Buzz about a quantum gravity theory that sends space and time back to their Newtonian roots I read that autumn begins this year September 23. I am forced to make a break in my post until at least this day. Here is the reason:
I am interested in understanding the phenomenon of light propagation. I am not completely sure what light is, but it is somehow related to electromagnetism, quantum theory and the concept of a photon. At least so they say. So I read what is known about the subject. Actually I am studying the monograph "Geometry of Quantum Theory" by V.S. Varadarajan, 2nd edition Springer 2007.
The last chapter there:
Here is content of this chapter:
CHAPTER IX
Relativisitic Free Particles 322
1. Relativistic Invarince 322
2. The Lorentz Group 330
3. The Representations of the Inhomogeneous Lorentz Group 343
4. Clifford Algebras 348
5. Representations in Vector Bundles and Wave Equations 356
6. Invariance Under the Inversions 372
7. Localization 377
8. Galilean Relativity 391
Notes on Chapter IX 399
Photons are discussed on p. 371. The last paragraph of this chapter, p. 371, reads as follows
" For all of us seeking to find the true nature of photons, this invites us to look ever deeper into the mysteries of light. In 1917, Albert Einstein said, “For the rest of my life, I will reflect on what light is.” Likewise, light continues to motivate us to take on new challenges."Mr. Takhashi - The mysterious behavior of individual photons
P.S.6 27-09-23 09:11 Prompted by the discussion with Bjab in the comment section below, this morning I ordered the book
The cover tells us:
"This book shines bright light into the dim recesses of quantum theory, where the mysteries of entanglement, nonlocality, and wave collapse have motivated some to conjure up multiple universes, and others to adopt a "shut up and calculate" mentality. After an extensive and accessible introduction to quantum mechanics and its history, the author turns attention to his transactional model. Using a quantum handshake between normal and time-reversed waves, this model provides a clear visual picture explaining the baffling experimental results that flow daily from the quantum physics laboratories of the world. To demonstrate its powerful simplicity, the transactional model is applied to a collection of counter-intuitive experiments and conceptual problems."
Should come the first week of October. Will be waiting impatiently.
P.S.7. 9:40 Which reminded me of the books by Eric Berne on Transactional Analysis that I have avidly studied in my youth. Dealing with longitudinal photons now.
P.S.8. 11:50
P.S.9 12:13 Have calculated the longitudinal photon boost cocycle. It came out unbelievingly simple! It is just the redshift ratio E'/E where E' is the energy of the photon emitted by the moving source. The cocycle property translates simply into""I'm a time traveler," said George. "I came from the future, or perhaps I should say one possible future."
- Jantzen, "Spacetime splitting techniques and gravitoelectromagnetism in general relativity"
- Horawa, "Topological Quantum Gravity of the Ricci Flow"
- Hoprava, "Lifshitz Gravity for Lifshitz Holography"
- Scientific American 2009: "Splitting Time from Space—New Quantum Theory Topples Einstein's Spacetime - Buzz about a quantum gravity theory that sends space and time back to their Newtonian roots" (except: change Hoava into Horava)
- Horava, "The Geometry of Time in Topological Quantum Gravity of the Ricci Flow"
- Horava, "Surprises with Nonrelativistic Naturalness"
- Blas, "Models of non-relativistic quantum gravity: the good, the bad and the healthy"
- Jacobson, "Extended Horava gravity and Einstein-aether theory"
- Landsman - "The 3+1 split of space-time", Chapter 8 from: Landsman - Foundations of General Relativity_ From Einstein to Black Holes-Radboud University Press (2021). in particular: 8.11 Epilogue: The problem of time. P. 217:
"This Pre-Socratic opposition between “becoming” and “being”, or “change” and “existence”, continued with Aristotle. This had disastrous consequences for mathematical physics. In his Metaphysics, Aristotle organized knowledge into something like a 2×2 matrix, where the axes are “changing/permanent” and “dependent/independent”(that is, of man). He put physics in the change & independent entry, whereas mathematics was supposed to be permanent & independent (the latter against Plato). See e.g. Gaukroger (2020). This classification held back the interaction between physics and mathematics for 2000 years, until initially Kepler and Galilei and subsequently Huygens and especially Newton recombined them and thus provided the basis for modern science.
These implication were all proposed by McTaggart (1908, 1927). See also Dainton (2010). The only implication that really counts for our technical discussion is “time ⇒ B-series”, or rather its contrapositive “no B-series ⇒ no time”, but the chain in (*) is convenient in order to frame the overall problem of time. The first implication goes back at least to Aristotle (Physics, Book IV, chapter 11), see Shoemaker (1969) for a nice philosophical analysis. It would be denied by Newton (Rynasiewicz, 2014), but GR can deny it, too, as it admits static solutions (see §8.4).
The point, however, is that according to the arguments reviewed and critiqued below GR admits no flow of time whether or not time requires change. Similarly, the second implication needs to be argued for, as McTaggart does at some length, but his target is the A-series, whose alleged incoherence allows him to disprove the existence of time.
Instead, the argument in our main text concerns the B-series. It is remarkable that of the two great twentieth-century philosophical treatises about existence and time, both of which are hard-core specimens of “armchair” philosophy based on pure speculation, McTaggart (1921, 1927) has been very influential on discussions that are informed by modern science, whereas Heidegger (1927) has, rightly, been completely sidelined in the philosophy of science.
This is the version of the problem addressed in Callender (2017), whose opening sentences deserve to be quoted: ‘Time is a big invisible thing that will kill you. For that reason alone, one might be curious about what it is.’"
"What did this enzyme do? She considered this, and the answer became startlingly clear. In normal cells each strand of DNA had a special noncoding segment on each end, like the plastic tips of a shoestring. She could see that each time a cell divided this special end segment became shorter. And finally, when the segment length went to zero, the cell could not divide again, the natural cell renewal processes stopped, and the body began to age. The new enzyme systematically restored the end segments to human DNA. It did not require cells to divide, but it allowed them to when the body's repair mechanisms made the request. "Wow!' said Alice aloud. "It's the Fountain of Youth!"John G. Cramer, "Einstein's Bridge"
P.S.18 15:45
""You mean that we can go back to a time when Alice is still alive?" George asked. He looked a bit wild-eyed, Roger thought.
"Yes," Iris replied, "of course."
"Wait a moment," said Roger. "Are you talking about moving back to some alternate-branch Everett-Wheeler universe?"
Iris laughed. "Since we established contact with your culture, many Individuals of our world, particularly our science meta-historian specialists, have derived great amusement from your quantum mythology, that area which you call the 'interpretation of quantum mechanics.' They were particularly amused by your Copenhagen interpretation, with its state vectors that are altered by the thoughts of intelligent observers, and by your Everett- Wheeler interpretation, with its splitting and resplitting into multiple universes. In this regard, your culture is unique among those that we have encountered. No other has provided such a remarkable demonstration of fertile creative desperation in seeking to understand physical behavior at the quantum level. We find these myths of yours quaint and charming."
"In other words, 'wrong'?" asked Roger.
Iris looked troubled. "No more wrong, say, than your Greek or Norse myths. Your excursions of scientific fantasy are an interesting manifestation of your culture, but they are not an accurate portrayal of the behavior of the universe. Human observers, for example, are not demigods with the ability to collapse a wave function with an act of measurement or of insight. It is better that they are not, believe me." "
John G. Cramer, "Einstein's Bridge"
