Ken

I was interested in your comments to Constantinos. You seem to be saying he may be wrong ref the delay. In fibre optics the delay is established with great accuracy as polarisation mode dispersal (PMD) delay, somewhat frequency and polarity dependent (birefringence) but fully consistent with that Constantinos derives. This is the 'charging' or 'momentum' delay of scattering.

Also consistent with this and of topical interest are the latest results reported in Science vol 331,p892, and p 16 of 26th Feb NS, where particles were charged and 'bounced off', or were re-emitted by, the fine structure ABOVE the surface of matter, (done here with coated glass). This is equivalent to reflective scattering. The 19th Feb NS (p18) showing plasmons 'grabbing photons' through a nano hole and re-emitting them, when an 'empty' hole won't let then through at all! All equivalent to QED, with electrons 're-emitting' photons, and always at the relative 'c' of the electrons if in a refractive medium co-moving wrt an incident medium. And we find the greater the relative motion the higher the 'fine structure' surface plasma or 'plasmasphere'. Is that purely a co-incidence? The discrete field model (DFM) explores the implications if not. It's consistent with Constantinos and Edwins, and we haven't been able to falsify it yet.

You ask about "how to get quantum behavior to emerge from classical fields". It it worth considering the converse; How to get classic relativity to emerge from quantum behaviour. With refractive dispersion this seems to emerge naturally.

Food for thought?

Best wishes

Peter

    • [deleted]

    Peter,

    Thanks for all the experimental facts you brought to my defense! I had no idea there is so much evidence for such 'time delay'. I think Eckard Blumschein would also add to this list the Gompf et al. false measurements of single photon counting. Rethinking this issue over again, I would like to add to this supportive arguments and experimental evidence the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Clearly, QM uncertainty results in some positive duration of time for an amount of energy 'delta E' to manifest.

    I think the rejection to my proof that Planck's Law is a mathematical tautology that describes the interaction of measurement is more 'disbelief' than 'refutation'. It cuts so deeply into the grain and fibre of modern physical thinking. It's just hard for physicists to accept.

    Best regards,

    Constantinos

    • [deleted]

    Dear ken,

    really interesting, accessible, clear, enjoyable. Nice introduction explaining your approach to the question and where you are going with it. I definitely want to spend more time re reading it as it is full of good ideas and explanations.

    PS.I have used a quote from your essay on the FQXi Time travel blog forum (where you very clearly explain the static nature of space time.)

    Good luck Georgina.

    Ken / Costas

    There's much more on delay time too. Also look at the Mossbauer effect (1957) where the charge/emission scattering delay is attributed to 'recoil.' There is a logical discrepancy here related to continuous processes, which is probably why his results are oft ignored, but the actual results have been repeated and confirmed (At one of the US major universities I think).

    The frequency dependence of PMD in fibre optics is fascinating, as it also reverses at a certain frequency! My work focussed on harmonics, which explains this and absorption bands in terms of Huygens/Fresnel principle (HFP), in similar terms to superconductivity. Waves are still very poorly understood!

    Peter

    Dear Ken

    I agree with your arguments about the fact that discreteness is just a consequence of our models, but in the same way continuity is also just a consequence of our models. Until now We have ignored that the properties of nature we see are conditioned by our models particularly by the logic we use to study nature; this is not a philosophical idea but a mathematical reality. On my essay I try to explain how our perception of quantum reality is blurred by the use of classical-logic tools. I would like to hear your opinions about it.

    Regards,

    J. Benavides

    • [deleted]

    Dear Ken,

    Thanks for a fascinating essay. I agree with premise to take the unpopular route of making QT more compatible to GR. Focusing on the measurement problem from the GR POV is both novel and creative. I also would like to point out the work of Joy Christian which I was introduced on the forum of FQXI's very own website, which seems to support your work, although he concentrates on non-locality. He uses topological and division algebra arguments to conclude *that "quantum non-locality" is nothing but a make-belief of the topologically naive.*

    Having said that I have one small "quibble" of my own. You wrote: "First and foremost, GR is a theory of spacetime."

    It was my understanding that GR was first and foremost a theory of gravity, that includes spacetime. Isn't true that GR is actually agnostic as to the ontology of spacetime? Although gravity is assumed to be the curvature of spacetime, isn't it indistinguishable from a field in an arbitrary background? For example see here. In the words of Kip Thorne, isn't the "curved spacetime paradigm" equivalent to the "flat spacetime paradigm" in GR?

    I would be interested in your response, and thanks again for a beautiful essay.

    Dan

      Ken

      Further to my post above Dan Bruiger has just posted me this, on reverese Doppler shift, apparently surprising but consistent with discrete fields (DFM) and my CD/Harmonics paper I reffered above. http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/45366

      My theory predicts the effect, emerging as a natural result of harmonics, which proves the Regaza delay factor, (found experimentally anyway in PMD) and also it's reverse over short harmonic frequencies where wave particle 'polarisation' inverts.

      I haven't read the paper yet, but was sure you'd be interested too.

      Best wishes

      Peter

      Ken,

      "At the very least, the \measurement problem" should give one pause when drawing digital conclusions from quantum theory. As for the best, there is promise that we can solve the measurement problem by framing it in our continuous block universe."

      I don't see a commitment to one or the other but I do see an open mind that perhaps cagily lean toward analogue which is my perspective but less well-argued.

      Jim

      • [deleted]

      Ken,

      Well written essay with many good arguments for a continuous reality. You are being a little unfair with the Wikipedia quote. If the word "bound" means stable forever (i.e. infinite lifetime) then the energy must have a single discrete value. Also as you know I don't like the block universe model. Such a model doesn't allow for causal chains. I do like retro-causation in the quantum world where future events can bring reality to properties which are initially undefined in the past. Causal chains in the macroworld go forward in time and this gives time its sense of flow from past to future. A block universe doesn't have any sense of time flow.

      Finally, it is good that you acknowledge that we will probably never know for sure if reality is discrete or continuous.

      Bill

      Hi Dan,

      Thanks for your comments... You certainly make a fair point -- I'm sure that a dozen different physicists would give you nearly as many different answers to the fill-in-the-blank sentence: "First and foremost, GR is a theory of ___ ". I was coming at it from the perspective that GR is more naturally about block-spacetime than it is about the dynamics of instantaneous 3-geometries... but now that you mention it, I certainly should have hedged my pronouncement somewhat.

      That said, the problem with thinking of gravity as a field on flat spacetime is that it raises the possibility of *other* fields that aren't coupled to gravity in the ordinary way. You avoid this issue by setting the other fields directly into curved spacetime. Sure, maybe the equivalence principle will fail and one will be forced to consider this possibility, but one shouldn't confuse this (evidence-free) motivation with the more typical motivation: we don't know how to implement standard quantum theories in curved spacetime. To me, this is all the more reason to drop back to classical fields (which work perfectly well in curved spacetime), and try to figure out how quantum-like behavior might emerge from those GR-compatible entities.

      For more of my thoughts on these issues, you could try Reference [11], which is also online at arxiv.org/abs/0706.4075 .

      Cheers, Ken

      • [deleted]

      Ken,

      I'm glad you clarified this point. I didn't have a problem understanding it, though I did note by their comments that at least a couple of other people in the contest did.

      I agree heartily with your research program. If you haven't had a chance to read my essay, I do hope you can before the polls close.

      Best,

      Tom

      • [deleted]

      Dear Ken,

      Thanks, for your response. You have given me some food for thought. I have read your ref. [11] and confirms what I had deduced from your essay; your work is essential to gaining a better understanding of the foundations of the "quantum realm".

      Wishing you continued success,

      Dan

      Thanks, everyone, for the nice comments... I apologize for not finding the time lately to respond to everyone personally.

      The essay's reference [10] (with co-authors David Miller and Huw Price) is finally ready for public viewing... It's now at http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.2492 . Comments on that paper are probably best sent via email, rather than here.

      Ken

      4 days later

      Dear Ken,

      Congratulations on your dedication to the competition and your much deserved top 35 placing. I have a bugging question for you, which I've also posed to all the potential prize winners btw:

      Q: Coulomb's Law of electrostatics was modelled by Maxwell by mechanical means after his mathematical deductions as an added verification (thanks for that bit of info Edwin), which I highly admire. To me, this gives his equation some substance. I have a problem with the laws of gravity though, especially the mathematical representation that "every object attracts every other object equally in all directions." The 'fabric' of spacetime model of gravity doesn't lend itself to explain the law of electrostatics. Coulomb's law denotes two types of matter, one 'charged' positive and the opposite type 'charged' negative. An Archimedes screw model for the graviton can explain -both- the gravity law and the electrostatic law, whilst the 'fabric' of spacetime can't. Doesn't this by definition make the helical screw model better than than anything else that has been suggested for the mechanism of the gravity force?? Otherwise the unification of all the forces is an impossiblity imo. Do you have an opinion on my analysis at all?

      Best wishes,

      Alan

      5 days later

      Dear Ken,

      thank you for the citation added (even though the long delay) in your paper arXiv:1003.4273 [

      Time-symmetric boundary conditions and quantum foundations] to my paper arXiv:0903.3680 [Compact Time and Determinism for bosons: foundation].

      As you have already noticed, in my essay [ref:http://www.fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/901] Clockwork Quantum Universe [\ref] (thank you also for the congratulations for this first phase on the contest) the possibility of a consistent interpretation of quantum mechanics in terms of boundary conditions.

      Cheers,

      Donatello

      4 months later
      • [deleted]

      Dear Ken,

      I would like to introduce myself in quantum terminology and share the truth that I have experienced with you. who am I?

      I superpositioned myself to be me, to disentangle reality from virtuality and reveal the absolute truth.

      Love,

      Sridattadev.

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