Quantum flute

It is amazing how fast experimental discoveries, which look mysterious in the standard physics framework but are readily explainable in the TGD framework, are emerging recently.

Now University of Chicago physicists have invented a "quantum flute" that, like the Pied Piper, can coerce photons to move together in a way that's never been seen before. The discovery is described in Physical Review Letters and Nature Physics (see this and this).

The system, devised in the lab of Assoc. Prof. Schuster, consists of a long cavity made in a single block of metal, designed to trap photons at microwave frequencies. The cavity is made by drilling offset holes like holes in a flute. One can send one or more wavelengths to the "flute" and each wavelength creates a note coding for quantum information. The interactions of notes are then controlled by a superconducting electrical circuit.

The real surprise was the interaction of photons. In quantum electrodynamics (QED) the interaction of photons is extremely weak. When photons achieve critical total energy, the situation changes dramatically. One can say that photons interact, not pairwise as usually, but all at the same time. Photon state behave like a Bose-Einstein condensate of bound state.

Galois confinement as a universal mechanism for the formation of bound states

TGD involves M⁸-H duality in an essential manner. M⁸-H duality relates differential geometric and number theoretic descriptions of quantum physics and is analogous to Langlands duality. Number theoretical vision, involving classical number fields, extensions of rationals, and extensions of p-adic number fields induced by them, is essential for understanding the physical correlates of cognition (see this) but has led to a breakthrough in the understanding of also ordinary physics (see this and this).

1. The number theoretic side of the M⁸-H duality predicts Galois confinement as a universal mechanism for the formation of bound states from the dark variants of ordinary particles characterized by effective Planck constant h_eff=nh₀≥h: integer n has interpretation as the dimension of extension of rationals induced by a polynomial and serves as a measure of algebraic complexity defining evolutionary level and a kind of IQ for the system.
2. Galois confinement states that physical bound states are Galois singlets transforming trivially under the Galois group of a polynomial P determining space-time region if M⁸-H duality holds true. There is (more than) an analogy with hadrons, which are color singlets. Galois confinement is central in TGD inspired quantum biology and also allows us to understand various nanoscopic and macroscopic quantum phenomena of condensed matter physics.

   For instance, Cooper pairs would represent on a lowest level in a hierarchy and there is evidence for 4-fermion analogs of Cooper pairs (see this).

3. Galois confinement is central in TGD inspired quantum biology and allows also to understand various nanoscopic and macroscopic quantum phenomena of condensed matter physics (see this).

   In particular, N photons can form bound states in which they behave like a single particle. This bound state is a more general state than Bose-Einstein condensate since photons need not have identical quantum numbers. These many-photon states described in the article could be states of this kind. These N-photon states are very similar to the dark 3N- photon states proposed to represent genes consisting of N codons with codon represented as dark photon triplet.

4. Another representation of the genetic code paired with ordinary DNA would would be in terms of dark 3N-proton states, or more generally, 3N-nucleon states and realized at magnetic flux tubes parallel to DNA (see this and this). In both cases, Galois confinement would bind the particles to form quantum coherent states behaving like a single particle, which is also emitted and absorbed as a single entity. This behavior is just what was observed in the experiments.

See the article TGD and condensed matter or the chapter with the same title.

For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD.

Articles related to TGD