Prolegomena to any Future Physic

Full Title

A look at just one Physic out of the vast collection of Physics. We still are in need of a few more to make sense of the world we live in.

Abstract

This paper will enumerate the problems faced by the Physics of today and explore solutions that might be successful in overcoming those Problems.

Introduction

We establish a taxonomy of terms and their meanings for the purpose of communication with the reader in this wiki. In general the meaning of these terms is not universally accepted and we don't wish to claim to the right to declare any meaning for other's use, but just so we can be clear about our use of the terms. We will call that part of the universe that is accessible by our senses, the Sensible Universe. The rest of the universe will be called the Hidden Universe. All that we sense about the universe appears to be in Euclidean 3-space or in Minkowski (Lorentzian) 4-space by the addition of time and relativity. Rather than focus on Effects or Observables of Quantum Mechanics, we will focus on Events which are defined as any potentially visible sudden change in the path or behaviors that particles exhibit in Quantum Mechanics. I apologize in advance that my thinking is Quantum and so I tend to express myself in bullet points.

Problems

1. Physicists have a tendency, as shown in the history section below, to confuse reality with their models of that reality. In particular the models only apply to isolated sets or conditions which are not common in reality. So it is important to keep in mind that their tests of models are very seldom grounded in reality.
2. Entanglement or superposition primarily as expressed by Einstein as "Spooky Actions at a Distance." We will focus here on the Anton Zeilinger experiment with two entangled photons emitted in opposite directions. Some have called these two photons as Contrary. The state of either is not knowable until a measurement is made on either of the photons. Only then do we know the state of both.
3. Dark Stuff including the Dark Energy and Dark Matter hypotheses tell us that we know the source of neither all energy nor all momentum. Meaning that these components are not a part of the universe that is directly sensible to us.
4. Continuous verses quantum (discrete) values are an issue. It is common in Quantum Mechanics to see both depending on whether we are looking at an SE propagated probability distribution (before wave function collapse) or a collection of possible discreet events (after collapse).
5. Zeno, a pupil of Parmenides, showed clearly that the infinite and the infinitesimal were absurd. But we know that the differential calculus works in predicting motion and probability distributions.
6. Reconciling General Relativity to a Quantum Physic has been a subject of intense investigation since Einstein's General Relative equations. It still is.
7. Conservation laws are local, that is when a region in space loses energy, it must be accounted for by a flow of energy, usually as a photon. When we perform the Zeilinger experiment (or any similar one) the local state is not knowable until we get a measurement of one of the photons. In other words the energy of the local region depends on what happens somewhere else at some time else. In general, the only way to know how much energy or momentum has left a region is to measure it.
8. When the space through which particles move is changing, the total energy of those particles is not conserved. It's not that all hell has broken loose; it's just that we're considering a more general context than was necessary under Newtonian rules. There is still a single important equation, which is indeed often called "energy-momentum conservation." ∇ ν T^νμ = 0
9. It is not possible to know the path that a "particle" takes in 4-space. All we can do is generate them at one point and record when they hit a detector at another. The path they travel is never known. The principle of least-action does provide some information about the path, but it is never exact.
10. Energy can, theoretically, have any value at all. That does not mean that energy is continuous in our sensible reality. QM teaches us that energy only appears in discrete chunks, quanta. But then what is the missing energy. Well, we don't know what nonsensible (Hidden, Dark) energy is, only that there's an awful lot of it.
11. Max Planck described the problem of the adoption of new ideas as "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it."

History

Too Long, Don't Read unless you want to know the sequence of physicist's assertions that got us here.

1. At least since the time of Plato (350BC) philosophy has focused on ideal Forms that can be known to be true since the beginning of time. These truths are out there for us to discover. Some of Plato's examples are anthropocentric like tables. That must be because Plato believed that there exists an ideal human form — a perfect archetype that transcends the limitations of our physical bodies, but still needed to sit at a table.
2. Galileo (1633), Newton (1984) and Einstein (1905) all agreed that reality was predictable if we just got the equations right. Granted, we could never know all the details of the present state of reality, but if we did, the universe would run on exactly that the current state and the eternal laws of reality could be calculated.
3. Maxwell (1865) gave us a very useful version of a wave equations 𝝏²u/𝝏t² = c²(𝝏²u/𝝏x²). u can be considered to be a wave function.
4. Schrödinger (1926) created his equation (SE) to determine where a quantum particle was when it was pointed out to him that a wave equation was required if de Broglie's equations were to be accepted. The schools in Zurich and Munich where he worked were definitely in the deterministic school of thought. His equation is not exactly like a wave equation as it has only a first order derivative with respect to time iħ𝝏u/𝝏t = ħ²/2m (𝝏²u/𝝏x²). Since it appears to describe the wave nature of particles, it is sometimes called a wave equation.
5. Born (1927) described the (squared) result of the Schrödinger equation as representing the probability of finding a particle at the point calculated from an SE. This is how we got to show an SE defining a probability distribution.
6. Heisenberg (Uncertainty 1928) was able to show that the best we can do is to describe the conjugate pairs of values (location and momentum) to be within an error bound.
7. Whitehead (1929) tried to describe space-time as just a series of events (which may just be the effect caused by the collapse of the wave function).
8. John Von Neumann, (1932) wrote the first comprehensive presentation of the mathematics of quantum mechanics In this volume, Von Neumann proposed that the Schrödinger equation could collapse at any point in the causal chain from the measurement device to the human perception of the measurement
9. Kolmogorov complexity (1965) is defined as the length of a shortest computer program that produces the object (event) as output. It is a measure of the computational resources needed to specify the object
10. Computational irreducibility was clarified by Steven Wolfram in 2002 as situations where a system’s behavior cannot be simplified or “shortcut” through any means. In other words, there are computations that cannot be sped up or predicted using shortcuts. The implication is that the universe cannot be calculated in less time than it takes to run the universe itself.
11. Time is real from Lee Smolin who previously had thought it unreal. but decided in 2012 that the only way that it was possible to see the future was to let reality take its course and see what happened.

Postulates

The follow were selected in an arbitrary manner, but they seem to be suitable for physics and do not exhibit any of the above problems.

1. All things that are measurable are discrete when measured.
2. The Schrodinger Equation (SE) is not directly measurable as it propagates. All it does is create a probability density distribution for future effects.
3. The wave function collapse will be called the most common event. It will occur at any interaction with matter such as occurs during a measurement.
4. After collapse the event may recreate a SE that carries forward the other characteristics that were part of the original SE, or it may just be absorbed into the material that it struck.
5. If two SE (or two parts of an SE) were entangled, both will be impacted by a collapse of the wave function and each will continue or be absorbed based on local conditions as independent SE.
6. There is no direct connection between a human's intent at a measurement and a collapse of an wave function. (Clearly not everyone will agree.)

Possible Solutions

• Just deny the reality of Wave function or the Schrodinger equation altogether as nothing there is sensible.
• Time is the original source for all of the reality that now pervades the universe as described by Lee Smolin.
• GRW theory addresses the dynamical-collapse model. This could be spontaneous collapse. Since photons can transit the entire visible universe without collapse, something other than spontaneous collapse, like get too near to any other particle might be more realistic.