If wave-functions do exist as real things, then I think we should consider that the speed of light/permitivity/permeability is a property of the wave-function, not a property of just empty space. The reasoning would be as follows: the best way to explain the invariance of the speed of light for all matter and all energy is to say that it's because all matter and all energy have a wave-function associated with it. All interactions have a wavefunction that span between interacting elements. Wave-functions are the invisible "existent" thing that imposes the invariance of c. Maybe in a thousand years, we will know how to disconnect a spaceship from the wave-functions of the rest of space-time, which will disconnect the space-ship from the speed of light restriction. This would allow us to travel outside of space-time.

Your presentations are interesting. I have done some presentations, live and in front of people, of related material. I focused on homotopy theory. The double slit experiment is a form of homotopy, where there are two sets of trajectories that are distinct by a topological obstruction. The measurement of which slit the particle passes through transfers the superposition into an entanglement with a needle state. Entanglements can then be a case of topology or homotopy. I am particularly interested in the case of where a quantum system entangles with a black hole.

Cheers LC

Lawrence,

Nonlocality could now be produced classically as shown in the links above. You suggested;

"Physically the nonlocal properties of QM simply can't be reduced to a classical realization."

That has certainly become the established viewpoint, but is it just a 'cop out'? John Bell was unhappy with it calling it 'sleepwalking' and saying;

"in my opinion the founding fathers were in fact wrong on this point. The quantum phenomena do not exclude a uniform description of micro and macro worlds...systems and apparatus." (Speakable..p171)

In fact he went further; "It may be that a real synthesis of quantum and relativity theories requires not just technical developments but radical conceptual renewal."

And in 'Beables..'; "I think that conventional formulations of quantum theory, and of quantum field theory in particular, are unprofessionally vague and ambiguous. Professional theoretical physicists ought to be able to do better."

I tend to agree, and think the implications of the links I posted above may prove very important. Views?

Peter

jrc,

Yesterday Peter Jackson challenged me to watch even without sound a video by Teufel. IIrc, when he explained the theory of guiding waves, Teufel argued that velocities can be derived from positions. An Italian co-worker referred in her dissertation to Albers (?) who considered this view incomplete. Common sense tells me that the velocity of light equals to the increment from the position of emitter AT THE MOMENT OF EMISSION to the position of receiver AT THE MOMENT OF ARRIVAL divided by the time of flight. Doesn't this easily explain the experiments in Potsdam by Michelson 1881 and in Cleveland together with Morley 1887, on condition one abandons Maxwell's idea of a light-carrying medium?

In an earlier essay I dealt with an acoustic Michelson experiment by Norbert Feist who was shocked by my explanation. The prediction outlined by Michelson and Morley in 1887 was not quite correct. They admitted this, and there is anyway no need for a correction; the null-result is plausible unless one is not ready to abandon the idea of a light-carrying medium. Lorentz defended such medium by his hypothesis of length contraction according to so called Lorentz transformation.

You described the history a bit different. I agree that Morley was an important scientist too. However, it seems to me that the basic method concerning a light-carrying medium was created by Michelson. Also, it seems to me you are confusing the effect of increased mass which was already found by Thomson with its later attribution to Lorentz transformation.

Why do you deny the possibility that a receiver/observer of light from an emitter may be located within an otherwise ideally empty space? I agree that the wavelength of light does not change there.

What about Fourier transformation between position representation and momentum representation I maintain that cosine transformation might be sufficient and even more appropriate.

Eckard

There are a number of counter arguments to these. These statements are typical propaganda slogans, which have or had maybe some element of truth. However, there are a number of things that can be raised to at least raise questions. The United States has since its origin been in a fairly major war every 20 years. Recently we left Iraq after causing directly or indirectly the deaths of over a million Iraquis. With Vietnam we killed over 3 million, and Korea was similar. I am not here to get into the geo-political reasons for these wars, but we do have a serious history of bombing and attacking nations. As for equality and related matters that might have been the case up to the 1980-90 time period. There are a lot of metrics which challenge these agit prop type of statements.

On the whole the halcyon statements about this country had more truth to them in the past, or from the 1950-1960 to 1980-1990 time period. Since then we have been backsliding.

LC

The deBroglie-Bohm theory of QM is perfectly acceptable. It has no particular flaw, unless one takes this as a theory of local hidden variables. The problem with that is that the pilot wave must adjust to a quantum outcome. The problem is that identically prepared quantum systems would have the same quantum pilot wave. As this approaches the pilot wave must "decide" which configuration to assume. It must either go left or right, and this is a nonlocal connection. I take a picture from this article and change it slightly to illustrate a quantum OR condition. The pilot wave as it approaches the double slit must adjust to either situation, and this is even if the particle or "beable" is heading directly towards the midpoint between the two. This is a nonlocal property, and it is reflect in how the quantum AND logical condition does not distribute across the OR condition.

The nonlocal property of the pilot wave means that this particular "picture" of the pilot wave is a special condition, or analogous to a gauge. The pilot wave is in fact in an infinite number of configurations. All one has to do is perform a symplectic (canonical) transformation of the classical variables to get another configuration for the beable and pilot wave. Each of these configurations is related to the others by no locality, and they form a congruency that is a form of path integral.

These results are interesting, but I suspect that if the statistics were carefully analyzed that they would be found to obey the Bell inequalities. I would be genuinely surprised if these turn out to produce the inequality violations.

LCAttachment #1: double-slit-quantum-or.jpg

Eckard,

Please understand that I am acutely aware that my own lack of education might lead you and others into some ambarrassment attempting discourse with me, and I can only apologize. Until about two years ago I was in a poverty/political trap that constrained any mobility. Where I'm coming from I could carry all the hard science and math books from the new modern public library under one arm, the reactionary right-wing politics threatening European stability at present has always been pervasive where I have lived. Now I have a computer and can begin to find some intelligent reading. (And I still have two of my upper teeth in more or less one piece!) And I've relocated to a small liberal arts college town.

So... I am not familiar with Michelson's discussions with Thompson but not surprised they would have been engaged. I am aware that at the time when Maxwell conducted his exhaustive analysis of Faraday's results, the 'aether'

medium in Newtonian space was the prevailing thinking. What I find important of Maxwell's discovery of the 'c' proportional difference of electric and magnetic difference of intensity between point charges, is not only that it means light is only one segment of the spectrum, but all physical chemistry is dependent on that proportion being constant. Perhaps that it why Morely, a chemist, was interested in Michelson's efforts. I understood it is Michelson that attempted to prove the aether existence, which failed in the null result. It is an interesting footnote that some aether based caculations had determined that the physical property of the aether would have had to have a rigidity equivalent to steel for the wave form to transmit an energetic response across space (I think I read that in an Asimov book). I have wondered however if gathering evidence by the time of Michelson's first interferometer had not called the aether hypothesis into enough question that it was simply politically expedient to present the experiment in terms of 'confirming the aether wind'. It seems many concepts that become the prevailing wisdom at any time, such as we now understand the Electromagnetic Spectrum to be independent of any medium, have had a lengthy incubation period. Relativistic ideas go back to Galleo and beyond.

Actually, Eckard, though I have striven to understand both SR and GR at least conceptually, I am quite comfortable with your own 'good old notion of ubiquitous time' and also find the theoretical climate to be more productive of a 'snowstorm of mathematics' than real progress. I like the tried and true method of experimentation on a controlled workbench, and if truth were admitted the much hyped success of QM is in reality the product of engineers who having tested the theoretical predictions to no avail, have gone back to the reliable technique of 'poke it with a stick and see what it does'! And if an arbitrary scalar increment of time is acceptable in QM such that it 'zeroes out', then it's as good a methodology in classical physics of 'tick, tick, tick' to explain the null result of Michelson. I think you summed it correctly that 'all numbers are ideal', it's our science and we choose what method we restrict our inquires to, and how we want to devise our reference frames. The only final criteria is that in following any inquiry we do not violate any of our own axioms along the way.

I won't digress about mass increase with velocity, other than to propose that there might be a 'break even' point where a quantity of energy at rest will prescribe a proportional density that constitutes matter and which will behave under acceleration as a mass increase, while a smaller quantity will prescribe a proportional density which will behave as an electrodynamic charge and behave as a decreased density under acceleration with applied energy. And if Lorentz and Poincaire don't like the speed I'm going now, they sure as hell won't like the other one.

Seriously on topic of Why Quantum, first we have to resolve the 'zero point particle' absurdity. Singularity is a mathematical property not a physical property. And for more than a century science has said 'E=mc^2' and the EM spectrum is a wave and the EM spectrum is a particle. Those who write checks on a black budget (government industrial academia) want a damned particle! Put some energy in one spot and make one that will last long enough to put a dent in something else! Then and only then will science save itself from itself and the public will again think of it as was commonplace in the era of Newtonian application to industrialized progress. There has to be discrete somethings made manifest to argue about quantum probabilities in the first place. And until we do that, the public and politicos will consider science just a pissing contest among prima donnas.

I'm not versed if Fourier Analysis, but would think the direct connectivity geometrically in cosines would be readily adaptable in continuous transformation of wave characteristics.

What is the acronym, IIrc? Pardon the length of this, jrc

I interpreted the two slit experiment to mean that the electron somehow became un-manifested in such a way that it when through the two slits as wave. The pilot theory says that the waves are real, but that the electron is always manifested like a hard sphere. I disagree with the pilot wave interpretation. I believe that the particle somehow becomes un-manifested, as if melting back into the wave, until something directly measures it's properties, at which time the electron fully manifests again.

Can anyone dispute or point out an error in my interpretation that the electron becomes UN-manifested at the two slits?

By suggesting that the electron becomes "un" manifested by the 2 slit diffraction, have I violated a major law of physics? Or created a paradox?

The good news is that once we figure this out, it will most likely lead to new physics. Maybe we'll find out that we have grey alien neighbors.

Lawrence, Jason. The 'delayed choice' simply resolves on choosing different starting assumptions. Yes, Jason, as in QED's sum over paths and Huygens construction (foundational to quantum and laser optics and photonics) there can be no 'photon' or path' until the combined Schrodinger sphere surfaces (NLS equation) are forced to interact with matter (a 'detector') where only ONE position has adequate constructive interference to quantize the new particle (at different 'ranges' the 'positions' also differ).

'Non-locality' then emerges from particle 'reversibility', which 'weak (statistical) measurement' can't discern. I invoke electron 'spin flip', which in fact Bell also did, relating measurement to direction of DETECTOR field electron spin - which REVERSES with EM field orientation (setting angle)! Bell also admitted his (Bohr) assumption; Bertlmann's sock always differ. A sphere has BOTH spins (poles) and a sock can be randomly worn inside out (pink becomes green). OAM of a sphere is conserved through x any y axis rotation. 'Direction' is NOT conserved!!!!! That's the DFM derivation of 'non-locality'.

To explain in terms of Wheelers view and (i.e. Jacques) delayed choice;

The focussed waves follow BOTH 'paths' from splitter 1, so each detector has a 50:50 chance of clicking.

Introducing a second splitter COMBINES them, so phase can be tuned so EITHER detector can have 100% constructive interference, leaving the other 0%.

As Wheeler said; "No elementary phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is a registered (observed) phenomenon". It is wrong to speak of the "route" of the photon in the experiment of the beam splitter. It is wrong to attribute a tangibility to the photon in all its travel from the point of entry to its last instant of flight."

Timed pair experiments then CAN access data which gives A,B aa or bb if just one detector dial is reversed. My previous essay identifies that 99.999% of Aspects data confirmed this, but couldn't theoretically rationalise it so discarded it. Wieghs (et al inc. Zeilinger) found the same so just 'corrected' for it! Perfect examples of 'theory bias' in experimentation.

My short summary completes the work in the link above by classically explaining non-locality as well as entanglement.

Classical reproduction of quantum correlations. But we seem now permanently trapped by 'theory bias'. Can you now see the solution Lawrence? Most surely won't.

Jason

"The good news is that once we figure this out, it will most likely lead to new physics. Maybe we'll find out that we have grey alien neighbors." The figuring out was the simple bit. It's done. The real job seems to be is to overcome our human failings to make it visible!.

Peter J,

The linked article, Have We Been Interpreting Quantum Mechanics Wrong This Whole Time?, is a gem. I have to read it again later and comment further. I think the strongly mathematical among us like Tom and Joy should read and also give their views too, for or against.

You seem to have been missing in action for a while... perhaps occupied by the Brazil show.

Regards,

Akinbo

Pete,

My thanks too, for the link on pilot wave theory. It really is time for physicists to let Schrodinger's cat out of the bag. jrc

Akinbo,

Yes, repulsing attacks by troglodyte hordes. They say the gem is false, flawed or trivial. They would. It's true it's not 'complete' as Bohmian mechanics can't derive 'quantum non-locality' or explain the 'delayed choice' experiment. But that's exactly the final touch the DFM provides. Did you read and understand the 2 page summary too? Dr Bertlmann's doesn't have 'left and 'right' socks. As in nature's OAM, they're reversible. but indoctrination may be so entrenched no 'evidence' will now save us.

I've also been busy as my little boat's now re-launched! It's a similar story there. Icom Assassin Invincible.

Nobody was interested in the DFM's fluid (aero & hydro) dynamic implications so I designed a boat to demonstrate it. It beat them all - but to no effect! They still ignored the conclusive evidence. Being known as a modest chap they all insisted it wasn't the boat but my own sailing genius that beat them! Yes. Yet another bunch of plonkers. No wonder I have little hair left! Ces't la vie.

If anyone can see any flaw in the 2 page summary please do say so!

Best wishes

Peter

Peter J,

How did you design your boat as to demonstrate "the DFM's fluid (aero & hydro) dynamic implications"? I guess, it cannot flip its direction.

Eckard

Pete,

Did you know (?) the 'Bluenose' long on the obverse of the Canadian dime coin, was A Herreshoff design schooner of racing fame and it's legendary speed was attributed to a warp that had developed in the keel. jrc

John,

That's mind blowing. I didn't know. One thing I included was a slight 'twist' in the keel strut (The 'lift foil' supporting the 4 tonne lead bulb). That seemed bizarre to most but it allowed fast 'footing off' on port tack and extra 'pointing' ability on starboard. Experience and thought will reveal the advantages. I wonder if 'Bluenose' had the same by accident!?

I'll now see 'heads' and 'tails' in a new asymmetric light! I wonder if we can say that one side of a warp is identical to the other? Food for thought!

Eckard,

The boat had a number of innovations, including a navigation station that always put the navigators body weight on the windward side. Established designers called it impossible and couldn't work out how to do it till it was built. That one HAS now been copied! Like all new physics; first it's lampooned, derided and laughed at, then 'proved impossible', then raised anger, then called irrelevant and trivial, then it's self apparent anyway.

But most of the differences are in hull shape, rig etc. Are you at all familiar with prismatic co-efficients and the dynamics of wavemaking? Descriptions can be highly r technical and precise or pedagogical. In the latter case there's less form resistance and wave impact resistance and an exchange of 'heeled symmetry' for c of bouyancy for instance. There's also much not properly understood about water and waves in mainstream (lol). And don't even get me on to wind shear with altitude! (the mast is 20m). Materials are also interesting. The mast is 100% carbon fibre, the hull part, with epoxy. A unique innovation was coherent 'load path' design to acheive exceptionally high forestay loads.

Sorry. You did ask! The relevance of the DFM surfaces throughout. It seems that once the fundamentals coherently line up all else comes pouring out. I know few others can 'see' it yet, but I'm not wasting my time in the interim! I seriously had to buy a new ceiling height trophy cabinet!

Hi Peter,

It really bugs me that I can't find any atheists to defend their beliefs. The arguments I've been making on other websites are like ambushes. It's kind of fun to point out that the best interpretation of wave-functions is that they exist. Pilot theory is better than the MWI interpretation (which is a funky idea); but the pilot theory would still allow you to know which slit the electron was going through. It gives me great satisfaction that atheist-skeptics who called ghosts woo, are now called upon to eat their words. After all, what is more ghostly than a Higgs field. All of the NDE experiences support the original idea that the soul is leaving the body, but then is yanked back in (Sorry my child, but it is not your time).

Then there is this idea of time travel that has been popular in the physics community for decades. How that was popular with it's paradoxes is beyond my understanding.

So please, if there is anyone here who still thinks that ghosts are a dumb idea, I am so willing to defend my strong position.

I think one very basic idea to consider is how reality is fundamentally dichotomous and yet our function of perception is necessarily linear.

For example, think in terms of a production line and the product it produces;

The product, lets call it the 'object,' goes from initiation to completion. Meanwhile the production is consuming raw material and expelling finished product. So effectively their arrows point in opposite directions. Now just about any 'object,' be it a cup of coffee, or an individual being, goes from start to finish. Meanwhile the processes going on around it and within it, are constantly throwing up and then dissolving these forms. You might say the individual goes from birth to death, while the species moves toward the new, ie. birth and sheds the old, away from death.

We could then look at galaxies in terms of this relationship, as mass forms and falls inward, getting ever more dense, while the constituent, dynamic energy is constantly expanding, either being absorbed by and growing prior forms, or breaking away from and radiating out across space. It should be noted that photons, light as a particle, are an effect of its absorption by prior form. Otherwise it would seem to just expand out as a holographic wave.

Now when we consider this process of constructing the 'object,' be it a widget in a factory, or mass falling into a galaxy, enormous amounts of energy go into the process, ie. entropy. Yet while the energy is lost to the closed process of constructing the object, it is still conserved and radiated away to be used in other processes.

So what then is this thing called a quantum? Yes, it does 'collapse" out of some larger field and is more dense than that field, much as mass is more dense than light. The wave is like that process, but when we measure it, we collapse that object out of it. Much as a widget coalesces out of a production line.

The problem seems to be one of the process of perception. A baby is every bit as aware as an adult, but hasn't developed that cognitive process of creating memories. Much like a factory creates widgets, or a galaxy creating mass, by accumulating and condensing energy and the information it contains. So as cognitive adults, we are very intellectually biased toward that process of creating that nugget of conception, called a thought, meanwhile the process of creating it seems nebulous and not distinct, like a new born consciousness. So we go around in these discussions and everyone has their particular nuggets of insight, which clarify particular aspects of the larger whole, yet seem somehow distinct from the larger processes going on around it. Much like a flashlight will illuminate one spot, but blind you to what is next to it.

Not that I'm questioning anyones particular points of view, hypotheses, theories, observations, etc, but suggesting that rather than trying to condense them into ever more precise descriptions, to step back instead and just let them get a little fuzzy(horrors!) and see if that fuzziness doesn't lead to some networking from which your particular nodes emerged. Sometimes when I let go of a thought, it floats/fly off in my vision, like some spot or rippling wave, or shadow being lifted. After years of this, I sort of just let the thoughts run along by themselves. Horrible for the memory though, but very useful in dealing with animals.

Just a passing thought...

Probably been signed out.

Regards,

John Merryman

Peter,

While my dictionary has only buoyancy, not bouyancy, perhaps I correctly understood that there is no convincing connection between your boat and your DFM. Nonetheless your hint to proponents of the pilot wave idea challenged me to deal with some questions that I consider foundational.

Thanks, Eckard

The best way to explain all things is the best way to explain all things...We should not presuppose what mother nature has in for us. Rather we should simply ask what she has to say and then follow her lead.

If wavefunctions have some strange reality, then so be it. But let mother nature reveal to us the nature of reality and not guess what is her way.

You may want spaceships to travel faster than the speed of light, but do not force that result, rather let nature reveal her true self and accept what she says. Clearly there are some actions that are impossible, but there are other actions that may still be possible although unlikely. Let our mother be the judge and let us find out her true reality.