The Nature of the Wave Function by Edwin Eugene Klingman

Hi Steve, hope things are going well with you.

Dear Jason,

Although I say that "Schrödinger's wave packet is conceptually built of monochromatic plane waves of infinite extent", the point I develop is that this is a terrible idea, adopted by people who understand Fourier series but have no conception of physical reality. Schrodinger does it to mathematically create "wave packets", but since the waves don't stay in phase the packets ALWAYS disperse-- one of the problems of the Copenhagen interpretation. It's conceptually the same as when you say "particle with mass is just a group of AM waves". The problem is that the waves disperse. So how can you account for protons lasting forever? (Electrons last for a long time too.)

Also, a small point: it's not "my" C-field. The C-field equation was discovered by James Clerk Maxwell about 150 years ago, and also by Albert Einstein about 100 years ago. Not until 2006 was the field measured and a very large coherency factor discovered. As I note, the longest running NASA experiment measured the de-coherent C-field of a large thermal body (the Earth) and reported it in 2011. The last thing I want is the idea that it's 'my' C-field. It's not mine. It's been here since the beginning. It is an integral part of gravitational dynamics.

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Thanks James,

You have picked out some key points. There are more. It's early in the contest, so there will probably be more discussion. I'm having trouble keeping up with the essays, and I'm sure others are too. Obviously one problem is that most experts who submit their own essays are pushing their own programs, and quantum theory as mystical and exotic is more alluring than local realism. But FQXi provides a wonderful platform to get the ideas out, and I do believe that there is a 'pentup demand' for quantum mechanics to make sense, as opposed to just 'work'.

Another problem, discussed some on Joy's threads, is that some argue (even today on another thread) that incompatibilities between QM and GR prevent such understanding. This is based on an unsubstantiated belief that the new theory will descend from QM and GR as opposed to the (seemingly obvious) fact that a new theory must arise outside of QM and GR and be compatible with both in key aspects. GR specialists and QM specialists resist this, as they are heavily invested in their specialities. A further problem is shown in an arXiv reference I followed in another essay--the reference noted that they were entering an essay on FQXi "for laymen". This might imply that establishment types do not take these efforts seriously, but would be perfectly willing to pick up a grant or win a prize.

So thanks for your support, and be patient (as if we have a choice.) There are some very nice essays here already (I very much like Norman Cook's) and I have not yet commented on one that addresses a very important assumption. Also, my essay is very complex, treating, in nine pages, the most confused topic of the last century, so I hope that some of those experts you invoke are trying to digest my arguments before responding. Finally, in a sense I come down in the middle of one of the hardest fought campaigns on FQXi and that may make neither side happy.

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Dear Vladimir,

Thanks for reading and commenting and thanks for the link to "THE CANCELLATION OF DIFFRACTION IN WAVE FIELDS" of which I was unaware. I am in awe of your artistic and high geometrical drawings, and look forward to rading that paper, which I have printed out. I have found that one very beneficial aspect of this essay contest is the references to other works, especially those of the author of the specific essay.

As you mention, I use a smattering of geometric algebra, which I recently learned in order to understand Joy Christian's work (one of several things I am indebted to him for) and have found a number of other people in the same situation, ie, learned it for Joy, then fell in love with it for it's own sake. You of all people know how much physics depends on geometry, but in most cases the geometry is drawn on the blackboard and the blackboard is filled with algebraic equations, with nothing but handwaving linking the two. David Hestenes' treatment links the two such that every element in the algebra has both an algebraic and a geometric aspect, and this, to many of us, makes it the ideal tool for physics. The Doran book I reference is an ideal starting point, although one can learn a lot online for free.

Today was a good day for FQXi with your essay and Daryl Janzen's essay being posted.

Edwin Eugene Klingman

I posted the following on jcns's thread:

Dear jcns,

I would direct your attention to Daryl Janzen's essay. It is a fantastic essay and also provides a link to his recent PhD dissertation which is, believe it or not, a very exciting read. He arrives, I think it's safe to say, at much the same conclusion that you and I do, but in a much more scientific and professional manner. Perhaps the most important essay yet published in this contest.

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Hi jcns,

I'm glad that you find Daryl's essay as interesting as I do. I have added a comment to the exchange that you and Daryl had on his thread. I reproduce that comment here in my own thread so that I can keep the idea 'close at hand':

Dear Daryl and jcns,

A very interesting exchange. JCN says, "humans have come to refer to the changing configurations of the universe as 'the flow of time.' It is ... crucial to recognize ... however, that the changes ... are *not caused by,* and are not in any way a consequence of, the flow of time. Rather, the changes ...*are* the flow of time."

That has sort of been the way I have been thinking, but your very phraseology has caused me to see it in a different perspective. As you know energy and time are conjugate variables, and in the view you [jcns] just espoused, it would be *energy* (or more correctly, "the flow of energy") that is real and time that is emergent. But in the "present as real" perspective, obviously energy is everywhere local, whereas time is global and universal. Therefore there would seem to be a universal 'reality' to time as opposed to merely a handy way of tagging sequential events.

Daryl, I too am working through your wonderfully written dissertation. Wow!

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Dear Daryl Janzen,

Thank you for the above comments.

You and I agree about "going to the source". In your thesis you, "...try to understand the assumptions and presumptions behind the reasonings of those who have played important roles in its philosophical development, with the idea that if we can truly understand what they were thinking and why, we might better understand where they went wrong." I've tried to do the same.

I would be happy to read your paper on polynomial solutions. [My email address is in my essay.] Having finished reading your dissertation last night, I have a guess about what your approach is, and look forward to seeing if I'm right. You could have copied my last essay paragraph and ended your thesis with it. Far too much to fully absorb at one reading, and I hope to find time to make notes and summarize my main impressions and review it again. [I used up three yellow liners on your words.]

This contest is shaping up well. I think some important essays have been submitted, and very likely more will be. I recommend Normal Cook's "Nucleodynamics" for more insight into particles, and I would be interested in your take on Ernst Fischer's essay.

I have no problem with 'superposition' of numbers, either roots of polynomials or Fourier series, but I strongly believe that material particles are not 'super-imposable'. For reasons of lack of space, I simply assume the existence of the particles and deal only with the induced wave (function) in my essay. It is definitely not for lack of theory about particles. All of the known particles (except the Higgs) fall out of my theory, i.e., neutrinos, electrons, up and down quarks, and all three families (but no 'super-partners'). I suspect that an understanding of the material particles (and why they are NOT super-imposable) makes my wave function more credible, but such was far outside the 9 page contraints.

Thanks again for your comments, but mostly I thank you for your essay and your thesis.

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Dear Dirk Pons,

Thanks for the above observation. In nine pages packed with information about one of the most complicated and contentious fields of physics, you clearly and succinctly extracted one of the key points in the essay in just seven words, "physics confounding physical waves and probability waves". Congratulations.

I also admire both your imagination in the design approach laid out in your essay and the fact that you managed it as a family project. Congratulations again.

Edwin Eugene Klingman

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the comment and questions. You're right-- the essay is packed with info (some are truisms, but in QM even that is debatable.) To deal with a century of confusion requires covering a lot of ground in 9 pages. You ask whether I think 'probability' may be just the incomputability of complex interactions beyond our capabilities. In the essay, I use the 'partition function' of statistical mechanics as the basis of probability for energy states and then show how this links to the physical wave (length) to allow the calculation of probability amplitudes. The partition function, which is typically based on huge numbers of combinatorial events, probably meets your specification as to the nature of probability. What I focus on is the generally-not-understood connection of the physical wave to probability wave (as Dirk Pons noted above).

I have not focused on Heisenberg and diffraction (I count on you for that!) but I generally view Heisenberg in two compatible ways. The finite wavelength lends itself a certain Fourier-based limitation that can be considered 'uncertainty'. Also, in previous essays, I have derived a quantum flow condition that generalizes his relations. In any case, the existence of a quantum of action strongly limits what can be measured without disturbing the system. I reference recent Aharonov-based 'weak measurements' that get around this limitation, but only statistically.

Your question about a dozen particles on a motorway is good. In my opinion the wave 'phase' associated with each particle is inherently unknown (unmeasurable) so exact calculations are impossible, leaving us with a distribution of 'most likely' values as you desire for your "derivation of SR from a QM."

My essay shows how one can understand quantum mechanical probability amplitudes from physical waves. Lack of information on individual phases means that probability is the best we can hope for, but this does not imply the mystical consequences that follow from belief in the pure 'probability wave' that has characterized most quantum interpretations for a century.

Thanks as always for your insightful questions.

Edwin Eugene Klingman