• [deleted]

Edwin,

I agree. It is helpful to follow discussions as they take place. Different viewpoints or different ways of expressing same or similar ideas when contrasted with each other adds clarity even when solutions still appear unclear. Its the reasoning processes that become clearer. More than reading someone's conclusion, I learn from the why they say it. What are their, the speaker's, truths from which their thoughts spring forth. I think the conversations taking place presently are great. Even if my truths are different truths, I want to understand what the professionals think and, if possible, why. I follow your participation with great interest.

James

  • [deleted]

Edwin,

Michael wrote,

"Parallelised S3 => group space S3 for the observables {^, _}

Parallelised S7 => 'group space' S7 for the observables {A,B,...}

A straightforward argument doesn't seem to work, which is why I am asking :-)"

Actually, that looks quite straightforward to me -- Joy has always emphasized completeness, i.e., that *all* quantum correlations are explained by his framework. The simply connected space completes all these measure values in a locally realistic manner.

Tom

Hi James, Tom,

Yes James, I find this FQXi contest more exciting daily. There are great essays and fantastic conversations going on. I wish I had more bandwidth (me, not my computer!).

Tom,

Of course you may be right, and I'll grant that you probably understand Joy's framework as well as anyone, but I'm not sure that you understand Michael's theory. In any case, the conversation has truly become fascinating. And not just this one, but a number of other essays and associated comments. FQXi made an inspired choice of topic, and this may turn into a seminal event.

Best,

Edwin Eugene Klingman

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Edwin,

To my level of understanding, this is monumental for theoretical physics:

"The problem (ignored for almost a century) isn't dispersing wave packets in the atom, but the impossibility of such wave packets even existing in the atom.

The Nature of the Wave Function

The particle-plus-wave is real, but de Broglie failed to specify just what the wave is. We do so here, beginning with an equation from general relativity."

Was beginning to reread your essay just now and am continuing to read though it carefully.

James

    Hi James,

    I agree. And I think there are quite a few monumental points being raised. And I assume many more essays are still to come.

    I'm glad you are re-reading my essay. I believe many of the current essays need to be read and re-read (and maybe re-read again.)

    Edwin Eugene Klingman

    5 days later
    • [deleted]

    Edwin,

    I noted your comment about reading the soliton reference I cited in a comment on John Macken's essay. The universe has a habit of being consistent in presenting a particular manifestation. Since researchers have started looking, soliton action has been identified in a wide spectrum of processes.

    I made a comment in another essay, "the universe has very efficient energy transfer processes and the soliton is one manifestation of this process." So far, I have found just one essay in this contest where the author mentioned soliton and it was a very minor element.

    You made the statement in response to Gary Simpson (Jul. 8, 2012 @ 00:40 GMT)

    "I tend to think of the handedness as originating in general relativity, and Schrodinger just has to live with it, but there may be other fruitful ways to conceive of it." Right and left hand conventions have been used before quantum mechanics. In the Whyte article cited below, "Oersted (1820) discovered the anomalous R-handed screw action of an electric current on a magnet." The "right-hand" rule for expressing vector directions has been around well over a century.

    Chirality

    Many more handedness examples have been found since the Whyte article was published, but I have not found a good compilation of them.

    I consider a soliton as a permitted process, probably mandatory in some processes, wherein I consider handedness the result of some "universal" influence.

      Hi Frank,

      I agree that a soliton is a 'permitted' process, whereas handedness is 'universal' in character. In the above remark I did not mean that the handedness was 'new' to Schrodinger, only that the *left* handedness I refer to in my essay is based in general relativity, at least a decade before Schrodinger's equation was derived. Even this can be misleading, as Schrodinger's idea of the wave function is different from the explanation given in my essay. Schrodinger, as far as I know, had no knowledge of the handedness under discussion here.

      As noted, I did find your "Numerical Simulation of Electromagnetic Solitons" reference interesting, although I haven't had time (or energy) to check the math.

      Thanks for commenting on my thread.

      Edwin Eugene Klingman

      • [deleted]

      Edwin,

      The metric reversal effect I mentioned to you earlier also arose in the discussion of apparent non-locality on Tom's thread, and I illustrated the effect with a toy model in the first 1 page attachment. In the second 1 page attachment I illustrate a toy model version of the particle-with-wave scenario as it arises in my essay, but hopefully the more general point should be clear about how such a change in the background metric could give a particle-with-wave model that might not fall foul to local causality issues.

      MichaelAttachment #1: 1_Local_to_nonlocal.pdfAttachment #2: Particle_with_wave.pdf

        Dear Edwin Eugene Klingman and Shan Gao,

        Edwin is right. Superposition of wave function associated with different objects leads us to observe them. In PicoPhysics this issue is integrated with action at distance and concept of exchange particle as the mode of interaction between objects. PicoPhysics view on the subject (Though discussed at stage 3 - only stage 1 is available at picophysics.org) is as below:

        Superposition:

        Space is not conserved but uniform and isotropic at micro level. At macro level, it is defined by space density gradient which can be resolved into three components along the three co-ordinates of reference system attached to observer. Similarly, Object as an observer has a reference system attached. Now the density gradient is with respect to this reference.

        The axis of the two reference systems can be assumed aligned and a picture drawn with respect to space density gradient. Knergy content in each object reacts with space as per unary law 'Space contains Knergy'.

        Conservation of space makes no room for limitation on space density. The superposition of effect of presence of objects in space is absolute.

        Space density

        That is how, superposition, effect of presence of different objects in space is computable in complex geometrical distribution.

        The density gradient itself is result of consumption of space by Knergy and affinity of space to possess Knergy. This consumption signifies non-conserved character of space.

        To address the perturbation introduced by presence of Knergy in space, PicoPhysics introduce g-space as geometrical space, and r-space the real space. The space density is seen as ratio of r-space to g-space.

        Space density = r-space/g-space.

        Kambhar

        The qualification of space as real and geometric is not kind to human perceptions about space. To keep the Space-Knergy dynamic with-in bounds the g-space is identified with space of mainstream physics. Real-space is given an alternative interpretation, 'Kambhar - host reality to anti-Konservation'. The ratio of this reality with respect to 3-D occupied space (G-Space) is now the density that defines Space-Knergy kinematics. Knergy is identified with Kambhar motion in space. The drift speed of Knergy in space is requirement of Unary law, independent of distribution of Knergy in g-space and governed by this density.

        Wave-function:

        When large amount of Knergy forming a large front confronts another similar front, then the conditions an develop in interference zone where it is not possible to satisfy the unary law - the drift speed, as a function of space density, independent of any particular distribution. So a complimentary process of conversion is hypothesised, which toggles Kambhar under such conditions into the complementary state. The interaction between the two states is only through conversion interaction. Knergy distributed in g-space can be hosted by Kambhar in either state. Kambhar in either state is conserved (Konserved but convertible to the other state).

        Kd = K1 + iK2

        Wave Function is function that describes the change in magnitude composition of Kambhar with position and time in space. Thus wave-function of quantum mechanics is seen as representing the Knergy density in space. It may be noted that PicoPhysics binds the space occupied by unit Knergy into a single unit to the observer. Schrödinger equation now represents the principle of least action, action being the result of non-Konservation of space. The details will be available at picophysics.org.

        Thanks and best regards,

        Vijay Gupta

          Sorry, the Microsoft equation did not show-up. Below is an attempt to re-introduce the same,

          Kd = K1 iK2

          wave function = (K12 K22)eia

          where

          tan (a) = K1 / K2

          Positive sign still not coming.

          Hi Michael,

          I noticed that Joy glommed onto your change of metric as a potential equivalent to his topological change of handedness, so I am not surprised to see you explore this theme. You work fast!

          I still hope to try to summarize my understanding of your interpretation of S0, S1, S3, and S7 versus Joy's, but it seems pretty clear to me that Joy's is related to the space the particles move in while you decompose 10-D space into our 3 space plus another 7 'compacted' dimensions of 'particle space' in the Kaluza-Klein sense. I do not think that your S7 has any relation to Joy's S7, but I can't blame either of you for trying to merge your ideas.

          In both of the papers you attached, you say *IF* a particle is a rotating black hole on the Plank scale, then some things might be possible. I was glad to see your diagram of waves in the ergo-region, as I was uncertain what you had in mind.

          It's interesting that you say "the confined wave is forced to rotate with the black hole because of the rotational frame-dragging." Of course, my model of particle and wave can be considered frame-dragging associated with the rotating particle but without the black hole or Planck scale or seven dimensions. Your 'dipping into the ergo-region' is quite an imaginative way to postulate non-local space-time variations.

          It will be very interesting to see how far you and Joy can carry this.

          Edwin Eugene Klingman

          Hi Vijay Mohan Gupta,

          I am uncertain of the meaning of your above statements about superposition, but I present my understanding of superposition in my essay.

          Good luck to you in this contest.

          Edwin Eugene Klingman

          • [deleted]

          Edwin,

          TIME and SPACE-TIME are recurrent elements of this and many of the other essays. It is evident there is not agreement exactly what TIME really means, especially when it is merged with SPACE-TIME. The definition of TIME was simple when it was expressed in mechanistic terms, such as a "unit of time" based upon the 1/86,400th time division of the rotation of a planet; it was given the term "second." There was no problem with the definition of TIME when it was used to express event durations of mechanical events and planetary orbitals, it fit with the established definition. Maxwell did not know he complicated the TIME issue by mathematically formalizing electromagnetics (EM) as a non-mechanistic form of energy.

          It has been long recognized that TIME and ENERGY have a close association. Unfortunately, because of the long established use of the mechanistic second, those that established EM definitions, including Maxwell, did not recognize that "TIME is a manifestation of the presence of energy," EM energy. The definition of TIME still remains defined as a "unit entity" separate from EM energy.

          It is now possible to define TIME as a function of the two fundamental characteristics of EM energy. Thomas Young identified the two characteristics some 200 years ago, wavelength and frequency. It is a long established assumption that the size of units have to be defined first in order to utilize them in mathematical equations. This changed in 2011 with the IEEE publication of a paper titled, "A methodology to define physical constants using mathematical constants". See topic 1294 or do a search using the title.

          It is known that unspecified length sizes can be used to establish the structure of geometric forms. By defining one geometric form in terms that represent wavelength, and another identical form shape in terms that represent frequency, it was possible to identify the size of a unit wavelength and the size of a unit of frequency without needing to know their physical sizes previously. The size of the duration of a "unit of time" was mutually defined by the relationship.

          The philosophical issues of TIME were not mentioned in the IEEE paper. TIME is an inseparable characteristic of EM energy.

            Hello Edwin,

            Thanks for liking my essay. I read the essays you mentioned, and yours. Thought yours was one of the best I've seen so far. In relativity I'm often suspicious of views in which the weirdness in the theory is removed by pointing out errors that everyone else failed to see for a century. Usually when physicists allow a theory to be weird for that long, it's because they couldn't go anywhere else, and not from lack of trying.

            But your bringing in the Lundeen experimental evidence is one of several things that make it look different from that, and I felt that unlike many, you were grasping at an underlying reality by looking at the clues. That's what makes a paper of interest to me these days, if it's looking for ways forward for physics - it's not enough for it to be trying to rejig existing theory into something it wasn't before. Like you, in my essay I'm grasping at an underlying reality by looking at the clues, and the real clues are external things like observations, not internal things like elements of existing theory.

            To me, for an approach to be relevant in the present situation it also has to be open to there being bits of the jigsaw missing, that we haven't yet found. Many of the essays I've read have implied within them the idea that the pieces we have are enough to finish the puzzle, if we can only organise them in the correct way. And yet a careful look at the clues shows that this idea is unavoidably wrong - new conceptual elements are needed. And the exciting thing is that we can infer a certain amount about the missing pieces - this (for those who can let go of the framework a bit) is a very worthwhile excercise.

            So in the Heisenberg quote "the question [is] whether [the wave function] should be seen as a 'spread-out' entity, a 'guiding field', a 'statistical state', or something else" - we should always be open to the 'something else'.

            Thanks for your kind comments on my essay - as you suggest at the end, I'll read yours again.

            Best wishes, Jonathan

              Dear FQXi'ers,

              This essay contest presents a number of contradictions, yet it is enlightening and eye-opening. My thoughts at this stage, after reading most (but not all) of the essays is stated in a comment I posted on Edward J. Gillis' excellent essay. The gist is as follows:

              Despite the assumption that Bell's inequality is valid, an assumption I reject, I agree with you that "in order to make current theory logically coherent, we need ... indeterminism...".

              You say our brains, "figuring out what we can control" bias intuition in favor of determinism. Yes, but free will does not fit a deterministic view and my intuition is comfortable with it.

              As I recall Bernard d'Espagnat noted that our world is based on three assumptions: realism, inductive reasoning, and locality (linked to speed of light). Believers in Bell tend to retain logical inference at the expense of local realism. Perhaps this should be reconsidered.

              Several essays in this contest suggest that space-time, locality, unitarity, and causality are "emergent", that is, not fundamental, but artefactual, emerging from deeper fundamentals, akin to temperature emerging from statistical ensembles of particles. Yet they apparently assume that logic and math survive even when space-time, locality, and causality have vanished (coming 'as close to "nothing" as possible').

              I have presented logic and math as emergent from real structure (in 'The Automatic Theory of Physics') and if I am correct, then one cannot assume that one can banish spacetime, locality, and causality and yet retain logic and math. [To do so one must be a 'Platonist', having a religious belief in some realm of 'math' not unlike religious belief in a 'Heavenly realm'.]

              My intuition and my experience tell me that reality is both 'real' and 'local' while they also inform me that logical coherency is *not* universal. For instance this FQXi contest contains a number of 'logical maps' that span various regions of the 'territory' [physics], but they are logically inconsistent with each other [and potentially contain logical inconsistencies within themselves.] If anything, this problem grows worse daily, as new math and new physics ideas branch in new directions. Despite the claims of various schools of physics, there is no coherent 'Theory of Everything', nor does one seem to be in sight. Many deny even the possibility of such. Given this state of affairs, I am ever more inclined to believe that the Bell'ists have made the wrong bet, trading local realism for logic, and losing on both counts.

              Perhaps a new understanding that 'logic is local' needs to replace the [probably faulty] assumption that 'logic is universal'. My essay is one approach that assumes local realism is fundamental.

              Edwin Eugene Klingman

              Hello Edwin,

              I agree with a lot of what you say. It's hard to know which elements of physics are fundamental, and which are emergent. So the approach I've taken tries to bypass that question, and see what can be deduced anyway. Time is a good place to look, not only because of the present need to solve that puzzle, but also because the deepest cracks in our picture are where the best clues about what the true picture looks like might be found.

              To me the two levels of time we seem to find, block time and the apparent motion through time, can't both be real, because of the unpredictability implied in quantum theory, which means they disagree about whether the future is pre-decided. So assuming that only one is real, then you look at both, and try to work out which is real, and which isn't. All of these steps, for those who accept the premisses underneath the reasoning, can be made without knowing what things in physics are basic and what things are emergent. Hope this makes sense... Jonathan

                Hi Jonathan,

                As I commented in your essay, "Your arguments are excellent and convincing." I do reject block time, as a growing number seem to do. And I also agree with this comment about trying to work out which of two possible but inconsistent realities is most likely valid. And it is surely true that this must be done without knowing which things are basic and which are emergent.

                As I understand your approach, you are not trying to get rid of space and time, but to support a 3D universe evolving through time, as Daryl Janzen and others do.

                The problem I am discussing is subtle because we, in the evolved universe--however it breaks down--can surely use logic. But when one tries to go to the 'basics', possibly *before* logic emerged, then it gets complicated to 'use' logic to imply some evolution or emergence.

                I don't claim to have solved this problem, or even defined it well, but I do think that those who wish to 'do away with' space-time, locality, causality, and unitarity (and possibly more?) must not *assume* that math and logic are still unquestionably available. And the question of logic also applies to Bell supporters, as I discuss on another thread with nmann.

                Thanks for this comment and the one above that I still need to answer.

                Edwin Eugene Klingman

                Hi Edwin,

                thank you. I don't think we have any reason to do away with causality, as long as we don't assume block time to be right. Block time is what has put this essential principle at risk - and all of science is based on it.

                If block time is wrong, you get a dynamic universe. We don't immediataly know how many dimensions it has, but we can explain a lot of what happens in it. We can't yet explain why it has motion through time, but we might, once the shackles and cul-de-sacs of block time have been thrown off.

                Logic, to me, is a facet of our minds which allows us to get a handle on things, for instance by ruling things out and limiting the possibilities. I think if you try to see how logic arises in the universe, you're asking some very complicated questions about the mind, which physicists don't need to ask at present. I know you've arrived at these questions via quantum theory, but I think until we have a complete solution to the mystery of how to interpret quantum theory, we won't know if we have to ask those questions, and I suspect we'll find that we don't have to, which would be a relief.

                And mathematics works wonderfully well as a way of describing the universe, even if ultimately it's only a set of approximations. Why can't we depend on it? Because a half-solved puzzle suggests we might not be able to? I'd say again, it's too early to assume we have that problem.

                Best wishes, Jonathan

                  Dear Jonathan Kerr,

                  Thanks for your comments. We both are attacking long held assumptions and the time appears ripe for such. There seems to be a growing realization that something is rotten in Denmark, and FQXi has done us all a service by focusing on this.

                  I have come to the same conclusion as have you about block time. In a comment to Vladimir, you point out that block time assumes "every 'now' moment exists at once, and they all sit there alongside each other in a block", whereas in your own essay you show that "one of our two pictures of time has to be ruled out, as they can't co-exist." You do so in an understated, rigorously well thought out manner that makes your essay stand out. And you note that tackling a century-old assumption should not be done lightly.

                  I also very much liked your comment, "There are around ten different ways of seeing current physics, and the difference between them is often simply the order in which we put things. This concept is fundamental, while this concept is emergent, and further up the food chain." There are interesting essays on this aspect of physics, but I'm not sure they go far enough in questioning assumptions. I comment on related issues below.

                  Thanks for your work and for studying my work. Good luck in the contest.

                  Edwin Eugene Klingman

                  Dear Jonathan,

                  You note that "we [don't] have any reason to do away with causality, as long as we don't assume block time to be right. Block time is what has put this essential principle at risk - and all of science is based on it."

                  Having decided in favor of a dynamic universe, I have tended to dismiss block time from my thinking, so I had missed the aspect of causality that you just pointed out. Thanks.

                  And although you note that "We don't immediately know how many dimensions it has", I have found no reason to assume any more than three. It is always mathematically possible to take N things and somehow create an N-dimensional map (give or take) and many have done this, but those maps requiring more than three physical dimensions (plus time) are not convincing to me.

                  You say , "Logic, to me, is a facet of our minds which allows us to get a handle on things, for instance by ruling things out and limiting the possibilities. I think if you try to see how logic arises in the universe, you're asking some very complicated questions about the mind, which physicists don't need to ask at present. I know you've arrived at these questions via quantum theory, but I think until we have a complete solution to the mystery of how to interpret quantum theory, we won't know if we have to ask those questions, and I suspect we'll find that we don't have to, which would be a relief."

                  Of course you may be right, but my work on logic and math as 'emergent' was done many years ago, even before the emergence of the term 'emergent'. And although you perceive it as "a facet of our minds" my own position [indicated in my first FQXi essay] is that consciousness is "awareness plus volition" and that logic is added only through structure, as indicated in some of the above comments. As most ideas of consciousness are very vague (in the same way that you point out ideas of 'time' are vague) it is very difficult to discuss these issues before converging on a common vocabulary.

                  But if I am correct, then the 'logical ideas' we have are due to [essentially separate] logical structures that exist in our brains, some learned from playing baseball as children, some learned from sitting in calculus class, and these structures are not unified, nor are they universally correct and compatible. So although you are correct that I'm "asking some very complicated questions about the mind", I have been doing so for almost fifty years, and I have arrived at some interesting insights, which I've outlined in both essays and book form. This does not challenge the idea that "mathematics works wonderfully well as a way of describing the universe, even if ultimately it's only a set of approximations." Nor does it imply that we can't depend on it. But it does suggest that those who wish to base the universe on math have not fully thought things through.

                  Thanks again for your stimulating comments,

                  Edwin Eugene Klingman