The basics of Quantum Theory are spelled out
here, --------------------------------------------------
Whether you believe you can do a thing or believe you can't, you are right, Please follow the links below, and feel free to ask questions.
Relative Scale (RS) Theory of Gravity
Today, 14 March 2013, Albert Einstein (b.
1879) would be 134 year old.
Happy Birthday, Albert!
The so-called 'God's thoughts' refer to a web of
correlations
There is no direct link between the local and global The 3-D projection(s) of the global mode of spacetime are The cosmic vacuum/quantum aether, called here More on the errors in GR literature here. The current GW detectors are manifestly
blind and deaf to LIGO tunnels should be converted to wine cellars. Any other ideas?
Latest entries
on GW "astronomy":
Panta rei conditio sine qua non est
We haven't the money, so we've got to think! Lord Rutherford, 1962 Brunel Lecture, 14 February 1962 Overfunded research is like heroin: It makes one addicted, weakens the mind and furthers prostitution. Johann A. Makowsky, The Jerusalem Post 19.4.85 Regarding Quantum Mechanics (QM), the aim is to avoid the incomprehensible paradoxes and artifacts in it (watch the double slit experiment here), which originate from its textbook interpretation (Niels Borh's belief that quantum world can only be "seen" through classical "glasses"). We can indeed understand the quantum world (but not the current QM textbooks; cf. Richard Feynman), by changing the "glasses" through which we "see" and construe the quantum world: the universe modeled as a brain. Regarding the artifacts in QM, we may be in a situation similar to an Eskimo trying very hard to comprehend the notion of "trunk". In our case, we encounter an incomprehensible wave-particle complementarity, which could be just an artifact from our wrong thinking, like the "nose-arm complementarity" in the case of the Eskimo observing elephant's trunk. Surely 'the quantum system' doesn't live in any relativistic space, so one should expect all sorts of headaches and artifacts (e.g., "diese verdammte Quantenspringerei", Erwin Schrödinger) from imposing wrong "glasses" onto the quantum world 'out there'. (A typical example is Franco Selleri's quest for detecting de Broglie waves.) The prerequisites for the interpretation of QM suggested here originate from Schrödinger. Back in 1935, Erwin Schrödinger stressed the following: "The rejection of realism has logical consequences. In general, a variable has no definite value before I measure it; then measuring it does not mean ascertaining the value that it has." And in a letter to Einstein dated 18 November 1950 (quoted after J. Bub, p. 115), he wrote (emphasis added): “It seems to me that the concept of probability is terribly mishandled these days. Probability surely has as its substance a statement as to whether something is or is not the case — an uncertain statement, to be sure. But nevertheless it has meaning only if one is indeed convinced that the something in question quite definitely is or is not the case. A probabilistic assertion presupposes the full reality of its subject.” We are obviously dealing with a new form of reality: a probabilistic assertion, and the Hilbert space itself, cannot accommodate the Kochen-Specker case in which "the something in question" is beyond an unequivocal "is or is not" state (cf. "an unequivocal true-false value" in Isham and Butterfield, p. 3; emphasis added):
Going back to Ernst Specker's tripod, if there are states of the tripod in which one of its legs has UNdecidable color, then not just this particular leg, but the whole tripod will be UNdecidable. It's a package. The phrase "an incomplete Kochen-Specker colouring" (Helena Granström, p. 2) has no meaning whatsoever; it is the result from imposing wrong "glasses" onto the quantum world. And if you subscribe to the modern quantum mysticism -- "the quantum state is not a physical object, it is a representation of our state of knowledge, or belief" (Itamar Pitowsky, p. 28) -- your brain will wind up in a schizophrenic state of, say, 68% "knowledge" of the quantum state, and 32% of "[what da heck is that uncolored KS sphere?]". No mental concepts, such as 'knowledge' or 'imagination', are admissible in the ontology of quantum reality. We must never mix apples with oranges (Res Extensa and Res Cogitans). Karl Svozil refers to this UNdecidable faculty of the quantum world as "ambiguity" (p. 4), and stressed: "This ambiguity gets worse as the number of particles increases." If you think about the quantum world with classical concepts, it will get from bad to worse, until you end up with the (old) cosmological "constant" problem (more on that from Alan Guth). As Erwin Schrödinger might have said in 1935, the same "variable" that has had no definite value before you measured it will continue to keep its UNdecidable nature after you "measure" it as well. And you can't fit it in any Hilbert space, of course (what is the dim(H) for 32% "uncolored" and 68% colored KS sphere?). Let's give it a name: potential reality. In the quantum realm, it (i) offers its context-dependent explications (a.k.a. "observables"), (ii) keeps the sameness (Genidentität, Kurt Lewin) of particles of the same type, which MTW regard as "a central mystery of physics" (p. 1215), and (iii) facilitates the ultimate quantum phenomenon: entanglement. It may be difficult to grasp, but is much simpler to the juggling with the possible implications from Bell's inequality and their loopholes (e.g., Ghim and Zhang). As to quantum gravity (notice the opinion of an expert here), the 'potential reality' is introduced to revive the physical objectivity of spacetime "points", by making the spacetime manifold itself an emergent phenomenon: "The requirement of general covariance takes away from space and time the last remnant of physical objectivity" (A. Einstein, Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie, Annalen der Physik 49 (1916) 769-822). The current formulation of GR can only determine "the mutual relations that exist between the gravitational field and the matter fields (i.e. the value the gravitational field takes where the matter field takes such and such value)", but not "the proper time between spacetime points" (Wiki; more from Butterfield and Isham), and the field equations "cannot even uniquely determine the topology of a manifold" (Alan Macdonald, Einstein's Hole Argument, p. 4). How can we fix these problems? By introducing two connections, geometric (local mode) and torsion (global mode of spacetime). The torsion connection is completely vanished (Hehl and Obukhov) in the local mode, hence its effect are considered "dark" (see Alex Murphy). In the case of a human brain (not mind or consciousness), the UNspeakable potential reality can be explicated with, for example, three (and many more) sayings, which produce "measurements" (if you prefer QM jargon) on it: 1. All are not hunters that blow the horn. None of these "measurements" can "collapse" the potential reality (Platonic idea) explicated with these sayings. And if our brain can work with 'potential reality', so can the universe modeled as a brain. Regarding the brain above your neck: its 'potential reality' is to its human self what EM radiation is to your subjective experience of 'color' -- no direct action of the human self on its brain is allowed in science. Hence it may be conceivable that the potential reality entwined with the human brain could be bridged to that of the quantum vacuum (BCCP). All you may need is an arrow of spacetime. (Notice, however, the 'two rules of success' here.) Forget about "energy conservation in GR". It's an oxymoron (details from Denisov and Logunov). What kind of "time" is implied in the non-linear dynamical cancellation of the two "fluxes" (Merced Montesinos), such that the ether would not "come back"? Can your wristwatch read it? The sole "explanation" of this ultimate puzzle of GR, offered by Chris Isham, was that, "after all, general relativity does seem to work well as a theory, and yet I can certainly read the time on my wrist watch!" But your wristwatch should not be able to read more than one instant from this (global) non-linear "time". Complex problems have simple, easy-to-understand wrong answers (Murphy's Law No. 15). We need quantum gravity, to uncover "the proper time [tau] along spacetime trajectories" (Carlo Rovelli; drawings here) and the genuine 'time variable' associated with the expansion of space due to DDE. Once we achieve this formidable task, we will (hopefully) find out what -- if anything -- might remain unchanged/conserved in this particular (global mode of) time. In the current 'GR without DDE', the dynamics is "entirely generated by constraints. The dynamical data do not explicitly include a time variable" (Karel Kuchar), and one can only hope that "the energy momentum tensor which is the source of gravity" might be conserved "due to the Bianchi identities" (E. Guendelman, p. 9). Such hopes are (i) utterly murky even in the textbook GR, because any observable of the gravitational field is "necessarily quasi-local" (Laszlo Szabados) and (ii) not applicable to the new dynamics of GR due to DDE. For example, Noether's Theorem holds only for flat spacetime, and the Bianchi identities are applicable only for 'GR without DDE'. At this point, I got an emotional response from Eduardo Guendelman, saying that the Bianchi identity is a mathematical theorem, so there is no ambiguity involved here. Well, I'm just a psychologist, so let me quote Matt Visser, p. 3: "... the Einstein equations of general relativity are local equations, relating some aspects (notice the poetry -- D.C.) of the spacetime curvature at a point to the presence of stress-energy at that point. Additionally, one also has local chronology protection, inherited from the fact (Sic! -- D.C.) that the spacetime is locally Minkowski (the Einstein Equivalence Principle), and so “in the small” (that's the sole application of those 'twice-contracted Bianchi identities', cf. George F R Ellis and Henk van Elst, Eq. 2 -- D.C.) general relativity respects all of the causality constraints of special relativity. Which is precisely the missing element needed to address the 'global properties of spacetime' in the presence of DDE. As R. Rakhi and K. Indulekha acknowledged (p. 5): "Because this energy is a property of space itself, it would not be diluted as space expands. As more space comes into existence (the same phrase was used by Sean Carroll -- D.C.), more of this energy-of-space would appear. (...) So the mystery continues." And so does the confusion about it -- click here. The intrinsic dynamics of the phenomenon of 'more space comes into existence' could only be detected in a reference frame from which this phenomenon is excluded, like 'not acting there'. But because DDE acts on the whole 3-D space en bloc, without any irregularities, there is no place in the universe in which we could install a clock and say -- look, this clock does read the (global mode of) time pertaining to the omnipresent phenomenon of 'more space comes into existence'. It is the theory of relativity itself, which cannot "detect" it. Which is why some people call it "dark". Although the mathematical meaning of the phrase "more space comes into existence" is not clear, I don't think Kurt Gödel would have called the ultimate source of spacetime points "dark". Once we move from physics to geometry, it's a whole new world there. Pity Mike Turner called it "dark"; that's so wrong! One cannot insert the "dark" energy of X into its consequence -- accelerated expansion of space. The source X does not belong, and cannot be fitted into the same 3-D space (Cauchy hypersurface) which is being created by X . You can do this only in GR textbooks that deal with 'GR without DDE'. Capiche? Notice also that Matt Visser (see above) considers the metaphysical assumption that the spacetime were "locally Minkowski (the Einstein Equivalence Principle)" to represent a fact. But we only have a mathematical fact that locally , "over" a point, one can indeed eliminate the gravitational "field" by hand (Hermann Weyl). But because nobody has so far explained the resulting quasi-local nature of the gravitational field's observables (see Laszlo Szabados above), nor the origin and the mechanism of inertial reaction "forces", I think we should be very cautious and open-minded in interpreting such mathematical facts and theorems, like the above-mentioned Bianchi identity. If you are looking for a genuine quantum-gravitational measuring device, your wristwatch (as well as the one of Kip Thorne) fits the bill, because it reads an already-linearized (see the explanation of 'already' below) time variable obtained from the "the proper time [tau] along spacetime trajectories" (Carlo Rovelli) and the (global mode of) time associated with the expansion of space due to DDE. This is to me the ultimate puzzle in present-day GR. The sole "explanation" of Chris Isham was that, "after all, general relativity does seem to work well as a theory, and yet I can certainly read the time on my wrist watch!" I will desist to comment on C. Isham's observation, and will instead take the liberty of being (again) deadly boring, by explaining the difference between 'GR without DDE' vs 'GR with DDE'. First, a simple example from STR, with a trajectory of a Frisbee, on the fixed background of Minkowski spacetime: we can calculate the instantaneous state of the Frisbee at each point from the trajectory, and attach to this dimensionless point a well-defined vector. My teenage daughter couldn't understanding how it is possible to attach a vector to a "point", and I explained the puzzle by saying that the information from a finite interval from the history of this infinitesimal "point" is encapsulated in it -- we instruct this interval to shrink asymptotically toward zero -- so the vector is indeed well-defined. All this is possible under the premise of the fixed "grid" in STR. But once we move to 'GR without DDE', the "grid" is gone (Emilio Elizalde): at each and every "point" from the trajectory, the non-linear mutual determination of matter and space (John Wheeler) takes place. But in what time (see Chris Isham's wrist watch above)? There is no background grid or "ether" w.r.t.w. one can define the dynamics of 'GR without DDE'. Yet people don't ask such questions and prefer to just do calculations with the linearized approximation of 'GR without DDE'. As another expert explained to his undergraduates, "one begins by introducing the notion of a tangent vector to describe an infinitesimal displacement about a point p " (Bob Wald, p. 4). But again, in order to recover the true dynamics of 'GR without DDE', you need some "ether" or rather 'reference fluid' w.r.t.w. one can describe the fundamental phenomenon of transience (Abner Shimony): see the so-called Aristotelian Connection here. At this point, the 'GR with DDE' comes to rescue the Hamiltonian formulationof 'GR without DDE': we have a brand new, global degree of freedom of spacetime en bloc, hence can recover the transience of spacetime, as driven by the source of DDE, along the arrow of spacetime -- see above. To identify this same source in the quantum realm (called 'potential reality'), let's go back to the interpretation of QM here. In a nutshell, the so-called PR2 interpretation of QM offers a solution to the non-unitary "collapse" by replacing the alleged "U" and "R" processes with a new (at least to people like Ed Witten, Steven Weinberg and Gerardus 't Hooft) form of reality, known since Plato, called here 'potential reality'. Its quantum presentation is ubiquitous and has zero entropy; hence the familiar notion of time, which pertains to monotonic increase of entropy "in time", is not applicable to 'potential reality'. It may produce "shadows" in terms of 'quantum observables', yet these "shadows" cannot be traced back, to reveal any evidence of such events (or "quantum information") ever having emerged from 'potential reality'. It may act, yet not experience any backaction from its "shadows". Hence it is the ultimate "background" for QM and GR. It evolves along the arrow of spacetime (resembling the "memory" of the universe), by unfolding from 'the ideal monad without windows'. In the local mode of spacetime, every "point" is filled with an already explicated value of its 'potential reality', and as the latter evolves and becomes enriched, the "number" of its localized explications increases accordingly: more and more things come into existence in the universe. As John Wheeler put it, "Time is Nature's way to keep everything from happening all at once". Only with 'potential reality' there is no need nor place for any 'unitary dynamics' in the local mode of spacetime. This is the metaphysics of 'the universe modeled as a brain', viz. the interpretation of 'expansion of space' along the arrow of spacetime. From this perspective, if we follow the deflation time arrow in the local mode of spacetime, things will gradually fade away in a strictly non-unitary fashion, but will only approach asymptotically The Beginning, because it is logically impossible to reach It from/within the local mode of spacetime (cf. the paradox here). The solution is 'dual age cosmology'. The current situation with inflationary cosmology was presented by Alan H. Guth, the winner of the 2009 Isaac Newton medal, on 13 October 2009. He speculated that our galaxy could be an amplified "quantum fluctuation" (Part 2, 3:30 - 6:16),
... and then confessed his "Nightmare of Dark Energy" (Part 2, 11:36), on which the "eureka" of inflationary cosmology is grounded.
Let's go back to QM. Think of a trajectory of a Frisbee: at each "point" from the trajectory (the latter could be a perfect continuum of such "points"), the state of the Frisbee is a perfectly well defined fact, with a 'carpe diem' unit probability. I use this simple idea to introduce a new kind of cancellation mechanism, pertinent to 'potential reality', for removing the non-unitary "R" process (historical account from October 2002 here); hence the motto of this web site, since July 1997: Dead matter makes quantum jumps; the living-and-quantum matter is smarter. Notice that not only the "R" process is being removed (as did Hugh Everett III in his relative state interpretation of QM), but the alleged "U" process and Hilbert space as well. The established theoretical physics community, particularly Niels Bohr, ridiculed Everett's interpretation to the extent to which Hugh Everett left physics (and became millionaire). NB: Notice that if the PR2 interpretation of QM is correct, then all tentative solutions proposed for the measurement problem and the classical limit of QM, based on either probabilistic or "toposification" (Chris Isham), ‘neo-realist’ interpretation of QM (Cecilia Flori, p. 211), will necessarily be wrong. The next step is to elaborate on the continuum of such explicated quantum states (local mode of spacetime), which emerges from the back bone of the whole physical world (global mode). Here we enter quantum gravity, particularly the emergence of time and space from "something else" (Isham and Butterfield): check out the arrow of spacetime here, and think of 'the whole universe' as a huge brain which self-determines its consecutive quantum-gravitational states in line with the Bootstrap Principle of Geoffrey Chew. Also, the alleged quantum "fluctuations" are interpreted as flexibility of 'the quantum state' to offer potential states, one of which to be chosen (one by one) by 'everything else in the universe'. Hence the speculation about some "spacetime foam" and the insoluble problems from it (how do you tell apart spacelike from timelike at Planck scale?) are avoided from the outset. Possible practical implications are outlined here. "You do not know enough theoretical physics to help with any research in that area." To the best of my knowledge, nobody has so far offered some new cancellation mechanism as a joint solution to the measurement problem of QM and the cosmological "constant" problems. Such cancellation mechanism is built in the UNdecidable quantum state (quantum presentation of Platonic ideas) from the outset: instead of dealing with some |alive cat> & |dead cat> from the "U" process, we encounter an UNdecidable 'cat per se', so if we happen to observe an 'alive cat' as a fact, with unit probability, the 'dead cat' will happily live undisturbed in 'the UNdecidable quantum state'. No "collapse" nor dead cat doppelgänger à la Everett are needed.
To understand the origin of this whole mess, read the second sentence from the excerpt below (R.I.G. Hughes, The structure and interpretation of quantum mechanics, p. 77):
All these problems are resolved in the PR2 interpretation of QM from the outset. Moreover, the new cancellation mechanism is introduced to explain the ongoing, as-we-speak mechanism of 'the flatness problem' (asymptotically flat spacetime conjecture), producing an extremely precise balance between the two tug-of-war effects, CDM & DDE, of the geometry of spacetime at cosmological scales. Otherwise we have to inject up to 96% "dark stuff" (with all sorts of "ghosts") into the current theoretical physics, as calculated under the assumption that 'potential reality' doesn't exist. As Evalyn Gates put it (p. 196), the detection of DDE was "like finding an elephant on top of a table impeccably set with the finest china and silver (...). We stare in shock at the uninvited guest and demand to know where the elephant came from -- and how it got into (the) room." Regarding the arrow of spacetime: notice that the Frisbee-like sequence of explicated facts (local mode of spacetime) is inherently background-free, because the background (the reference fluid of GR and the UNdecidable quantum state) is 'not there', being placed ]between[ the "points" of the continuum of the local mode of spacetime. In other words, the "dark gaps" of the global mode are not like the real gaps between the tiles in R. Penrose's bathroom: regardless of how small tiles you choose, if you decrease the size of the tiles in a Fibonacci sequence, you will never ever reach the "gaps" from/within the local mode of spacetime (more on Fibonacci here). This proposal makes the local mode of spacetime a perfect 3-D continuum with dynamical topology of 'asymptotically flat spacetime'. The "dark" gaps of the postulated global mode of spacetime are completely sealed off by the arrow of spacetime -- the mechanism by which the "dark" gaps of the global mode are made nonexistent in the local mode is the same that makes the "speed" of light a fundamental constant (and also hides the mirror tachyonic world). This renders the Schlaefli conjecture (L. Schlaefli, Ann. di Mat. 5 (1873) 170), as well as all "branes" and other multidimensional superstitions in GR and string hypotheses (Lisa Randall; see also A. Vilenkin below) redundant, to say the least. In the context of GR, the global mode of spacetime is located "within" each and every point from spacelike hypersurfaces, as it "lives" exclusively on null hypersurfaces. (Unlike the geometry of spacelike hypersurfaces, the geometry of null hypersurfaces is not metric (D. C. Robinson), which leaves a challenging opportunity to introduce an additional, to the Christoffel connection, global torsion connection.) To be precise, the "duration" of the global mode, recorded with a physical clock (local mode), matches the "duration" of the atemporal "handshaking" transaction in Cramer's interpretation of QM: it has been already completed at each and every instant we "look" at it (see below). Hence in the local mode of spacetime, the dimensionless GW amplitude is zero, nonexistent, zilch. (Another case of reining a dimensionless amplitude, the mythical "quantum computing", is examined here.) Notice also that the hypothetical global mode of spacetime cannot be read by a physical clock (it will "stand still"). It is introduced to replace the "external time parameter" in H.-D. Zeh (p. 13) and the “auxiliary internal time” (cf. Macias and Quevedo, p. 8) by 'the reference fluid of GR'. The latter can "act" upon matter without being affected in turn by matter. In this unphysical "absolute" reference frame, an electromagnetic radiation field can indeed "stand still" (recall that EM radiation field cannot stand still with respect to any physical observer, Bahram Mashhoon, p. 14). The next metaphysical idea is straightforward: 'time' does not originate from 'change in space' but from 'change of space'. Only if you have the latter (global mode), you may introduce the former, as 'time read by a clock' (local mode). Why? Because one cannot insert the "dark" energy of X into its consequence: accelerated expansion of space. The dynamics of 'the change of space' is defined relative to the "omnipresent ether X " (global mode of spacetime). The latter is located "within" each and every point from the local mode of spacetime, and is wrapping the local mode by two (in fact, one) 'numerically finite but physically unattainable Aristotelian boundaries'. All we can physically observe is that the local mode of spacetime is being 'acting upon itself'. Such self-action will of course look "dark" to all local sub-systems (see Alex Murphy). Hence we can bridge QM and GR, and understand the origin of quantum and gravitational "waves": EPR-like correlations (global mode) will inevitably induce wave-like holomovement of physical stuff along the arrow of spacetime. Such wave-generation effects can be found in our brains and in many living organisms. Perhaps it determines the inertial reaction "forces" as well (don't bother to ask Criss Angel, he knows nothing about it). Recall what William Kingdon Clifford claimed in his paper ‘On the Space-Theory of Matter’, presented to the Cambridge Philosophical Society on February 21, 1870 (quoted after Domenico Giulini, p. 2):
Hence the space itself is endowed with dynamics, but then we need some ether w.r.t.w. such 'global dynamics of 3-D space' can be formulated. Then the only possibility -- trust me, there is no other option -- is to place the omnipresent ether, as 'the source of the "dark" energy', in the global mode of spacetime. Otherwise you will have to define the dynamics of space w.r.t. itself, and will look like Baron Munchausen. That's why we need an arrow of spacetime, in my opinion (but notice the opinion of Chris Isham above). NB: If this is the case chosen by Nature, then any approach to quantum gravity, based on the "splitting" of spacetime (Brett Bolen), will necessarily be wrong. Perhaps we may have to develop new mathematical theory of 'potential reality', such that the "state space" of Margenau's Onta (quantum presentation of Platonic ideas) would match the structure of cognitive concepts; notice that in the "cheating on 20 questions" the answer 'cloud' was explicated by a Baeysian learning rule (not the Born rule). For comparison, the categorification of Feynman diagrams requires "black boxes with many wires going in and many wires going out" (Baez and Lauda, p. 16), while in our case all wires are "instantaneously" (global mode of spacetime; see the Escher drawing below) keeping track of all virtual 'black boxes' as well (relational ontology), in order to dynamically adjust to the changing context of the game, until they jointly select the final, explicated 'black box': 'cloud' (see also the four dice here). NB: In the local mode of spacetime, the "duration" of the total negotiation with 'everything else in the universe' (relational ontology) is zero. Hence a wave pattern is being created, without any source of these "waves" being present in the local mode, and a new form of retarded causality (biocausality; see below) can be postulated -- a revitalization of Leibnitz' harmonia praestabilita, Jung's Synchronicity, and Einstein's Überkausalität. We definitely need mathematical theory of 'potential reality'. The task is highly non-trivial, but once we unravel the correct mathematical theory, the astonishing effectiveness of mathematics (Eugene Wigner) may drive us closer to the true quantum gravity of He Who Does Not Play Dice -- the world is not deterministic but flexible, and the 'chooser' of one possibility (one at a time) amongst infinitely many is 'the whole universe' in its state of ONE. All I've been getting so far is either dark silence or insults (some of them really harsh). Perhaps the situation will improve in 2010, after the sixth consecutive failure of LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) to detect GWs with the so-called "enhanced LIGO". GW energy transfer is fundamentally non-linear phenomenon (Hermann Bondi), but is wiped out with the "linearized approximation" adopted by LSC. Also, GW energy is intrinsically quasi-local, in the sense that GWs do not propagate exclusively "in one direction only" (“when the waves are all moving in the same direction”, cf. P.A.M. Dirac, Ch. 33, p. 64), as they also have a holistic global component (atemporal "handshake"), which covers the whole 3-D space en bloc. Is it possible to detect some 'elementary shift' of the expanding metric -- the "intrinsic time interval associated to any timelike displacement", T. Jacobson, pp. 18-19 -- due to the omnipresent and perfectly smooth DDE? In what reference frame? Notice that you're dealing with some "fluid" that "has zero inertial mass! It can be accelerated with no cost, no effort" (B. Schutz, p. 255) and "provides an all-pervading energy density and negative pressure that are the same to all observers, at all places, and at all times in the history of any universe model, even the expanding ones." (p. 257) Similar rhetoric questions apply to the dynamics of the metric, producing inflationary gravitational waves on the 3-D "balloon" hypersurface. It's a bundle.
Forget it. There is no need for "precise calibration" of a dead turkey. The insane efforts of LSC remind me of the old joke about a drunken man, who has lost his key somewhere in the dark, but is searching for it under the street lamp, simply because it is brighter there. Only LSC's "key" costs billions. Which is why I accused LSC members of aggressive professional negligence, and offered them to review my White Paper. They responded with dark silence, as usual.
To explain "already", let me quote from Thomas E. Phipps, Should Mach's Principle be taken seriously? Speculations in Science and Technology, 1(5) 499-508 (1978), p. 504:
From this perspective, detecting GW effects requires "online" access to the global mode of spacetime, in which the dynamical determination of spacelike and timelike directions (hence Lorentzian metric) is being produced -- one-at-a-time, along the arrow of spacetime. In simple words, this means that the proper GW detectors must be endowed with the self-acting faculty of the human brain, to match the "interaction of spacetime with itself" (C. Kiefer, p. 2; cf. also J. G. Pereira et al., arXiv:0909.4408v1 [gr-qc], p. 10, Eq. 7.2). As of today, nobody cares. Nobody. I can take it. I'm psychologist, and don't need quantum gravity to practice PHI. Why would a fish need a bicycle?
[click the image to enter the web site]
Hopefully, if we join our efforts and knowledge (included at the level of our collective unconsciousness, cf. Jungian Kollektives Unbewusstes), some day we may succeed. Meanwhile, please keep in mind the prediction of Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics (1923): "There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom." This web site is my feedback to all people, who are helping me, one way or another, with improving the theory. Feel free to download it (app. 11.8MB) from http://www.god-does-not-play-dice.net/PHI_info.zip By unzipping PHI_info.zip, a new folder, !Einstein_PHI , will be created on your hard drive. Find there START.html.lnk and open it (it is linked to this front page (index.html) in the website folder). If, for some reason, you believe we don't need new approach to quantum gravity, try to understand Sean Carroll's speculations (448 pages, January 2010): "... wavefunctions appear to collapse in one direction of time but not the other is not an explanation for the arrow of time, but in fact a consequence of it. The low-entropy early universe was in something close to a pure state, which enabled countless "branchings" as it evolved into the future." Yet he acknowledged: "we can't, once again, define a conserved total energy in any reasonable way." Consequently, the main speculation of S. Carroll about some "low-entropy early universe" is just as unclear as is its gravitational energy which would evolve "into the future". (Also, there may be a critical low geometric entropy state of the 'extremely early' universe, which may blur the timelike and spacelike directions themselves, and turn them into some primordial quantum dough from which nothing could possibly "decohere", ever.) As one of his senior colleagues summarized, "the magnitude of the entropy of the universe as a function of time is a very interesting problem for cosmology, but to suggest that a law of physics depends on it is sheer nonsense."
"... when treated in a multiverse framework, fundamental time is directionless and consequently physical laws inherit its time-reversal symmetry. Despite that reversal symmetry is broken for the local time by the bubble nucleation, the bubble still inherits laws of physics at birth from the multiverse, without modification. Thus the emergent time’s arrow in the bubble does not affect the time-reversal symmetry imprinted onto the physical laws that the bubble inherits from birth in the multiverse. (...) An emerging time in the multiverse does not appear plausible since the emergence adds information on the multiverse that wasn’t there prior (... but we face the same kind of emergent non-unitary phenomenon with DDE -- an evolving cosmological "constant" that springs from the quantum vacuum - D.C.)." ... and the obstinate belief of Andrei Linde ($164,179 FQXi Grant): Sure enough, Andrei Linde tried to answer the first off question of how many universes are in the "multiverse" (arXiv:0910.1589v2):
That's how 'potential reality' is being camouflaged in present-day GR, simply because if it were possible to detect the source of DDE as 'gauge invariant observable', the omnipresent and perfectly smooth ether (the source of DDE) will be exposed to direct physical observations, as 'spacetime acting upon itself'. Back in April 1986, Yakov Zel'dovich wrote in a letter the following (private communication): "Long time ago, there was a period of time during which there was still no time at all." Of course he was joking. Yet the 'global mode of time', pertaining to potential reality, cannot be read by any physical clock, because the poor inanimate clock will read it as 'stand still' or "no time at all", as Yakov Zel'dovich put it. Maybe The Beginning, which lives in "no time at all", is always with us (dual age cosmology).
In German, it reads: Der Geist bewegt die Materie. Physically, Der Geist may look like 'the ideal monad without windows'. However, no scientific predictions can be made about it, or else we will conflate religion with science. Thank God, this is impossible.
"Leibniz thought the idea of God as an astronomical maintenance man as absurd. He believed that God had carefully chosen among an infinity of possible worlds, the one He felt the most suitable. So that although we may not have a perfect world, it was the ============================
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Note: The failures to detect GWs were "explained" by Jim Hough with a very misleading statement: "we haven't been able to detect them yet because they are very weak". In fact, GWs are immensely powerful phenomena, but nobody -- Jim Hough and Sheila Rowan included -- can offer a non-linear theory of GWs. All they can do is to imagine that, by the time GWs reach LIGO or LISA, they will be "very weak", such that their spherical-cow approximation to Einstein's GR would be correct. But again, they don't have any non-linear theory of strong GWs, from D.C.
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"The first question we have to answer is: What are the base states for the system? Now the question has been put incorrectly. There is no such thing as “the” base states, because, of course, the set of base states you may choose is not unique. New sets can always be made out of linear combinations of the old. There are always many choices for the base states, and among them, any choice is equally legitimate. So the question is not what is the base set, but what could a base set be? We can choose any one we wish for our own convenience. It is usually best to start with a base set which is physically the clearest. It may not be the solution to any problem, or may not have any direct importance, but it will generally make it easier to understand what is going on." There is such thing as “the” base state (never in plural) -- the UNdecidable KS state, as explained below. For example, in the case of two spin-half particles, everything you insert in brakets |1> = |++>, |2> = |+->, |3> = |-+>, |4> = |--> ... are just possible physical manifestations of “the” base state, much like the three sayings above, emanating from their UNspeakable potential-reality state of your brain. Thus, the system {“the” base state & |whatever>} evolves along the arrow of spacetime in a strictly quasi-local fashion: see Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 below. Feynman also stressed [Ref. 1, 12-2]: "That’s the question: How do the amplitudes change with time in a particular (fixed) base?" The amplitudes change along the global mode of time: see again Fig. 2 below. Don't be befuddled by the anti-relativistic "time parameter" in the Schrödinger equation, because you need “the” base state to eliminate the measurement "problem" in QM and reconcile QM with STR, as well as solve the puzzle of quantum vacuum and gravitation: “the” base state does not gravitate. It would be nice if Robert Geroch writes up a sequel to his 30-year old book General Relativity from A to B, entitled "General Relativity from A to A+ds", to elucidate the concept of 'interval' in GR -- professionally. But he wouldn't. Trying to discover new math is a tough challenge. The last time I heard from Robert Geroch was eight years ago, only to require his email to be removed from my web site. I will gladly do that, if only he writes a serious paper on GR, or at least reply professionally. Here are two questions: Do you believe that the "points" from the underlying manifold can be connected only and exclusively only by their physical content that is invariant under "active" diffeomorphisms? If your answer is 'no', what could be “the” base state in GR (a.k.a. the reference fluid of GR), which binds the "points" by one single unique bare UNdecidable matrix? If your answer to the first question is 'yes', you are ready to teach GR and enjoy its generic pathologies [Refs 2 and 3]. It is generally believed that (i) one can picture the spacetime in GR as a manifold that can be "locally modeled" on some fictitious flat Minkowski space, but (ii) this picture should break down at short distances of the order of the Planck length. Neither of these ideas are needed, however. There is no need for any limitation in the possible accuracy of localization of spacetime events either. Why is that? Because the so-called Planck length may possess an inner geometrical structure. Ignore it at your peril. D.C.
"The problem of the definition of the concept of singularity in General Relativity is very difficult indeed, as can be appreciated by reading on its historical development (Hawking and Ellis, 1973; Tipler, Clarke and Ellis, 1980). The intuitive ideas are clear: if any physical or geometrical quantity blows up, this signals a singularity. However, there are problems of two kinds: Id., Notes on Differential Geometry, 1, p. 8:
=================================== Subject: The global existence problem in general relativity, ===================================
Re: Positive-mass conjecture in the case of "more and more space appears" ? Thomas Alva Edison, 1889
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Names? They're all at my web site.
The quest for Finite Infinity has a long history, starting from Gunnar Nordström (Über die Möglichkeit, das elektromagnetische Feld und das Gravitationsfeld zu vereiningen, Phys. Z. 15 (1914) 504-506). It is an age-old problem of General Relativity. Nothing could be more important than understanding the topological manifold of the Universe, and its dynamics. Traditionally, experts in GR start with what I hope to derive at the end of this project: asymptotically flat spacetime with quasi-local positive mass. For example, Rick Schoen would presuppose a "smooth manifold", which has already been equipped with a "Lorentz signature metric", "asymptotic flatness", and "appropriate falloff" conditions, and then ask question like: 'why do we see positive mass only' ? A short answer: because we have an Arrow of Space. The detailed answer requires careful analysis of all initial presumptions in Rick Schoen's talk and in present-day GR textbooks.
A rigorous definition of 'isolated gravitating system', which would ensure an "asymptotic regime such that all gravitational effects are localized inside of it" (Adam Helfer) and proper boundary conditions, is still an unresolved task: there are no physically motivated boundary conditions in the case of the Einstein equations; for example, "we do not know how to build a mirror for gravitational waves" (A. Rendall), nor can we resolve the paradox of geodesic incompleteness and "black holes". Moreover, how can we define an 'isolated gravitating system' and its (obviously) positive mass if the space itself is endowed with a new, dynamical "dark" energy? The calculating machinery of ADM, suggested half a century ago, doesn't work anymore. Enter the Finite Infinity (FI). In a nutshell, the idea of FI is to suggest a mechanism for obtaining a finite volume of Archimedean 3-D space. The very notion of 'finite 3-D space' implies the existence of two distinguishable volumes of 3-D space, separated by a "trapped" surface (cf. lion's cage below), such that we can always define the notions of 'inside vs outside' (hence "large" vs "small") and 'left vs right'. (In order to eliminate the absolute structure of 'size', we will introduce later the so-called Relative Scale Principle, RSP.) Now, how can we introduce some process and mechanism by which 'finite space' can be fixed at all length scales, in such way that 'physical space' will never actually reach zero nor infinity but will always remain 'finite' ? We will use an infinite-dimensional Euclidean space and will introduce smooth sphere-torus conversions in it, along a new axis w , such that these sphere-torus conversions snap and fix all Archimedean volumes of 3-D space from both "below" and "above" (cf. Fig. 5). Hence space becomes both "infinite" (local mode of spacetime) and bounded from S and L (global mode of spacetime). The latter is physically unobservable, because we're stuck in the Archimedean 3-D space and don't have access to 'actual infinity'. Only Chuck Norris has been there (twice). As in a good crime novel, all will become crystal clear at the end. Well, eventually. Some history. The notion of 'finite infinity' (Fi) was suggested by George F R Ellis in 1984; please see:
In order to resolve the conundrum of 'ending something', notice that the nature of the local Archimedean mode of spacetime (cf. below) is determined by 'potential infinity': every step toward the Finite Infinity provides the necessary and sufficient condition for the next step, just as in the Thompson's lamp paradox. If we go in the "direction" toward 'the infinitesimal' (S), one can (with some luck) work out a cutoff and end-point, but it will belong, again and always, to the local ("colored") mode of spacetime (see the story about 'John's jackets' below). If we wish to work out a proper Finite Infinity, the obvious choice is to introduce a new 'cutoff and end-point' conjugated with the infinitesimal, S , and to employ the two forms of 'infinity': potential and actual. The latter is 'already completed', in the sense that (i) it does not entail any "dynamics" that can be recorded with a physical clock, and (ii) applies only to the global non-Archimedean mode of spacetime. We begin with postulating an uncountably infinite "number" of points packed in any finite -- arbitrarily "large" or arbitrarily "small" -- line segment, plane, or volume of space in the local (physical) mode of spacetime, in such way that 'there is nothing ]between[ these points'. Then we will "insert" the global mode of spacetime ]between[ the points from the local mode, and will make sure that the global mode is non-existent in the local mode, with the sole exception of the instant 'now' from the Arrow of Space, in which the two modes of spacetime coincide (cf. Fig. 1 below). Notice the crucial difference between the two modes of spacetime: in the local mode, a test particle equipped with a clock reading its proper time will need a finite Archimedean time interval to pass through a finite Archimedean volume of space, even if the test particle travels with the speed of light. It cannot pass through a finite volume of space for 'zero time', even if the volume of space is 'tending asymptotically toward zero', as in the case of the empty set (R). Thus, it will always need 'more Archimedean time' to pass through all uncountably infinite points from the perfectly smooth continuum of the local (physical) mode of spacetime. This is the essence of 'potential infinity', and it is valid only for the local mode of spacetime. Hence the interpretation of 'the infinitesimal' as the empty set (R): in the local mode of spacetime, it is and will always remain a finite entity, tending asymptotically toward zero, being comprised from uncountably infinite points. In the global mode, however, it is a purely geometrical, dimensionless point -- just one single geometrical point (Fig. 1). NB: This one single geometrical point cannot be reach from/within the local (physical) mode of spacetime, for any finite duration of time, as read with a physical clock. Why? Because its physical content (jacket) is UNdecidable, after the Thompson Lamp paradox. Thus, the empty set (R) is endowed with a structure, as hinted in Fig. 1 below, and with 'space inversion' (Fig. 1.1). It is the flashmob for the two modes of spacetime, at which they "coincide". It is also the instant 'now' (now-at-a-distance) from the Arrow of Space. And thanks to the so-called "speed of light", it has zero duration and zero spatial extension. Compared to the local mode, the global mode of spacetime is ontologically different: it is a non-Archimedean realm of 'potential reality' (GPIs), which can traverse any finite -- arbitrarily "large" or arbitrarily "small" -- line segment, plane, or volume of space from the local (physical) mode of spacetime for zero time, as it would have been read by the clock attached to a test particle from the local mode. Namely, the global mode is equipped with 'actual/completed infinity': it can traverse the uncountably infinite points of any finite object for zero time (as it would have been read by the clock attached to the test particle from the local mode), and endows the local mode with a web of "instantaneous" correlations (as they would have been read by an inanimate clock from the local mode). With the Arrow of Space, such kinematics gives rise to a new dynamics resembling a living organism: a 'school of fish'-type bootstrapping of physical systems in their quantum and gravitational regimes, and quasi-local geodesics, in line with the rule 'think globally act locally' (hence one can introduce a background-free, relational reality and Machian quantum gravity). The question of what kind of 'global time' runs in the global mode of spacetime, equipped with "instantaneous" actual infinity, can be answered by explaining its corresponding 'global space' and the non-Archimedean structure of the purely geometrical GPIs in it. In general, the quest for amending Finite Infinity with an Arrow of Space is highly non-trivial, because we should also consider the following tasks: 1. The two modes of spacetime are separated by the fleeting instant 'now' from the Arrow of Space, namely, the global mode is placed in the realm of 'potential reality' (GPIs residing in the potential future in the Arrow of Space), while the local mode refers to the irreversible world of explicated GPIs in terms of facts, placed in the steadily increasing 'irreversible past' from the Arrow of Space. Such 'ever-increasing past' is what makes an 'arrow', due to irreversible 'information gain': every instant 'now' pertains to an explicated physical universe, which contains more information that its immediate predecessor in the 'ever increasing past', and at the same instant 'now' the physical universe is offered an enriched spectrum of potential states to choose from for its next instant 'now', just as in the cognitive cycle of Ulric Neisser (Fig. 2 and Ch. 2 and 4). Metaphorically speaking, the Arrow of Space is depicted with the Dragon devouring its tail (Ouroboros), from the Chrysopoeia ('Gold Making') of Cleopatra during the Alexandrian Period in Egypt. The enclosed words mean 'The All is One.'
1.1. The only "meeting point" of the two modes of spacetime is the instant 'now', in which they coincide (Fig. 1). The result is an already completed and already negotiated physical universe, spanned across the absolute instant 'now' from the Arrow of Space, with 3-D space and zero "thickness" along w (cf. below), in which “there’s energy in the gravitational field, but it’s negative, so it exactly cancels the energy you think is being gained in the matter fields” (Sean Carroll); check out the Photoshop layers metaphor below and the resulting non-linear dynamics here. 2. The unique "boundaries" on 3-D space in all (timelike, null, and spacelike) directions, introduced with Finite Infinity, should make the universe an 'isolated system', which (i) contains 'absolutely everything', included its Aristotelian First Cause, (ii) is self-enclosed (Albert Einstein), and (iii) is "bounded" by some ambient unphysical spacetime (called here 'global mode of spacetime') which is part and parcel from the same 'isolated system'. 2.1. To describe such 'universe as ONE' -- self-wrapped (cf. (iii) above) and endowed with the faculty of 'self-acting' due to its "gravitational field" -- one needs to place its source "inside" the instant 'now' from the Arrow of Space (Fig. 1), and make sure that the so-called "dark" energy of 'the universe as ONE' is unobservable in principle. 3. Last but not least, the ultimate source of 'the universe as ONE' should be interpreted as 'zero nothing', that is, a special kind of "zero" opposite to the mundane case of 'zero something'. Perhaps the only way we could grasp the notion of 'zero nothing' or 'the true monad without windows' is by recalling the relation between the content and volume of concepts: the larger the volume, the smaller the content; hence the source of 'absolutely everything, the unknown unknown included' should possess zero intrinsic content (cf. the undefinable matrix). I haven't been able to find suitable mathematical formalism to describe these widely known ideas. All I can offer is a simple (but incomplete) geometrical explanation of Finite Infinity. Firstly, there should exist a maximal volume of 3-D space (L), at which we place the Finite Infinity (FI), such that any finite volume of space, no matter how large, is identified as an Archimedean sub-volume smaller than the 'maximal space volume', L . Likewise, there should exist a minimal volume of 3-D space (S), at which we place the same Finite Infinity (FI), such that any finite volume of space, no matter how small, is identified as an Archimedean volume larger than 'the minimal space volume', S . Secondly, the two physical, finite, Archimedean volumes of space tend asymptotically toward L and S in the local (physical) mode of spacetime, but cannot reach them for any finite Archimedean duration of time due to the "structure" of the empty set (R) at which the global mode and the local mode coincide (Fig. 1). The 'no-go' axiom about the empty set (R) ("cannot reach them for any Archimedean duration of time") stems from our belief (not 'fact') that there exist, in the local mode of spacetime, an 'uncountably infinite' "number" of points between any finite Archimedean volumes of space and their "two" cutoffs, L and S : the empty set (R) cannot be bridged by any finite Archimedean system for any finite duration of time, even if it jumps over the points with the "speed of light". That is, in the local mode of spacetime the empty set (R) is 'finite' entity, and will always occupy a finite, albeit "very small", volume of space packed with 'uncountably infinite' points arranged by 'potential infinity'. On the other hand, the same empty set (R) is consumed/traversed instantaneously in the global mode of spacetime, which has non-Archimedean nature and is endowed with 'actual/completed' infinity. Thus, we shall place the "two" cutoffs, L and S , within the red point in Fig. 1 below, stressing again its UNdecidable nature (Thompson Lamp paradox) of 'potential reality': pre-quantum non-colorizable General Platonic Ideas (GPIs). FI Postulate: Due to the Thompson Lamp paradox, any finite, arbitrarily "large" or "small", Archimedean volume cannot physically reach L and S residing in the global mode of spacetime, equipped with actual infinity. A precise explanation of 'physically reach': in the local (physical) mode of spacetime, we always reach/nullify the empty set (R) at the point of '2 min', which is why the state of Thompson's lamp is always defined by the rules of 'bartenders', but it is just a fleeting "jacket" cast by John from the global mode of spacetime. The latter is endowed with actual infinity. In other words, in the global mode of spacetime the interval [0, 2] is closed, while in the local mode the same interval is open -- (0, 2). Thanks to the Arrow of Space, the 'large finite volume' will chase L in the local mode indefinitely; in the local mode of spacetime the empty set (R) can only tend asymptotically toward zero. The same holds for the opposite case of the separation of any arbitrarily small Archimedean volume of space from S by the same empty set (R): in the local mode, it would require an infinite -- actual infinity -- amount of time for the elimination of the empty set (R) and reducing it to zero, at which point the Arrow of Space would stop, and the universe would cease to exist. Notice that the FI Postulate introduces new structure of spacetime at the level of 'differentiable manifold' prior to any matter; example here. The very notion of 'space' requires that all physical objects acquire finite Archimedean size; a table with length 'one meter' fills in a template for 'one meter'. In the case of an one-meter template, we observe a finite table with length one meter, which is again a 'sub-volume of finite space'. The purpose of Finite Infinity (FI) is to define the largest template and the smallest template for all finite volumes of 3-D space.
Thanks to the empty set (R), no physical, Archimedean stuff can 'physically reach' L and hence go "beyond" L , and also no physical stuff can 'physically reach' S and hence go "below" S (compared it to the conformal recipe): L & S is ONE object which belongs to the non-Archimedean global mode of spacetime. In a nutshell, the modified Finite Infinity satisfied two conditions: in the local mode of spacetime the universe approaches asymptotically its causal boundary (cf. Eq. 1 above) within an open interval, while at the same time the universe is being (present continuous) permanently wrapped by itself in the global mode of spacetime. Hence 3-D space can be literally wrapped by itself, exactly as Albert Einstein required. Again, there is no path whatsoever to the global mode of spacetime from the local mode of spacetime; hence the FI Postulate above. The difference between S and L is that in the case of the former we can find some 'numerically finite but physically unattainable boundary/cut off' (the Planck length), but for L we have only an eternally expanding 'sub-volume of finite space', which can only chase L but can never physically reach it: L and S belong to the non-Archimedean global mode of spacetime. It is the Arrow of Space which creates such asymmetry in the treatment of L and S . We have a numerically finite but physically unattainable "bottom", while space "expands" in the local mode toward L indefinitely: at each and every instant 'now' from the Arrow of Space, the universe occupies a finite sub-volume, being literally wrapped from both "below" and "above" with Eq. 1 above. Depending on the direction we look at the edge of the universe in the local mode of spacetime, either toward L or toward S , we see "two" edges, while in the global mode they are ONE -- the universe as ONE, as stressed by Lucretius some 2060 years ago. We don't have such structure of spacetime in differential geometry textbooks. Notice that we face here a kind of 'logical infinity': no physical, Archimedean volume of space can reach L , because L & S belong to the 'the universe as ONE' (Eq. 1 above). In other words, one could logically reach something only if this "something" is 'not yet reached', while in our case it is logically impossible to "reach" something (L) which is being eternally residing "inside" us (S) from the outset. Thus, the notion of 'logical infinity' refers to the statement that if the Arrow of Space is terminated, the universe will cease to exist and will return to its initial state of pure light and cognition, known as [John 1:1]. Without the global mode of spacetime, the universe would be governed exclusively by Archimedean geometry, conformal recipes would have worked, tessellation of space with 3-D "tiles" would have been possible, and we would calculate the exact finite number of "atoms" filling a finite volume of space without any gaps from the empty set (R): we would hit an "end-point" beyond which "is nothing, and then more nothing" (S. Leacock). Thank God, this is impossible. Now, let me try to explain geometrically the empty set (R), which would |