Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Study of photosynthesis reveals new physics




The experimental study of photosynthesis is beginning to reveal new physics. Already now it has become clear that quantum effects in much longer scales as believed in orthodoxy are involved. The latest revelation is decribed in a Science News article. The title is Unusual Quantum Effect Discovered in Earliest Stages of Photosynthesis. When photon excites the cell, it excites one electron inside chromophore. The surprising finding was that single photon actually excites several chromophores simultaneously!

What does this statement mean? One could think photon as a finite sized object (in TGD Universe space-time sheet that I have used to call "massless extremal") with size scale of wavelength which for visible photons is of order cell size. The photon would excite a superposition of states in which one of the chromophores is excited. The system formed by chromophores behaves as quantum coherent system. If quantum coherence is not present, one can say that photon excites just single chromophore at time.

Quantum coherence makes possible amplification for the rate of process. In incoherent situation the rate would be proportional to the number N of chromophores. In coherent situation it would in the optimal case be proportional to N2 (constructive interference). Note that one could imagine also second option in which photon literally excites several electrons belonging to different chromophores separately but this does not make sense to me.

This kind of simultaneous excitation would make sense in TGD framework if photo space-time sheet has size of order wave length, which is indeed of the order of cell size. If photon is dark then its size is scaled by the ratio hbar/hbar0 so that even chromophores in several cells could be excited simultaneously!

For TGD based model of photosynthesis see the chapter Macroscopic quantum coherences and quantum metabolism as different sides of the same coin: part I of "TGD Universe as a Conscious Hologram".

Monday, May 28, 2012

Gamma ray diffraction from silicon prism?

Orwin O'Dowd sent a very interesting link to a popular article telling about refraction of gamma rays from silicon prisms. This should not be possible and since I love anomalies I got interested. Below I discuss the discovery from the point of standard physics and TGD point of view.

Basic ideas about refraction


Absorption, reflection, and refraction are basic phenomena of geometric optics describing the propagation of light in terms of light rays and neglecting interference and diffraction making it possible for light to "go around the corner". The properties of medium are described in terms of refraction index n which in general is a complex quantity. The real part of n gives the phase velocity of light in medium using vacuum velocity c as unit, which - contrary to a rather common misconception - can be also larger than c as a phase velocity which cannot be assigned to energy transfer. The imaginary part characterizes absorption. n depends in general on frequency of the incoming light and the resonant interactions of light with the atoms of medium make themselves manifest in the frequency dependence of n - in particular in absorption described by the imaginary part of n.


What happens at the boundary of two media - reflection or refraction - is characterized the the refraction index boundary conditions for radiation fields at the boundary, which are essentially Maxwell's equations at the discontinuity. Snell's law tells what happens to the direction of the beam and states essentially that only the momentum component of incoming photon normal to the boundary changes in these processes since only the translational symmetry in normal direction is changed.

How refractive index is determined?


What determines the index of refraction? To build a microscopic theory for n one must model what happens for the incoming beam of light in medium. One must model the scattering of light from the atoms of the medium.


In the case of condensed matter X ray diffraction is excellent example about this kind of theory. In this case the lattice structure of the condensed matter system makes the situation simple. For infinitely large medium and for an infinitely wide incoming beam the scattering amplitude is just the Fourier transform of the density of atoms for the change of f the wave vector (or equivalently momentum) of photon, which must be a vector in the resiprocal lattice of the crystal lattice. Therefore the beam is split into beams in precisely defined directions. The diffracted beam has a sharp maximum in forward direction and the amplitude in this direction is essentially the number of atoms.


In less regular situation such as for water or bio-matter for which regular lattice structure typically exists only locally the peaking to forward direction, is even more pronounced, and in the first approximation the beam travels in the direction that it has after entering to the system and only the phase velocity is changed and attenuation takes place. Diffraction patterns are however present also now and allow to deduce information about the structure of medium in short length scales. For instance, Delbrueck diffraction from biological matter allowed to deduce structural information about DNA and deduce its structure.


This description contains an important implicit assumption. The width and length of the incoming photon beam must be so large that the number of atoms inside it is large enough. If this condition is not satisfied, the large scale interference effects crucial for diffraction do not take place. For very narrow beams the situation approaches to a scattering from single atom and one expects that the beam is gradually widened but that it does not make sense to speak about refraction index and that the application of Snell's law does not make sense. Incoming photons see individual atoms rather than the lattice of atoms. For this reason the prevailing wisdom has been that it does not make sense to speak about bending of gamma rays from solid state. A gamma ray photon with energy of one MeV corresponds to a wavelength λ of about 10-12 meters which is of same order as electron Compton length. One expects that the width and length of gamma ray beam is measured using λ as a natural unit. Even width of 100 wavelengths corresponds to 1 Angstrom which corresponds to the size scale of single atom.

Surprise


The real surprise was that gamma rays bend in prisms made from silicon! The discovery was made by a group of scientists working in Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. The group was led by Dietrich Habs. The article about the discovery is also published in Phys Rev Lett May 3 issue. The gamma ray energies where in the range .18-2 MeV. The bending known as refraction was very small using every day standards. The value of the refractive index which gives the ratio c/v for light velocity c to the light velocity v in silicon is 1+10-9 as one learns from another popular article. When compared to the predictions of the existing theory, the bending was however anomalously large. By the previous argument it should not be even possible to talk about bending.


Dietrich Habs suggests that so called Delbrueck scattering of gamma rays from virtual electron positron pairs created in the electric fields of atoms could explain the result (see this). This scattering would be diffraction (scattering almost totally in forward direction as for light coming through a hole). This cannot however give rise to an effective scattering from a many-atom system unless the gamma ray beam is effectively or in real sense scaled up. The scattering would be still from single atom or even part of single atom. One could of course imagine that atoms themselves have hidden structure analogous to lattice structure but why virtual electron pairs could give rise to it?


In the following I discuss two TGD inspired proposals for how the diffraction that should not occur could occur after all?

Could gamma rays scatter from quarks?


There is another strange anomaly that I discussed for a couple of years ago christened as the incredibly shrinking proton. It was found that protons charge distribution deviates slightly from the expected one. The TGD inspired explanation was based on the observation that quarks in proton are rather light having masses of 5 and 20 MeV. These correspond to gamma ray energies. Therefore the Compton wave lengths of quarks are also rather long, much longer than the Compton length of proton itself! Parts would be larger than the whole! The explanation for this quantum mystical fact would be that the Compton length corresponds to length scale assignable to color magnetic body of quark. Could it be that the scattering gamma rays see the magnetic bodies of 3× 14 = 42 valence quarks of 14 nucleons of Si nucleus. The regular structure of atomic nucleus as composite of quark magnetic would induce the diffractive pattern. If so, we could do some day nuclear physics and perhaps even study the structure of proton by studying diffraction patterns of gamma rays on nuclei!

Could part of gamma beam transform to large hbar gamma rays?


Also the hierarchy of Planck constants comes in mind. Scaling of hbar for a fixed photon energy scales up the wavelength of gamma ray. Could some fraction of incoming gamma rays suffer a phase transition increasing their Planck constant? The scaling of Planck constant make gamma rays to behave like photons with scaled up wavelength. Also the width of the beam would be zoomed up. As a result the incoming gamma ray beam would see a group of atoms instead of single atom and for a large enough value of Planck constant one could speak of diffraction giving rise to refraction.


For years ago I considered half jokingly the possibility that hierarchy of Planck constants could imply quantum effects in much longer scales than usually (see this). Diffraction would be a typical quantum effect involving interference. Perhaps even the spots seen sometimes in ordinary camera lense could be analogous to diffractive spots generated by diffraction of large hbar visible photons through a hole (they should usually appear in the scale of visible wavelength about few microns, see this). Take this as a joke!


I also proposed that strong classical em fields provide the environment inducing increase of Planck constant at some space-time sheets. The proposal was that Mother Nature is theoretician friendly (see this). As perturbation expansion in powers of 1/hbar fails, Mama Nature scales up hbar to make the life of her theorizing children easier;-). Strong electric and magnetic fields of atomic nuclei believed by Habs to be behind the diffraction might provide the manner to generate large Planck constant phases and dark matter.


Does thermodynamics have a representation at the level of space-time geometry?



R. Kiehn has proposed what he calls Topological Thermodynamics (TTD) as a new formulation of thermodynamics. The basic vision is that thermodynamical equations could be translated to differential geometric statements using the notions of differential forms and Pfaffian system. That TTD differs from TGD by a single letter is not enough to ask whether some relationship between them might exist. Quantum TGD can however in a well-defined sense be regarded as a square root of thermodynamics in zero energy ontology (ZEO) and this leads leads to ask seriously whether TTD might help to understand TGD at deeper level. The thermodynamical interpretation of space-time dynamics would obviously generalize black hole thermodynamics to TGD framework and already earlier some concrete proposals have been made in this direction.


One can raise several questions. Could the preferred extremals of Kähler action code for the square root of thermodynamics? Could induced Kähler gauge potential and Kähler form (essentially Maxwell field) have formal thermodynamic interpretation? The vacuum degeneracy of Kähler action implies 4-D spin glass degeneracy and strongly suggests the failure of strict determinism for the dynamics of Kähler action for non-vacuum extremals too. Could thermodynamical irreversibility and preferred arrow of time allow to characterize the notion of preferred extremal more sharply?


It indeed turns out that one can translate Kiehn's notions to TGD framework rather straightforwardly.

  1. Kiehn's work 1- form corresponds to induced Kähler gauge potential implying that the vanishing of instanton density for Kähler form becomes a criterion of reversibility and irreversibility is localized on the (4-D) "lines" of generalized Feyman diagrams, which correspond to space-like signature of the induced metric. The localization of heat production to generalized Feynman diagrams conforms nicely with the kinetic equations of thermodynamics based on reaction rates deduced from quantum mechanics. It also conforms with Kiehn's vision that dissipation involves topology change.

  2. Heat produced in a given generalized Feynman diagram is just the integral of instanton density and the condition that the arrow of geometric time has definite sign classically fixes the sign of produced heat to be positive. In this picture the preferred extremals of Kähler action would allow a trinity of interpretations as non-linear Maxwellian dynamics, thermodynamics, and integrable hydrodynamics.

  3. The 4-D spin glass degeneracy of TGD breaking of ergodicity suggests that the notion of global thermal equilibrium is too naive. The hierarchies of Planck constants and of p-adic length scales suggests a hierarchical structure based on CDs withing CDs at imbedding space level and space-time sheets topologically condensed at larger space-time sheets at space-time level. The arrow of geometric time for quantum states could vary for sub-CDs and would have thermodynamical space-time correlates realized in terms of distributions of arrows of geometric time for sub-CDs, sub-sub-CDs, etc...
The hydrodynamical character of classical field equations of TGD means that field equations reduce to local conservation laws for isometry currents and Kähler gauge current. This requires the extension of Kiehn's formalism to include besides forms and exterior derivative also induced metric, index raising operation transforming 1-forms to vector fields, duality operation transforming k-forms to n-k-forms, and divergence which vanishes for conserved currents.

For background see the chapter Basic Extermals of Kähler action of "Physics in Many-Sheeted Space-time" or the article Does thermodynamics have a representation at the level of space-time geometry?.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Negentropic entanglement, metabolism, and acupuncture



It is interesting to try to develop a detailed model of acupuncture in TGD framework (motivation came from the comment of Ulla to earlier posting). Consider following assumptions.

  1. ATP (metabolic energy) - negentropic entanglement connection is true and formation of high energy phosphate bond generates somehow negentropic entanglement.

  2. Pain means loss of negentropic entanglement and healing at the fundamental level - in particular pain relief - involves regeneration of negentropic entanglement.

  3. Fundamental metabolic energy currencies correspond to zero point kinetic energies E0≈ π2 /2mL2 at space-time sheets labelled by p-adic primes determining their size scale L=(hbar/hbar0)Lp. Therefore the generation of metabolic energy storages means at fundamental level driving charged particles to smaller space-time sheets (the smaller the space-time sheet, the higher the zero point kinetic energy). The driving force is basically electric force so that electric fields are needed.

  4. Metabolic energy storage - generation of ATP - means generation of negentropic entanglement. Assume that this entanglement is assignable to the smaller space-time sheet.

    1. The simplest possibility is that the electrons at this space-time sheet form Cooper pairs and negentropic entanglement is between them. The decay of Cooper pairs would make ATP unstable and the decay to ADP would mean use of metabolic energy quantum and also a loss of negentropic entanglement. This conforms with the generalized form of the second law allowing generation of genuine negentropy but predicting that it does not last for ever. The lifetime of ATP - about 40 minutes - gives an estimate for the life time of the electronic Cooper pairs. The negative charge of ATP would be due to the electronic Cooper pairs.

    2. A simple estimate for the order of magnitude of Kähler magnetic energy of the flux tube assuming far from vacuum extremal and quantization of the Kähler magnetic flux (BKS= n× hbar for constant magnetic field in a flux tube of cross section S) shows that the Kähler magnetic energy is much higher than zero point kinetic energy of electron pair. Especially so for large values of hbar since magnetic energy behaves as EB∝ hbar3L0/S by the proportionalities B∝ hbar B0 and L= hbar L0. In this case the magnetic flux tube should be pre-existing and correspond to acupuncture meridian emerging from the node.

    3. For near vacuum extremals the flux tube could be generated in the process. The use of the metabolic energy would mean dropping of electrons to larger space-time sheet and possibly even the disappearence of the magnetic flux tube in this case. This option does not look too plausible however.
  5. The generation of metabolic energy storages (ATP) requires energy feed. In the formation of ATP from ADP
    the acceleration of protons and electrons in the electric of cell membrane plays a key role. The electric energy gained in the process is transformed to metabolic energy and could means the formation of a flux tube carrying the Cooper pair. Assume that a similar process occurs also in much longer length scales for weaker electric fields scaling like 1/hbar2 for given p-adic prime (and 1/Lp2 as function of p-adic length scale) so that electric potential between the ends of the flux tube remains the same. Assume that quantum direct currents are in question. If so, the function of the direct currents of Becker can be identified as a manner to generate metabolic energy and negentropic entanglement. This is natural since healing is involved.

Armed with these assumptions one can try to understand why metal needles are essential for acupuncture.

  1. The basic idea is that the presence of the needle makes possible the generation of direct quantal currents accelerating electrons in electric field which is sum of pre-existing field and the field possibly generated by
    the needle. After gaining some minimum energy electrons can jump to a smaller space-time sheet and give rise to negentropically entangled Cooper pairs.

  2. The needle could serve as a mere donor of electrons giving rise to a quantal direct current in turn leading to the generation of metabolic energy and negentropic entanglement.

  3. Second possibility is that the needle also generates a strong additional contribution to the existing electric field.

    1. Basic wisdom from from electrodynamics is that any sharp conducting charged object - such as metal needle- tends to create a strong electric field around the tip. This is the reason for why one should not go below a tree during thunder storm. Suppose that acupuncture needle becomes charged when touching the skin. One could test this assumption by replacing acupuncture needles with non-conducting material to see whether the healing effect is lost. One could also test whether the metal need is in non-vanishing potential with respect to Earth or measure directly the electric field in the vicinity of the needle tip.


    2. If the needle generates negative charge, an opposite charge must be generated somewhere else and electric field lines connecting the needle and its end to it. These field lines could be along magnetic flux tubes carrying also longitudinal electric field. The natural assumption is that the flux tubes correspond to meridians emanating from the acupuncture node to which needle is sticked to. Another possibility is that needle remains neutral as total but develops a density of surface charge via polarization in existing electric field. Also in this case an additional electric field is generated and should be analogous to that of a a thin electric dipole in external electric field.


    3. Under these assumptions quantum currents can flow along the meridians and load the metabolic batteries provided the strength of the generated field is high enough. The situation could resemble quite closely to that for the generation of nerve pulse. There would be pre-existing electric field along flux tuve not too far from critical for the generation of quantal direct current. The field generated by the needle would induce depolarization so that quantal direct current of some minimal strength could flow between the ends of the flux tube with acceleration giving providing electrons with energy making possible transfer to the smaller space-time sheet.

Nanna Goldman et al have provided empirical evidence for the expectation that the healing effect of the acupuncture involves metabolism (see the popular article in Sciencedaily).

The group has found that adenosine is essential for the pain killing effects of acupuncture. For mice with a normal adenosine level acupuncture reduced dis-comfort by two-thirds. In special "adenosine receptor knock-out mice"
acupuncture had no effect. When adenosine was turned on in the tissues, the discomfort was reduced even in the absence of acupuncture. During and after an acupuncture treatment, the level of adenosin in tissues near the needles was 24 times higher than before the treatment. In the abstract of the article it is stated that it is known for long time that acupuncture generates signals which induce brain to generate natural pain killing endorphins but that also adenosine acts as a natural pain killer.

Adenosine is the basic building block of AXP, X=M,D,T (adenosin-X-phosphate, X=mono,di,tri). Therefore the findings suggest that the electric fields generated or amplified by the presence of acupuncture needles loads metabolic batteries by generating ATP. Adenosine could be partially generated as decay products of AXPs. Tissue itself could
increase adenosine concentration to make possible its transformation to AXP utilizing electric field energy. From the popular article one cannot conclude whether the authors propose a connection with metabolism. The results are consistent with the assumption that the AXPs generated from adenosin accompany negentropic entanglement. This can occur in the scale of entire body and meridians could also make possible direct signalling with brain.

The contents of this posting can be found also at my homepage as an article with title Quantum Model for the Direct Currents of Becker.


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Emotional about dark matter


Dark matter has become a subject of heated debates. There is very heavy tendecy to believe on existence of dark matter in the standard sense, that is dark matter appearing as a spherical halos around galaxies. This belief is now challeged by experimental facts.

  1. Indications for new particles such as that found by Fermi is automatically interpreted as indications for dark matter. This is strange and based only on the belief that the main stream view is correct. The signals could be real but need not have anything to do with galactic dark matter halo.

    Here the situation resembles that for Higgs. Despite the fact that the decay signatures of the bump differ from those for standard model Higgs, Nobel prizes have been already shared by some bloggers for the discovery of Higgs.


  2. Dark matter is automatically identified as spherical halo of galactic dark matter. There are actually three quite recent observations challenging the existence of this halo. One of the observations led to the claim that the environment of solar system does not contain dark matter as part of galactic halo as it should do. As Resonaances tells, this claim was challenged by another group arguing that a change of the model for velocity distributions of stars allows to get the dark matter there. Non-specialist cannot say anything about this. But again Lubos made without hesitation the conclusion, which fits with his beliefs and wishes: the problem is settled, dark matter halo is there.


  3. This tendency to draw very rapid conclusions looks strange in the light of the fact that there are two other observations challenging the dark matter halo (see this and also the earlier posting). About these findings neither Resonances, Lubos, nor Sean Carroll say nothing.

    Sean also wonders why people get so emotional about dark matter. My guess is that possible end for funding makes anyone emotional;-). We still remember how bitter the fight to save the status of string theory as the only possible theory of everything was. It is now over: no string theorists have been hired during this year as Peter Woit reports but still some true believers are raging.

If you were not born yesterday, it might occur to you that galactic dark matter halos define one of the basic assumptions of - I dare guess all - recent models of cosmology receiving funding. The incorrectness of this assumption would mean a catastrophic re-distribution of funding. Researchers meet a painful moral challenge: facts or funding? It is certainly always possible to play with parameters to get rid of experimental findings which do not fit the paradigm.

Personally I want to keep my mind open. It is easy to be honest, when one has nothing to lose anymore! TGD based explanation for the velocity distribution of distant stars around galaxy relies on magnetic flux tubes carrying dark matter having galaxies around them like pearls in necklace. No halo is needed to explain the velocity spectrum and the prediction is free motion of galaxies along the flux tubes. TGD predicts also dark matter as a hierarchy of phases with non-standard value of Planck constant. The guess is that there contribution to the mass density is small as also gravitational effects but this is just a guess.

Theoretical particle physics has been in a state of stagnation for four decades. This is a statement which I read more and more often in physics blogs. The statement is true. My conviction is that things went wrong when GUTs became the paradigm. To my view already standard model is partially wrong: color is not spin-like quantum number at fundamental level although it is so in an excellent approximation. And there are indeed experimental anomalies supporting the new view about color. Whether Higgs is there or not will be seen in near future. TGD prediction is that Higgs is effectively replaced by entire scaled up variant of hadron physics.

After GUTS came SUSY and then string models became the paradigm. Strings theory period is over, and SUSY in standard sense fighting desperately for survival. Also dark matter halo is getting thinner and thinner!

What about GUTS? Is the GUT paradigm the one that goes next? For instance, Nima Arkani-Hamed has talked about return to roots. The basic prediction of GUTS is the instability of proton to particular kind of decays. Nothing has been detected despite continual efforts but this fact has gone un-noticed. It does not require too much cynicism to understand the reluctance to notice the obvious. If proton is stable, practically 40 years of particle physics theory comes stumbling down. This would have really tragic implications for funding!

Addition:Lubos has become even more emotional about dark matter. Lubos refuses to consider any other than the standard view about dark matter and sees different views as a denial of dark matter. There are now three experiments suggesting strongly that galactic dark matter does not form a spherical halo around the galaxy. As mentioned, Lubos is completely silent about two of these experiments: this kind of intellectual in-honesty is part - maybe even unconscious part - of the psychology of denial.

As explained, TGD allows to understand the existing findings: in this model dark matter is carried by string like objects defined by magnetic flux tubes - stringlike objects albeit not fundamental strings. Just by getting rid of the obsession of fundamental strings and replacing them with 3-D objects one would obtain a theory that works, and predicts that the Universe is filled with string like objects having a concrete physical interpretation whereas the strings of string models have no physical counterparts! How simple but how difficult to accept! If Witten had discovered TGD it would have been for decades the theory of everything:-).

Addition: An interesting new twist in the fight for the survival of galactic dark matter halos has emerged. Recall that Bidin, Carraro, and Mendez claimed that the upper bound for the density of dark matter in the nearby environment of Sun is considerably ower than predicted by the galactic halo model. Then Bovy and Tremain stated that the analysis contains error and that their own analysis gives the value of dark matter density predicted by the halo model. Lubos declared with necessary ad hominems that the situation settled: galactic halo is there just as high priests of theoretical physics have decided. Now Hontas Farmer wrote an interesting informal article claiming that the argument of Bovy and Tremain contains a logical error: the predicted density appears as input! Warmly recommended: at least I regard real analysis as more interesting that fanatic claims peppered by ad hominem insults.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

DC currents of Becker, part III: Are the direct currents quantal?


Becker summarizes his findings by stating that living matter is effective semiconductor. There are pairs of structures in positive and negative potential in various scales and the current between the plates of this effective capacitor flows when above some minimum potential difference. The current flows from positive to negative pole and could be electron current. Also proton current in opposite direction can be considered but electron current is experimentally favored. For instance consciousness is lost when magnetic field is used to deflect the current.


In TGD framework natural carriers of these currents would be magnetic flux tubes carrying also electric fields. A very simple deformation of the imbeddings of constant longitudinal magnetic fields gives also longitudinal electric field. With a slight generalization one obtains helical electric and magnetic fields. A crucial difference is that these currents would be quantal rather than ohmic currents even in the length scale of biological body and even longer scales assignable to the magnetic body.


The following argument allows to understand the physical situation.

  1. A precise everyday analogy is vertical motion in the gravitational field of Earth between surface and some target at given height h. If the kinetic energy is high enough, the particle reaches the target. If not, the particle falls back. In quantum case one expects that the latter situation corresponds to very small probability amplitude at the target (tunneling to classically forbidden kinematic region).

  2. Now electric field replaces gravitational field. Suppose that the classical electric force experienced by the particle is towards the capacitor plate taking the role of the surface of Earth. Below critical field strength the charged particle cannot reach the target classically and quantum mechanically this occurs only by tunneling with vanishingly small probability.

  3. Particles with opposite value of charge experience force which accelerates them and classically they certainly reach the second plate. What happens in quantum situation? It seems that this situation is essentially identical with the first one: one has linear potential in finite interval and wave functions are localized in this range. One can equivalently regard these states as localize near the second capacitor plate.

  4. A good analogy is provided by atoms: classically electron would end down to the nucleus but quantization prevents this. Also now one can imagine stationary solutions for which the electric currents for individual charges vanish at the plates although classically there would be a current in another direction. Also quantum mechanically non-vanishing conserved current is possible: all depends on boundary conditions.

Basic model

Consider now the situation at more quantitative level.

  1. One can assign complex order parameters Ψk to various Bose-Einstein condensates of supra phases and obey Schrödinger equation

    i∂t Ψk= (-(hbar2/2mk)∂z2+ qk E z) Ψk .


    Here it is assumed that the situation is effectively one-dimensional. E is the value of constant electric field.



  2. The Schrödinger equation becomes non-linear, when one expresses the electric field in terms of the total surface charge density associated with the plates of effective capacitor. In absence of external electric field it is natural to assume that the net surface charge densities σ at the plates are of opposite sign so that the electric field inside the capacitor is proportional to



    σ= E= ∑ σi= ∑i qiΨbariΨi .




    This gives rise to a non-linear term completely analogous to that in non-linear Schrödinger equation. A more general situation corresponds to a situation in which the region interval [a,b] bounded by capacitor plates a and b belongs to a flux longer tube like structure [A,B]: [a,b] ⊂ [A,B]. In this case one has

    Etot= E+E0 .


    This option is needed to explain the observations of Becker that the local strengthening of electric field increases the electron current: this would be the case in the model to be discussed if this field has a direct opposite to the background field E0. One could also interpret E as quantized part of the electric field and E0 as classical contribution.

  3. The electric currents are given by

    jk= i× hbar (qk/2mk)ΨbarkzΨk .


    In stationary situation the net current must vanish:

    k jk=0 .


    A stronger condition is that individual currents vanish at the plates:

    jk=0 .


    It must be emphasized that this condition does not make sense classically.

Explicit form of Schrödinger equation

Consider now the explicit form of Schrödinger equation in a given electric field.

  1. The equation is easy to solve by writing the solution ansatz in polar form (the index k
    labelling the charge particle species will be dropped for notational convenience).

    Ψ= R (a exp(iU)+ bexp(-iU))exp(-iEnt)


    For real solutions current vanishes identically and this is something which is not possible classically.
    It is convenient to restrict the consideration to stationary solutions, which are energy eigen states with energy value En and express the general solution in terms of these.

  2. The Schrödinger equation reduces with the change of variable

    z→ (z-z0)/z1 == x ,

    z0=En/qE ,

    z1=(hbar2/2mqE)1/3 .


    to

    (∂x2 +x)Ψ= 0 .


    The range [0,z0] for z is mapped to the range [-z0/z1,0]. z0/z1 has positive sign as is easy to verify. The value range of x is therefore negative irrespective of the sign of qE. This is equation for Airy functions. Airy functions are encounterd in WKB approximation in the approximation that potential function is linear. These functions appear also in the model of rainbow.


    The change of variable leads automatically to solutions restricted near the plate where the situation is completely analogous to that in gravitational field of Earth. For stationary solutions test charge in a given background field would be localized near capacitor plate with opposite sign of charge. A strong background field could be created by charges which do not correspond to the ionic charges defining ionic currents. Electrons and protons could define this field possibly associated with flux tubes considerably longer than the distance between capacitor plates.


  3. Using the polar representation Ψ= Rexp(iU) Schrödinger equation reduces to two equations

    [ (∂x2 -Ux2+x)R]cos(U)+[Uxx +2∂xR∂xU] sin(U)= 0 ,


    [ (∂x2 -Ux2+x)R]sin(U)- [Uxx -2∂xR∂xU ]cos(U)= 0 .


    Note that both (R,U) and (R,-U) represent solutions for given value of energy so that the solution can be chosen to be proportional to cos(U) or sin(U). The electric current j is conserved and equal to the current at x=0 and given by

    j= (hbar/2m) (Ux/z1)R2 , z1= (hbar/2mqE)1/3 .


    The current vanishes if either Uz is zero or if the solution is of form Ψ= Rsin(U).

Semiclassical treatment

In semiclassical approximation potential is regarded as so slowly varying that it can be regarded as a constant. In this situation one can write the solution of form Rexp(iU) as

Ψ= R0exp[(i/h bar) ∫0z (2m)1/2(E-qEz)1/2dz] =R0exp(i∫0x x1/2dx) .

The plate at which the initial values are given can be chosen so that the electric force is analogous to gravitation at the surface of Earth. This requires only to replaced coordinate z with a new one vanishing at the plate in question and gives to the energies a positive shift E0= qE0h.

  1. The semiclassical treatment of the equation leads to Bohr rules

    ∮ pzdz/hbar= (2/hbar)∫0h pz dz= n .


    This gives

    ∮ pzdz/hbar=(2(2m)1/2/hbar)∫0h (En-qEz)1/2 dz= 2∫0x0 x1/2=(4/3)×x03/2 =n .


    Note that the turning point for classical orbit corresponds to zmax= En/qE.


  2. One obtains

    En=n2/3 E0 ,

    E0= (1/2)× (qE×hbar2/r×m1/2)2/3

    r= ∫01 (1-u)1/2du =2/3 .


    The value of zmax is

    zmax=En/qE= (n2/3/2r2/3)× (hbar2/qEm)1/3 .


  3. The approximation R=R0=constant can make sense only if the position of the second plate is below zmax. This is possible if the value of n is large enough (n2/3 proportionality), if the mass m of the charged particle is small enough (m-1/3 proportionality raising electron and also proton to special position, or if the strength of electric field is small enough (E-1/3 proportionality). The value zmax is proportional to hbar2/3 so that a phase transition increasing Planck constant can induce current flow.

Possible quantum biological applications

The proposed model for quantum currents could provide quantum explanation for the effective semiconductor property assigned to the DC currents of Becker.

  1. The original situation would be stationary with no currents flowing. The application of external electric field in correct direction would reduce the voltage below the critical value and currents would start to flow. This is consistent with Becker's findings if there is background electric field E0 so that the applied field has direction opposite to E0 so that the field strength experienced by charged particles is reduced and it is easier for them to reach the second plate. This is of course a possible objection against the proposal.

  2. Becker's DC currents appear in several scales. They are assigned with the pairs formed by CNS and perineural tissue (this includes also glia cells) and by frontal and occipital lobes. Acupuncture could involve the generation of a DC supra current. The mechanism would be essential in the healing. Also the mechanism generating qualia could involve generation of supra currents and dielectric breakdown for them. The role of the magnetic flux tubes in TGD inspired biology suggests that the mechanism could be universal. If this were the case one might even speak about Golden Road to the understanding of living matter at basic level.
Even the generation of nerve pulse might be understood in terms of this mechanism. One can argue that neurons have higher evolutionary level than the system pairs to which only electron currents or electron and proton currents can be assigned. This because the value of Planck constant is higher for the magnetic flux tubes carrying the quantal ionic currents.
  1. For Bose-Einstein condensate the simplest choice is n=1 at both plates. The energy eigenvalues would naturally differ by the shift E0= qE0h at the two plates for given particle type. Under these assumptions the current can flow appreciably only if the voltage is below the minimum value. This is certainly a surprising conclusion but brings in mind what happens in the case of neuronal membrane. Indeed, hyper-polarization has a stabilizing - something difficult to understand classically but natural quantum mechanically.

  2. The reduction of membrane potential slightly below the resting potential generates nerve pulse. Also a phase transition increasing the value of Planck constant might give rise to quantal direct currents and generate flow of ionic currents giving rise to nerve pulse. Stationary solutions are located near either capacitor plate. What comes in mind is that nerve pulse involves a temporary change of the capacitor plate with this property.

  3. If electron and proton currents flow as direct currents one encounters a problem. Nerve pulse should begin with direct electron currents and followed by direct proton currents and only later ions should enter the game if at all. The existing model for nerve pulse however assumes that at least electrons flow as oscillating Josephson currents rather than direct quantal currents. This is quite possible and makes sense if the cell membrane thickness small - that is comparable to electron Compton length as assumed in large hbar model for the nerve pulse. This assumption might be necessary also for proton and would make sense if the Planck constant for protonic flux tubes is large enough. For ions the Compton length would be much smaller than the thickness of cell membrane and direct currents would be natural.

    If the Planck constant is same for biologically important ions, direct quantum currents would be generated in definite order since in h<zmax one has zmax∝ m-1/3∝ A-1/3. The lightest ions would start to flow first.

    1. Nerve pulses can generated by voltage gated channels for potassium and calcium. Voltage gated channels would correspond to magnetic flux tubes carrying electric field. For voltage gated channels Na+ ions with atomic weight A=23 and nuclear charge Z=11 start to flow first, then K+ ions with atomic weight A=39 and Z=19 follow. This conforms with the prediction that lightest ions flow first. The nerve pulse duration is of order 1 millisecond at most.

    2. Nerve pulses can be also generated by voltage gated Ca+2 channels. In this case the duration can be 100 ms and even longer. Ca has A=40 and Z=20. The proper parameter is x=r2/qA, r=hbar/hbar0. One has

      x(Ca++)/x(Na+)= (r(Ca++/r(Na+))2 × (23/2× 40) .


      (r(Ca++/r(Na+))2≈2 would allow to compensate for the increased weight and charge of Ca++ ions.

  4. The objection is that Na+ and K+ are not bosons and therefore cannot form Bose-Einstein condensates. The first possibility is that one has Cooper pairs of these ions. This would imply

    x(Ca++)/x(2Na+)= [r(Ca++/r(Na+)]2 × 23/20 .


    Ca++ and Na+ pair would be in very similar position for a given value of Planck constant. This is a highly satisfactory prediction. Another manner to circumvent the problem is more science fictive and assumes that the Na+ ions are exotic nuclei behaving chemically as Na+ but having one charged color bond between nucleons (allowing in TGD view about nuclear physics).

It remains to be seen whether this model is consistent with the model of cell membrane as almost vacuum extremal or whether the vacuum extremal based model could be modified by treating ionic currents as direct currents. In the vacuum extremal model classical Z0 gauge potential is present and would give a contribution to the counterpart of Schrödinger equation. The ratio x(Ca++)/x(2Na+) for the parameter x=r2/q(A-Z)A (em charge q is replaced with neutron number in good approximation) equals to 1.38 and is not therefore very far from unity.

The many-sheetedness of space-time is expected to play a key role and one should precisely specify which sheets are almost vacuum extremals and which sheets are far from vacuum extremals. One expects that magnetic flux tubes are far from vacuum extremals and if voltage gated ionic channels are magnetic flux tubes, the proposed model might be consistent with the model of cell membrane as almost vacuum extremal.

The effects of ELF em fields on vertebrate brain

The effects of ELF em fields on vertebrate brain occur both in frequency and amplitude windows. Frequency windows can be understood if the effect occur at cyclotron frequencies and correspond to absorption of large $\hbar$ photons. A finite variation width for the strength of magnetic field gives rise to a frequency window. The observed quantal character of these effects occurring at harmonics of fundamental frequencies leads to the idea about cyclotron Bose-Einstein condensates as macroscopic quantum phases. The above considerations support the assumption that fermionic ions form Cooper pairs.

I have tried to understand also the amplitude windows but with no convincing results. The above model for the quantum currents however suggests a new approach to the problem. Since ELF em fields are in question they can be practically constant in the time scale of the dynamics involved. Suppose that the massless extremal representing ELF em field is orthogonal to the flux tube so that the ions flowing along flux tube experience an electric force parallel to flux tube. What would happen that the ions at the flux tube would topologically condensed at both the flux tube and massless extremal simultaneously and experience the sum of two forces.

This situation is very much analogous to that defined by magnetic flux tube with longitudinal electric field and also now quantum currents could set on. Suppose that semiconductor property means that ions must gain large enough energy in the electric field so that they can leak to a smaller space-time sheet and gain one metabolic quantum characterized by the p-adic length scale in question. If the electric field is above the critical value, the quantum current does not however reach the second capacitor plate as already found: classically this is of course very weird. If the electric field is too weak, the energy gain is too small to allow the transfer of ions to smaller space-time sheet and no effect takes place. Hence one would have an amplitude window.

The amplitude window occur in widely separate ranges 1-10 V/m and around 10-7 V/m. Of course, also other frequency ranges might be possible. Fractality and the notion of magnetic suggests a possible explanation for the widely different frequency ranges. Both p-adic length scale hypothesis and the hierarchy of Planck constants suggest that some basic structures associated with the cell membrane have fractal counterparts in a wide length scale range and correspond to binary structures. Magnetic flux tubes carrying quantal DC currents of Becker would be the most natural candidate in this respect since these currents appear in several length scales inside organism. Also the counterparts of lipid layers of cell membrane could be involved. If so, one must include to the hierarchy of amplitude windows also fields in the range corresponding to the cell membrane resting potential of about 6× 106 V/m. This is of course only a rough order of magnitude estimate since perturbations of these field are in order.

By fractality the most natural guess is that the voltage along the flux tube is invariant under the scale of Planck constant. This would mean that the electric field would behave as 1/L2 propto 1/hbar2 as a function of the length scale characterizing the scale variant of the structure. If so the range E=1-10 V/m assignable also to EEG would correspond to a length scale of 7.7-24 μm corresponding to cell length scale. Perhaps the direct currents run between cells layers. E=10-7 V/m would in turn correspond to 7.8 cm which corresponds to size scale of human brain hemisphere (experiments were carried out for vertebrates). Could the direct quantum currents in question run between brain hemispheres along corpus callosum?

The contents of this posting can be found also at my homepage as an article with homepage title Quantum Model for the Direct Currents of Becker.

DC currents of Becker, part II: earlier TGD based model


On basis of Becker's and others' observations described in the previous posting one can try to develop a unified view about the effects of laser light, acupuncture, and DC currents. It is perhaps appropriate to start with the following - somewhat leading - questions inspired by a strong background prejudice that the healing process - with control signals from CNS included - utilizes the loading of many-sheeted metabolic batteries by supra currents as a basic mechanism. In the case of control signals the energy would go to the "moving of the control knob".

  1. Becker assigns to the system involved with DC currents an effective semiconductor property. Could the effective semiconductor property be due the fact that the transfer of charge carriers to a smaller space-time sheet by first accelerating them in electric field is analogous to the transfer of electrons between conduction bands in semiconductor junction? If so, semiconductor property would be a direct signature of the realization of the metabolic energy quanta as zero point kinetic energies.

  2. Supra currents flowing along magnetic flux tubes would make possible dissipation free loading of metabolic energy batteries. This even when oscillating Josephson currents are in question since the transformation to ohmic currents in semiconductor junction makes possible energy transfer only during second half of oscillation period. Could this be a completely general mechanism applying in various states of regeneration process. This might be the case. In quantal situation the metabolic energy quanta have very precise values as indeed required. For ohmic currents at room temperature the thermal energies are considerably higher than those corresponding to the voltage involved so that they seem to be excluded. The temperature at magnetic flux tubes should be however lower than the physiological temperature by a factor of order 10-2 at least for the voltage of -1 mV. This would suggest high Tc super-conductivity is only effective at the magnetic flux tubes involved. The finding that nerve pulse involves a slight cooling of the axonal membrane proposed in the TGD based model of nerve pulse to be caused by a convective cooling due the return flow of ionic Josephson currents would conform with this picture.

  3. What meridians are and what kind of currents flow along them? Could these currents be supra currents making possible dissipation-free energy transfer in the healthy situation? Does the negative potential of order -1 mV make possible flow of protonic supra currents and loading of metabolic batteries by kicking protons to smaller space-time sheets? Could electronic supra currents in opposite direct induce similar loading of metabolic batteries? Could these tow miniature metabolisms realize control signals (protons) and feedback (electrons)?
The model answering these questions relies on following picture. Consider first meridians.
  1. The direct feed of metabolic energy as universal metabolic currencies realized as a transfer of charge carriers to smaller space-time sheets is assumed to underly all the phenomena involving healing aspect. Meridian system would make possible a lossless metabolic energy feed - transfer of "Chi" - besides the transfer of chemically stored energy via blood flow. The metabolic energy currencies involved are very small as compared to .5 eV and might be responsible only for "turning control knobs". The correlation of the level of consciousness with the overall strength of DC electric fields would reduce to the level of remote metabolic energy transfer.

  2. The model should explain why meridians have not been observed. Dark currents along magnetic flux tubes are ideal for the energy transfer. If the length of the superconducting "wire" is long in the scale defined by the appropriate quantum scale proportional to hbar, classical picture makes sense and charge carriers can be said to accelerate and gain energy ZeV. For large values of hbar an oscillating Josephson current would be in question. The semiconductor like structure at the end of meridian -possibly realized in terms of pair of space-time sheets with different sizes- makes possible a net transfer of metabolic energy even in this case as pulses at each half period of oscillation. The transfer of energy with minimal dissipation would thus explain why semiconductor like property is needed and why acupuncture points have high value of conductivity. The identification of meridians as invisible magnetic flux tubes carrying dark matter would explain the failure to observe them: one further direct demonstration for the presence of dark matter in biological systems.

  3. In the case of regeneration process NEJs would be accompanied by a scaled down version of meridian with magnetic flux tubes mediating the electronic Josephson current during blastema generation and protonic supra current during the regeneration proper. Space-time sheets of proton resp. electron correspond to kp and ke= kp+11. In a static situation many-sheeted Gauss law in static situation would guarantee that voltages over NJE are same.

  4. One can of course worry about the smallness of electrostatic energies ZeV as compared to the thermal energy. Zero point kinetic energy could correspond also to the magnetic energy of the charged particle. For sufficiently large values of Planck constant magnetic energy scale is higher than the thermal energy and the function of voltage could be only to drive the charged particles along the flux tubes to the target: and perhaps act as a control knob with electrostatic energy compensating for the small lacking energy. Suppose for definiteness magnetic field strength of B=.2 Gauss explaining the effects of ELF em fields on brain and appearing in the model of EEG. Assume that charged particle is in minimum energy state with cyclotron quantum number n=1 and spin direction giving negative interaction energy between spin and magnetic field so that the energy is (g-2)hbar eB/2mp. Assume that the favored values of hbar correspond to number theoretically simple ones expressible as a product of distinct Fermat primes and power of 2. In the case of proton with g≈ 2.7927 the standard metabolic energy quantum E0= .5 eV would require roughly hbar/hbar0=17× 234. For electron g-2≈ α/π≈ .002328 gives hbar/hbar0=5× 17× 230.

Consider next NEJs and semiconductor like behavior and charging of metabolic batteries.
  1. Since NEJ seems resembles cell membrane in some respects, the wisdom gained from the model of cell membrane and DNA as tqc can be used. The model for nerve pulse and the model for DNA as topological quantum computer suggest that dark ionic currents flowing along magnetic flux tubes characterized by a large value of Planck constant are involved with both meridians and NJEs and might even dominate. Magnetic flux tubes act as Josephson junctions generating oscillatory supra currents of ions and electrons. For large values of hbar also meridians are short in the relevant dark length scale and act as Josephson junctions carrying oscillatory Josephson currents.

  2. The findings of Becker suggest that acu points correspond to sensory receptors which are normally in a negative potential. The model for the effects of laser light favors (but only slightly) the assumption that in a healthy situation it is protons arriving along magnetic flux tubes which are kicked to the smaller space-time sheets and that negative charge density at acu point attracts protons to the acu point. Electrons could of course flow in reverse direction along their own magnetic flux tubes and be kicked to the smaller space-time sheets at the positive end of the circuit. In the case of brain, protonic end would correspond to the frontal lobes and electronic end to the occipital lobes. This kind of structure could appear as fractally scaled variants. For instance, glial cells and neurons could form this kind of pair with neurons in negative potential and glial cells in positive potential as suggested by the fact that neuronal damage generates positive local potential.

  3. Classically the charge carriers would gain energy E=ZeV as they travel along the magnetic flux tube to NJE. If this energy is higher than the metabolic energy quantum involved, it allows the transfer of charge carrier to a smaller space-time sheet so that metabolic resources are regenerated. Several metabolic quanta could be involved and the value of V(t) would determine, which quantum is activated. The reduction of the V below critical value would lead to a starvation of the cell or at least to the failure of control signals to "turn the control knob". This should relate to various symptoms like pain at acupuncture points. In a situation requiring acupuncture the voltage along flux tubes would be so small that the transfer of protons to the smaller space-time sheets becomes impossible. As a consequence, the positive charge carriers would accumulate to the acu point and cause a further reduction of the voltage. Acupuncture needle would create a "wound" stimulating large positive potential and the situation would be very much like in regeneration process and de-differentiation induced by acupuncture could be understood.
Many questions remain to be answered.
  1. What causes the de-differentiation of the cells? The mere charging of metabolic energy batteries perhaps? If so then the amount of metabolic energy- "chi"- possessed by cell would serve as a measure for the biological age of cell and meridian system feeding "chi" identified as dark metabolic energy would serve as a rejuvenating agent also with respect to gene expression. Or does the electric field define an external energy feed to a self-organizing system and create an electromagnetic environment similar to that prevailing during morphogenesis inducing a transition of cells to a dedifferentiated state? Or could DNA as tqc allow to understand the modification of gene expression
    as being due to the necessity to use tqc programs appropriate for regeneration? Or should cells and wounded body part be seen as intentional agents doing their best to survive rather than as passive parts of biochemical system?

  2. Acupuncture and DC current generation are known to induce generation of endorphins. Do endorphins contribute to welfare by reducing the pain or do they give a conscious expression for the fact that situation has improved as a result of recharging of the metabolic energy batteries?

  3. Could the continual charging of metabolic energy batteries by DC currents occur also in the case of cell membrane? The metabolic energy quantum would be around .07 eV in this case and correspond to p-adic length scale k=140 for proton (the quantum is roughly a fraction 1/8 of the fundamental metabolic energy quantum .5 eV corresponding to k=137).

The contents of this posting can be found also at my homepage as an article with homepage title Quantum Model for the Direct Currents of Becker.

DC currents of Becker. Part I: Becker's and other's findings

Robert Becker proposed on basis of his experimental work that living matter behaves as a semiconductor in a wide range of length scales ranging from brain scale to the scale of entire body. Direct currents flowing only in preferred direction would be essential for the functioning of living manner in this framework.


One of the basic ideas of TGD inspired theory of living matter is that various currents, even ionic currents, are quantal currents. The first possibility is that they are Josephson currents associated with Josephson junctions but already this assumption more or less implies also quantal versions of direct currents. The TGD inspired quantum model for nerve pulse assumes that quantal ionic currents through the cell membrane are Josephson currents so that the situation is automatically stationary. One can criticize this assumption since the Compton length of ions for the ordinary value of Planck constant is so small that magnetic flux tubes carrying the current through the membrane look rather long in this length scale. Therefore either Planck constant should be rather large or one should have a non-ohmic quantum counterpart of a direct current in the case of ions and perhaps also protons in the case of neuronal membrane: electronic and perhaps also protonic currents could be still Josephson currents. This would conform with the low dissipation rate.


The notion of direct current is indeed familiar already from the work of Robert Becker and in the following the results related to laser induced healing, acupuncture, and DC currents are discussed first. The obvious question is whether these direct currents are actually currents and whether they could be universal in living matter. A TGD inspired model for quantal direct currents is proposed and its possible implications for the model of nerve pulse are discussed. Whether the model is consistent with the vacuum extremal property remains an open question.
I have divided the blog posting to three parts. The postings can be found at my homepage as an article with homepage title Quantum Model for the Direct Currents of Becker.


Connection between laser induced healing, acupuncture, and association of DC currents with the healing of wounds


The findings of Robert Becker (the book Electromagnetism and Life by Becker and Marino can be found from web) meant a breakthrough in the development of bioelectromagnetics. One aspect of bioelectromagnetic phenomena was the discovery of Becker that DC currents and voltages play a pivotal role in various regeneration processes. Why this is the case is still poorly understood and Becker's book is a treasure trove for anyone ready to challenge existing dogmas. The general vision guiding Becker can be summarized by a citation from the introduction of the book.


Growth effects include the alteration of bone growth by electromagnetic energy, the restoration of partial limb regeneration in mammals by small direct currents, the inhibition of growth of implanted tumors by currents and fields, the effect upon cephalocaudal axis development in the regenerating flatworm in a polarity-dependent fashion by applied direct currents, and the production of morphological alterations in embryonic development by manipulation of the electrochemical species present in the environment. This partial list illustrates the great variety of known bioelectromagnetic phenomena.


The reported biological effects involve basic functions of living material that are under remarkably precise control by mechanisms which have, to date, escaped description in terms of solution biochemistry. This suggests that bioelectromagnetic phenomena are fundamental attributes of living things - ones that must have been present in the first living things. The traditional approach to biogenesis postulates that life began in an aqueous environment, with the development of complex molecules and their subsequent sequestration from the environment by membranous structures. The solid-state approach proposes an origin in complex crystalline structures that possess such properties as semiconductivity, photoconductivity, and piezoelectricity. All of the reported effects of electromagnetic forces seem to lend support to the latter hypothesis.




Observations relating to CNS



The following more quantitative findings, many of them due to Becker, are of special interest as one tries to understand the role of DC currents in TGD framework.

  1. CNS and the rest of perineural tissue (tissue surrounding neurons including also ∈dexglial cellglial cells) form a dipole like structure with neural system in positive potential and perineural tissue in negative potential. There is also an electric field along neuron in the direction of nerve pulse propagation (dendrites correspond to - and axon to +) (note that motor nerves and sensory nerves form a closed loop). Also microtubules within axon carry electric field and these fields are probably closely related by the many-sheeted variants of Gauss's and Faraday's laws implying that voltages along two different space-time sheets in contact at two points are same in a static situation.

  2. A longitudinal potential along front to back in brain with frontal lobes in negative potential with respect to occipital lobes and with magnitude of few mV was discovered. The strength of the electric field correlates with the level of consciousness. As the potential becomes weaker and changes sign, consciousness is lost. Libet and Gerard observed traveling waves of potentials across the cortical layers (with speeds of about 6 m/s: TGD inspired model of nerve pulse predicts this kind of waves kenociteallb/pulse ). Propagating potentials were discovered also in glial cells. The interpretation was in terms of electrical currents.

  3. It was found that brain injury generated positive polarization so that the neurons ceased to function in an area much larger than the area of injury. Negative shifts of neuronal potentials were associated with incoming sensory stimuli and motor activity whereas sleep was associated with a positive shift. Very small voltages and currents could modulate the firing of neurons without affecting the resting potential. The "generating" potentials in sensory receptors inducing nerve pulse were found to be graded and non-propagating and the sign of the generating potential correlated with sensory input (say increase/reduction of pressure). Standard wisdom about cell membrane has difficulties in explaining these findings.

  4. The natural hypothesis was that these electric fields are accompanied by DC currents. There are several experimental demonstrations for this. For instance, the deflection of assumed DC currents by external magnetic field (Hall effect) was shown to lead to a loss of consciousness.

Observations relating to regeneration

The second class of experiments used artificial electrical currents to enhance regeneration of body parts. These currents are nowadays used in clinical practice to induce healing or retard tumor growth. Note that tissue regeneration is a genuine regeneration of an entire part of organism rather than mere simple cell replication. Salamander limb generation is one of the most studied examples. Spontaneous regeneration becomes rare at higher evolutionary levels and for humans it occurs spontaneously only in the fractures of long bones.

  1. An interesting series of experiments on Planaria, a species of simple flatworm with a primitive nervous system and simple head-to-tail axis of organization, was carried out. Electrical measurements indicated a simple head-tail dipole field. The animal had remarkable regenerative powers; it could be cut transversely into a number of segments, all of which would regenerate a new total organism. The original head-tail axis was preserved in each regenerate, with that portion nearest the original head end becoming the head of the new organism. The hypothesis was that the original head-tail electrical vector persisted in the cut segments and provided the morphological information for the regenerate. The prediction was that the reversal of the electrical gradient by exposing the cut surface to an external current source of proper orientation should produce some reversal of the head-tail gradient in the regenerate. While performing the experiment it was found found that as the current levels were increased the first response was to form a head at each end of the regenerating segment. With still further increases in the current the expected reversal of the head-tail gradient did occur, indicating that the electrical gradient which naturally existed in these animals was capable of transmitting morphological information.

  2. Tissue regeneration occurs only if some minimum amount of neural tissue is present suggesting that CNS plays a role in the process although the usual neural activity is absent. The repeated needling of the stump had positive effect on regeneration and the DC current was found to be proportional to innervation. Hence needling seems to stimulate innervation or at least inducing formation of DC currents. Something like this might occur also in the case of acupuncture.

  3. Regeneration involves de-differentiation of cells to form a blastema from which the regenerated tissue is formed. Quite early it was learned that carcinogens induce de-differentiation of cells because of their steric properties and by making electron transfer possible and that denervation induces tumor formation. From these findings Becker concluded that the formation of blastema could be a relatively simple process analogous to tumor growth whereas the regeneration proper is a complex self-organization process during which the control by signals from CNS are necessary and possibly realized in terms of potential waves.

  4. Regeneration is possible in salamander but not in frog. This motivated Becker and collaborators to compare these situations. In an amputated leg of both salamander and frog the original negative potential of or order -1 mV went first positive value of order +10 mV. In frog it returned smoothly to its original value without regeneration. In salamander it returned during three days to the original base line and then went to a much higher negative value around -20 mV (resting potential is around -70 mV) followed by a return to the original value as regeneration had occurred. Thus the large negative potential is necessary for the regeneration and responsible for the formation of blastema. Furthermore, artificial electron current induced regeneration also in the case of frog and in even in the denervated situation. Thus the flow of electrons to the stump is necessary for the formation of blastema and the difference between salamander and frog is that frog is not able to provide the needed electronic current although positive potential is present.

  5. It was also learned that a so called neural epidermic junction (NEJ) formed in the healing process of salamander stump was responsible for the regeneration in the presence of nervation. The conclusion was that the DC voltage and electronic current relevant for regeneration can be assigned the interface between CNS and tissue rather than with the entire nerve and regeneration seems to be a local process, perhaps a feed of metabolic energy driving self-organization. Furthermore, NEJ seems to make possible the flow of electrons from CNS to the stump.

  6. The red blood cells of animals other than mammals are complete and possess thus nuclei.
    Becker and collaborators observed that also red blood cells dedifferentiated to form blastema.
    Being normally in a quiescent state, they are ideal for studying de-differentiation. It was found that electric current acted as a trigger at the level of cell membrane inducing de-differentiation reflected as an increased amount of mRNA serving as signal for gene expression. Also pulsed magnetic field was found to trigger the de-differentiation, perhaps via induced electric field. By the way, the role of the cell membrane fits nicely with the view about DNA-cell membrane system as topological quantum computer with magnetic flux tubes connecting DNA and cell membrane serving as braids.

  7. The experiments of Becker and collaborators support the identification of the charge carriers of DC currents responsible for the formation of large negative potential of stump as electrons. The test was based on the different temperature dependence of electronic and protonic conductivities. Electronic conductivity increases with temperature and protonic conductivity decreases and an increase was observed. In TGD based model also super-conducting charge carriers are possible and this finding does not tell anything about them.

Gene activation by electrostatic fields?

The basic question concerns the method of activation. The discovery of chemists Guido Ebner and Guido Schuerch raises the hope that these ideas might be more than over-active imagination and their work also provides a concrete proposal for the activation mechanism. Ebner and Schuerch studied the effect of electrostatic fields on the growth and morphogenesis of various organisms. Germ, seeds, or eggs were placed between conducting plates creating an electric field in the range .5-2 kV/m: note that the Earth's electric field is in the range .1-4 kV/m and of the same order of magnitude.

The outcome was rather surprising and in the year 1989 their employer Ciba Geigy (now Novaris) applied for a patent "Method of enhanced fish breeding" for what is called Ciba Geigy effect. The researchers describe how fishes (trouts) develop and grow much better, if their eggs have been conditioned in an electrostatic field. The researchers report kenocitebneu/docu that also the morphology of the fishes was altered to what seems to represent an ancient evolutionary form: this was not mentioned in the patent.

The chemists founded their own Institute of Pharmaceutical Research near Basel, where Guido Ebner applied for another very detailed patent, which was never granted (it is not difficult to guess the reasons why!). In the patent he describes the effect of electrostatic fields on several life forms (cress, wheat, corn, fern, micro-organisms, bacteria) in their early stage of development. A clear change in the morphogenesis was observed. For instance, in one example fern had all sort of leaves in single plant apparently providing a series of snapshots about the evolution of the plant. The evolutionary age of the first leaf appeared to be about 300 million years whereas the last grown-up leaf looked close to its recent form.

If one takes these finding seriously, one must consider the possibility that the exposure to an electrostatic field can activate passive genes and change the gene expression so that older morphologies are expressed. The activation of not yet existing morphologies is probably more difficult since strong consistency conditions must be satisfied (activation of program requires activation of a proper hardware). This would suggest that genome is a kind of archive containing also older genomes even potential genomes or that topological quantum computer programs (see this) kenociteallb/dnatqc determine the morphology to certain extent and that external conditions such as electric field determine the self-organization patters characterizing these programs.

It is known that the developing embryo has an electric field along the head-tail axis and that this field plays an important role in the control of growth. These fields are much weaker than the fields used in the experiment. p-Adic length scale hierarchy however predicts an entire hierarchy of electric fields and living matter is indeed known to be full of electret structures. The strength of the electric field in some p-adic length scale related to DNA might somehow serve as the selector of the evolutionary age. The recapitulation of phylogeny during the ontogeny could mean a gradual shift of the activated part of the memone, perhaps assignable to tqc programs, and be controlled by the gradually evolving electric field strength.


The finding that led Ebner to his discovery was that it was possible to "wake up" ancient bacteria by an exposure to an electrostatic field. The interpretation would be in terms of loading of metabolic batteries. This would also suggest that in the case of primitive life forms like bacteria the electric field of Earth has served as metabolic energy source whereas in higher life forms endogenous electric fields have taken the role of Earth's electric field.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

A Universe from Nothing

The book A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss has stimulated a lot of aggressive debate between Krauss and some philosphers and of course helped in gaining media attention.

Peter Woit wrote about the debate - not so much about the contents of the book - and regarded the book boring and dull. He sees this book as an end for multiverse mania: bad philosophy and bad physics. I tried to get an idea about what Krauss really says but failed: Woit's posting concentrates on the emotional side (the more negative the better;-)) as blog posting must do to maximize the number of readers.

Peter Woit wrote also a second posting about the same theme. It was about Jim Holt's book Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story. Peter Woit found the book brilliant but again it remained unclear to me what Jim Holt really said!

Sean Carroll has a posting about the book talking more about the contents of the book. This posting was much more informative: not just anecdotes and names but an attempt to analyze what is involved.

In the following I will not consider the question "Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing" since I regard it as pseudo question. The very fact that the question is made implies that something - the person who poses the question - exists. One could of course define "nothing" as vacuum state as physicists might do but with this definition the meaning of question changes completely from what it is for philosophers. Instead, I will consider the notion of existence from physics point of view and try to show how non-trivial implications the attempt to define this notion more precisely has.


What do we mean with "existence"?

The first challenge is to give meaning for the question "Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing". This process of giving meaning is of course highly subjective and I will discuss only my own approach. To my opinion the first step is to ask "What existence is?". Is there only single kind of existence or does existence come in several flavors? Indeed, several variants of existence seem to be possible. Material objects, mathematical structures, theories, conscious experiences, etc... It is difficult to see them as members of same category of existence.

This question was not made by Sean Carroll ,who equated all kinds of existence with material existence - irrespective of whether they become manifest as a reading in scale, as mathematical formulas, or via emotional expressions. Carroll did not notice that already this assumption might lead to astray. Carroll did the same as most mainstream physicists would do and I am afraid that also Krauss makes the same error. I dare hope that philosophers criticizing Krauss have avoided this mistake: at least they made clear what they thought about the deph of philosophical thinking of physicists of this century.

Why Carroll might have done something very stupid?

  1. The first point is that this vision- known as materialism in philosophy - suffers from serious difficulties. The basic implication is that consciousness is reduced to physical existence. Free will is only an illusion, all our intentions are illusions, ethics is illusion and moral rules rely on illusion. Everything was dictated in Big Bang at least in the statistical sense. Perhaps we should think twice before accepting this view.

  2. Second point is that that one ends up with heavy difficulties in physics itself: quantum measurement theory is the black sheep of physics and it is not tactful to talk about quantum measurement theory in the coffee table of physicists. The problem is simply that that the non-determinism of state function reduction - necessary for the interpretation of experiments in Copenhagen interpretation - is in conflict with the determinism of Schrödinger equation. The basic problem does not disappear for other interpretations. How it is possible that the world is both deterministic and deterministic at the same time? There seems to be two causalities: could they relate to two different notions of time? Could the times for Schrödiner equation and state function reduction be different?

I have just demonstrated that when one speaks about ontology, sooner or later begin to talk about time. This is unavoidable. As inhabitants of everyday world we of course know that the experienced time is not same as the geometric time of physicists. But as professional physicists we have been painfully conditioned to identify these two times. Also Carroll as a physics professor makes this identification - and does not even realize what he is doing - and starts to speak about time evolution as Hamiltononian unitary evolution without a single world about the problems of quantum measurement theory.

With this background I am ready to state what the permanent readers of the blog could do themselves. In TGD Universe the notion of existence becomes much more many-faceted thing as in the usual ultranaive approach of materialistic physicist. There are many levels of ontology.

  1. Basic division is to "physical"/"objective" existence and conscious existence. Physical states identified as their mathematial representations ("identified" is important!: I will discuss this later) correspond the "objective" existence. Physical states generalize the solutions of Schrödinger equations: they are not counterparts for time=constant snapshots of time evolutions but counterparts for entire time evolutions. Quantum jumps take between these so that state function reduction does not imply failure of determinism and one avoids the basic paradox. This however implies that one must assign subjective time to the quantum jumps and geometric time to the counterparts of evolution of Schrödinger equation. There are two times.

    In this framework the talk about the beginning of the Universe and what was before the Big Bang becomes nonsense. One can speak about boundaries of space-time surfaces but they have little to do with the beginning and end which are notions natural in the case of experienced time.

  2. One can divide the objective existence into two sub-categories. Quantum existence (quantum states as mathematical objects) and classical existence having space-time surfaces as its mathematical representation. Classical determimism fails in its standard form but generalizes, and classical physics ceases to be an approximation and becomes exact part of quantum theory as Bohr orbitology implies by General Coordinate Invariance alone. We have ended up with tripartimism instead of monistic materialism.

  3. One can divide the geometric existence on sub-existences based on ordinary physics obeying real topology and various p-adic physics obeying p-adic topology. p-Adic space-time sheets serve as space-time correlates for cognition and intentionality whereas real space-time sheets are correlates for what we call matter.

  4. Zero energy ontology (ZEO) represents also a new element. Physical states are replaced with zero energy states formed by pairs of positive and negative energy states at the boundaries of causal diamond (CD) and correspond in the standard ontology to physical events formed by pairs of initial and final states. Conservations laws hold true only in the scale characterizing given CD. Inside given CD classical conservation laws are exact. This allows to understand why the failure of classical conservation in cosmic scales is consistent with Poincare invariance.

    In this framework Schrödinger equation is only a starting point from which one generalizes. The notion of Hamiltonian evolution seen by Carroll as something very deep is not natural in relativistic context and becomes non-sensical in p-adic context. Only the initial and final states of evolution defining the zero energy state are relevant in accordance with strong form of holography. U-matrix, M-matrix and S-matrix become the key notions in ZEO.

  5. A very important point is that there is no need to distinguish between physical objects and their mathematical description (as quantum states in Hilbert space of some short). Physical object is its mathematical description. This allows to circumvent the question "But what about theories: do also theories exist physically or in some other sense?". Quantum state is theory about physical state and physicist and mathematician exists in quantum jumps between them. Physical worlds define the Platonia of the mathematician and conscious existence is hopping around in this Platonia: from zero energy state to a new one. And ZEO allows all possible jumps! Could physicist or mathematician wish anything better;-)!

This list of items shows how dramatically the situation changes when one realizes that the materialistic dogma is just an assumption and in conflict with what we have known experimentally for almost century.

Could physical existence be unique?

The identification of physical (or "objective") existence as mathematical existence raises the question whether physics could be unique from the requirement that the mathematical description with which it is identical exists. In finite-dimensional case this is certainly not the case. Given finite-D manifold allows infinite number of different geometries. In infinite-dimensional case the situation changes dramatically. One possible additional condition is that the physics in question is maximally rich in structure besides existing mathematically! Quantum criticality has been my own phrasing for this principle and the motivation comes that at criticality long range fluctuations set on and the system has fractal structure and is indeed extremely richly structured.

This does not yet say much about what are the basic objects of this possibly existing infinite-dimensional space. One can however generalize Einstein's "Classical physics as space-time geometry" program to "Quantum physics as infinite dimensional geometry of world of classical worlds (WCW)" program. Classical worlds are identified as space-time surfaces since also the finite-dimensional classical version of the program must be realized. What is new is "surface": Einstein did not consider space-time as a surface but as an abstract 4-manifold and this led to the failure of the geometrization program. Sub-manifold geometry is however much richer than manifold geometry and gives excellent hopes about the geometrization of electro-weak and color interactions besides gravitation.

If one assumes that space-time as basic objects are surfaces of some dimension in some higher-dimensional space, one can ask whether it is possible for WCW to have a geometry. If one requires geometrization of quantum physics, this geometry must be Kähler. This is a highly non-trivial condition. The simplest spaces of this kind are loop spaces relating closely to string models: their Kähler geometry is unique from the existence of Riemann connection. This geometry has also maximal possible symmetries defined by Kac-Moody algebra, which looks very physical. The mere mathematical existence implies maximal symmetries and maximally beatiful world!

Loops are 1-dimensional but for higher-dimensional objects the mathematical constrains are much more stringent as the divergence difficulties of QFTs have painfully taught us. General Coordinate Invariance emerges as an additional powerful constraint and symmetries related to conformal symmetry generalizing from 2-D case to symmetries of 3-D light-like surfaces turns out to be the key to the construction. The requirement of maximal symmetry realized by conformal invariance leads to correct space-time dimension and also dictates that imbedding space has M4× S decomposition with light-cone boundaries also possess huge conformal symmetries giving rise to additional infinite-D symmetries.

There are excellent reasons to believe that WCW geometry is unique. The existence would be guaranteed by a reduction to generalized number theory: M4× CP2 forced by standard model symmetries becomes the unique choice if one requires that classical number fields are essential part of the theory. "Physics as infinite-D geometry" and "Physics as Generalized Number Theory" would be the basic principles and would imply consistency with standard model symmetries.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Let all flowers to flourish in the Garden of Science


Phil Gibbs has a very nice posting with title Physics on the Fringe: Book Review talking about the importance of allowing communication of all ideas in science. In Big Science heavy censorship had been accepted as something completely natural during last decades and mediocricy and conformism have become the main virtues of scientist. I encourage the readers to read the posting. I glue below my own comment describing by a concrete example how dangerous it is to censor out bottleneck ideas, and that sooner or later the community must face the truth in any case.

The best argument in favor of allowing all flowers to flourish in the Garden of Science comes from the development of particle physics during the last decades. One cannot speak of triumph;-).

The GUT paradigm (GUTP for short ) has been dominating during this period. One of its basic implications is the instability of proton. Quarks and leptons belong to single big multiplet of the gauge group so that baryon and lepton number are not conserved separately and proton decays. It has been however experimentally found that proton does not decay in any of he predicted manners (it could of course decay but not via the channels breaking B and L!). The fine tuning needed to keep proton stable enough has become standard challenge of any GUT. Also the low energy limit of string theory relies on GUTP. Everything in mainstream relies on it.

GUTP might be however wrong! We cannot prove this experimentally since it is always possible to fine tune the proton lifetime to be long enough. We can only show the theoretical implausibility of GUTP and proton lifetime has have already done that. Also the huge mass differences between particles fermions belonging to same multiplet of symmetry make GUTP implausible and suggest that something is lacking: the notion of scale. All this have been however put under the rug.

This inability to disprove GUTP experimentally makes things worse and Big Science with its enormous institutional inertia forces to continue on the wrong track: too many faces to loose. This is like trying to stop the march of a million army marching towards its destruction even when generals quite well know what will happen.

There are indeed theories outside the GUT paradigm but they have been systematically censored out. For decades ago the decision makers of finnish science made absolutely clear to me that work with non-standard theories is allowed only for retired professors. They also emphasized the necessity of critical mass: the age of individuals in science is over. Nowadays we would talk about group think instead of critical mass.

LHC is now demonstrating the failure of superstring approach and of the standard view about SUSY, and perhaps also the failure of Higgs paradigm. From this it should be only a small step to the realization that the entire GUTP has been totally wrong. My sincere hope is that this realization comes as soon as possible.

If this happens, we will return to the roots and ask questions, which could have been asked for four decades ago. Could baryon and lepton numbers be conserved separately as it indeed looks? What quark color really is: could it be that gauge theory description is only an approximation? Could standard model symmetries have some deeper meaning? This return to the roots could have been possible decades ago if the communication of alternative visions about fundamental physics would have been allowed.