New results in planetary Bohr orbitology

The understanding of how the quantum octonionic local version of infinite-dimensional Clifford algebra of 8-dimensional space (the only possible local variant of this algebra) implies entire quantum and classical TGD led also to the understanding of the quantization of Planck constant. In the model for planetary orbits based on gigantic gravitational Planck constant this means powerful constraints on the number theoretic anatomy of gravitational Planck constants and therefore of planetary mass ratios. These very stringent predictions are immediately testable.

1. Preferred values of Planck constants and ruler and compass polygons

The starting point is that the scaling factor of M⁴ Planck constant is given by the integer n characterizing the quantum phase q= exp(iπ/n). The evolution in phase resolution in p-adic degrees of freedom corresponds to emergence of algebraic extensions allowing increasing variety of phases exp(iπ/n) expressible p-adically. This evolution can be assigned to the emergence of increasingly complex quantum phases and the increase of Planck constant.

One expects that quantum phases q=exp(iπ/n) which are expressible using only square roots of rationals are number theoretically very special since they correspond to algebraic extensions of p-adic numbers involving only square roots which should emerge first and therefore systems involving these values of q should be especially abundant in Nature.

These polygons are obtained by ruler and compass construction and Gauss showed that these polygons, which could be called Fermat polygons, have

n_F= 2^k ∏_s F_ns

sides/vertices: all Fermat primes F_ns in this expression must be different. The analog of the p-adic length scale hypothesis emerges since larger Fermat primes are near a power of 2. The known Fermat primes F_n=2²ⁿ+1 correspond to n=0,1,2,3,4 with F₀=3, F₁=5, F₂=17, F₃=257, F₄=65537. It is not known whether there are higher Fermat primes. n=3,5,15-multiples of p-adic length scales clearly distinguishable from them are also predicted and this prediction is testable in living matter.

2. Application to planetary Bohr orbitology

The understanding of the quantization of Planck constants in M⁴ and CP₂ degrees of freedom led to a considerable progress in the understanding of the Bohr orbit model of planetary orbits proposed by Nottale, whose TGD version initiated "the dark matter as macroscopic quantum phase with large Planck constant" program.

Gravitational Planck constant is given by

hbar_gr/hbar₀= GMm/v₀

where an estimate for the value of v₀ can be deduced from known masses of Sun and planets. This gives v₀≈ 4.6× 10^-4.

Combining this expression with the above derived expression one obtains

GMm/v₀= n_F= 2^k ∏_ns F_ns

In practice only the Fermat primes 3,5,17 appearing in this formula can be distinguished from a power of 2 so that the resulting formula is extremely predictive. Consider now tests for this prediction.

1. The first step is to look whether planetary mass ratios can be reproduced as ratios of Fermat primes of this kind. This turns out to be the case if Nottale's proposal for quantization in which outer planets correspond to v₀/5: TGD provides a mechanism explaining this modification of v₀. The accuracy is better than 10 per cent.

2. Second step is to look whether GMm/v₀ for say Earth allows the expression above. It turns out that there is discrepancy: allowing second power of 17 in the formula one obtains an excellent fit. Only first power is allowed. Something goes wrong! 16 is the nearest power of two available and gives for v₀ the value 2^-11 deduced from biological applications and consistent with p-adic length scale hypothesis. Amusingly, v₀(exp)= 4.6 × 10^-4 equals with 1/(2⁷× F₂)= 4.5956× 10^-4 within the experimental accuracy.

   A possible solution of the discrepancy is that the empirical estimate for the factor GMm/v₀ is too large since m contains also the the visible mass not actually contributing to the gravitational force between dark matter objects. M is known correctly from the knowledge of gravitational field of Sun. The assumption that the dark mass is a fraction 1/(1+ε) of the total mass for Earth gives 1+ε= 17/16 in an excellent approximation. This gives for the fraction of the visible matter the estimate ε=1/16≈ 6 per cent. The estimate for the fraction of visible matter in cosmos is about 4 per cent so that estimate is reasonable and would mean that most of planetary and solar mass would be also dark as TGD indeed predicts and for which there are already now several experimental evidence (consider only the evidence that photosphere has solid surface discussed earlier in this blog ).

To sum up, it seems that everything is now ready for the great revolution. I would be happy to share this flood of discoveries with colleagues but all depends on what establishment decides. To my humble opinion twenty one years in a theoretical desert should be enough for even the most arrogant theorist. There is now a book of 800 A4 pages about TGD at Amazon: Topological Geometrodynamics so that it is much easier to learn what TGD is about.

The reader interested in details is recommended to look at the chapter Was von Neumann Right After All? of the book "TGD: an Overview"

and the chapter TGD and Astrophysics of the book "Classical Physics in Many-Sheeted Space-Time".