high mark from me.

Thanks for your reply dear Roger Schlafly,

Linearity of faithful mathematical representations that describes group homomorphism is applicable when there is holarchial clustering of the matters of universe.

With best regards,

Jayakar

Roger: I appreciate the way you handled quantum mechanics (QM)in your essay. I quote your statement and questions. My position is all explained in my essay, A Challenge to Quantized Absorption by Experiment and Theory.

"It is rare in science for an 80-year-old theory to be so relentlessly challenged by theorists, and yet be so accurately confirmed by experiment."

ER: Until now. My experiments test QM at its most fundamental level, and QM fails. This was all Very difficult to develop.

"Does quantum mechanics have some flaw, or do the challengers have some conceptual misunderstanding?"

ER: Yes to both. The precursor to QM was the loading theory (LT), but it was prematurely rejected. QM will model a wave function associated with a particle. LT is a two state system, a wave state and a particle state. It seemed impossible for an atom to turn into a wave, spread out, and then load up and turn back into a particle. The particle is a contained wave structure. LT needed to be developed to make this picture reasonable, and LT needed to work for our key experiments that led to QM; I did all that. Physicists stopped considering LT because it was given false witness by quantum supporters in our literature and textbooks; I describe all that in detail. My experiments show one gamma-ray can split and cause two gamma detection pulses to appear. I also show one alpha-ray can split and cause two full alphas to appear. By experiment, QM fails and the loading theory works.

"Why are physicists so fond of quoting R.P. Feynman and saying that no one understands quantum mechanics?"

ER: Feynman and quoters understand that by embracing duality, QM is not understandable. Particles cannot cause wave patterns, and waves cannot not magically collapse from everywhere into a particle. They stuck with QM because it worked and there was no experimental challenger. We will only understand QM when we overcome it.

Thank you, Eric Stanley Reiter, August, 2012