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Exploring Physics

Last modified March 2005

This Site: Rationale

The work behind this site is driven by an interest in the paradigms behind modern physics.

Many conceptual models of modern physics are employ a "classical physics" method of dealing with physical relationships. In such models, physical relationships are expressed against some form of space and time background wherein objects (e.g. strings, membranes, wave-functions, particles and fields) with properties (e.g. Mass, momentum, energy, spin, charge) are located and interact.

Even though this method provides a highly successful means to model, explore, and discuss many aspects of physics there are some major inconsistencies. Of popular interest is the "missing unification" (like a "missing link") wherein relationships that exist in Quantum theory appear to be unable to be reconciled with others that exist in Relativity.

In addition to this apparent incompatibility between Quantum theory and Relativity, the situation is compounded because both theories also contain relationships that contradict the classical "space and time" view of existence that is inherited from "commonsense" experience and formalized in classical Euclidean / Galilean / Newtonian physics. Two examples are:

Quantum entanglement, wherein physically separate particles appear to act as if they are instantaneously connected.
In relativity, objects that break the rules of a classical existence, e.g. fields that propagate at a constant speed independent of the velocity of the observer.

In other words,

Both aspects of physics, relativity and quantum theory, deal with relationships that occur in nature, often to a high degree of accuracy.
These sets of relationships, no matter what interpretation we apply, have characteristics that cannot be explicitly modeled using the "classical method".

At first sight, this means that the classically based method of modeling physics (i.e. using space, time and objects) cannot be used match physical reality. At best, classically oriented models can be used to obtain limited descriptions that provide an ability to "navigate" certain situations in physics, but will never give access to gaining new understanding of the nature of physical phenomena.

The question is: What is it about the method of using space time and objects that does not allow for consistent representations of certain phenomena i.e. What is missing?

It is important to recognize that physics requires the use of a set of descriptions that exist in language and thought and that these descriptions have some particular relationship to the structure of reality, otherwise they would not work as well as they do.

An analogous situation is the concept of navigation using latitude, longitude and altitude. This is an abstract construct that bears a relationship to the structure of the earth even though the concepts are not fundamental to the structure of the earth.

In navigation, it is clear to us that the abstraction does not define the earth, and that conversely, there are no lines and contours in actual existence. In physics however, it is common to presume that the abstractions (e.g. fields, particles, length, time & mass ) are fundamental, rather than a map. Like thinking that sets of contour lines are the mountain.

An abstraction consists of two parts, a background context (taking a game analogy, the playing field and rules), and a foreground (the play and action). What occurs in the foreground (the scope and nature of the play that arises) is wholly determined by the nature of the background.

In the domain of physics, the reason that phenomena got ordered into the particular objects that we use is, that space and time were chosen (with variations) as the background. In effect, the reason that physical phenomena are described as fields, masses, charges and particles is because the background is defined along the lines that "existence" is as "things" that "occur" (and interact) in space with time.

Essentially, the choice of context determines how we partition phenomena into various objects and also determines the limitations as to what is possible with these objects.

Special Relativity describes phenomena that break the fundamental rules of classical space and time in a way that goes well beyond mere distortions that need to be taken into account at high relative velocities.

This situation suggests that classical space-time is a partial representation that fits in to relativity in a particular way, and if so, identifies three items that are "missing" from the picture:

What kind of background model of existence is consistent with Special Relativity.
How does such a model relate to classical space-time.
How are physical phenomena represented within such a model.

These points are discussed in the article: [On The Structure of Time]. The article goes into detail as to how relativity fits in to a model where energy has at least two distinct modes of existence: matter-like and light-like.

Briefly by sticking strictly to the relationships and phenomena that occur in relativity one needs to adopt a model of existence as outlined below:

In this scenario, energy in the matter-like mode exists in a local time that occurs at the speed of light. That is, the pace of time is the speed of light and is "local" in the sense that a particle's relationship to its own past occurs at the speed of light. When energy is light-like (photon-like), it does not experience time and effectively exists "across" or "with" time. A single principle that requires conservation of energy and "existence" (both matter and light like), allows the derivation of conservation of momentum relationships (matter-matter interactions) as well as the formula for the Compton effect (photon-matter interactions).
Classical physics provides a reasonable approximation to matter-like interactions, provided relative velocities are small compared to the speed of light. The low velocity requirement means that the particle existences are roughly parallel in time and the relative pace of time for all bodies is the same. This is how we generally experience the physical world. Classical physics cannot properly represent photon-like matter and the propagation of fields, although reasonable approximations are possible.
The concept of a field as a "thing" disappears and "time" is a radically different concept. The phenomenon that is identified as a field in classical world translates the "past existence" of a matter-like particle. If one thinks of time as occurring at the speed of light (in all directions), then a past moment of a particle occupies a shell around he present moment of the particle. The radius of the shell is equal to the elapsed time multiplied by the speed of light. Field interactions occur because a particle's present is superimposed on to the past of surrounding particles and this affects the overall existence of the particle's present according to the structure of the particle and the surrounding particles.
If General Relativity is correct, then the occurrence of time at a point (in all directions) must be superimposed on the past existence of surrounding particles.

Summary:
There are currently two main articles on this site:

[On The Structure of Time] an article that explores the question of developing an interpretation on relativity.
[Quantum Theory Wave/Particle Duality] which explores how it may be possible to interpret Quantum theory in a way that is consistent with relativity.