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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Handful of problems with a common resolution

Theory building could be compared to pattern recognition or to a solving a crossword puzzle. It is essential to make trials, even if one is aware that they are probably wrong. When stares long enough to the letters which do not quite fit, one suddenly realizes what one particular crossword must actually be and it is soon clear what those other crosswords are. In the following I describe an example in which this analogy is rather concrete. Let us begin by listing the problems.

  1. The condition that modified Dirac action allows conserved charges leads to the condition that the symmetries in question give rise to vanishing second variations of Kähler action. The interpretation is as quantum criticality and there are good arguments suggesting that the critical symmetries define an infinite-dimensional super-conformal algebra forming an inclusion hierarchy related to a sequence of symmetry breakings closely related to a hierarchy of inclusions of hyper-finite factors of types II1 and III1. This means an enormous generalization of the symmetry breaking patterns of gauge theories.

    There is however a problem. For the translations of M4 the resulting fermionic charges vanish. The trial for the crossword in absence of nothing better would be the following argument. By the abelianity of these charges the vanishing of quantal representation of four-momentum is not a problem and that classical representation for four-momentum or the representation coming from Super-Virasoro representations is enough.

  2. Irrespective of whether the 4-D modified Dirac action or its 3-dimensional dimensional reduction defines the propagator, it seems impossible to obtain a stringy propagator without adding it as a kind of mass insertion. A second trial for a crossword which does not look very convincing. This is certainly a problem at the level of formalism since stringy picture follows in finite measurement resolution from the slicing of space-time sheets with string world sheets.

  3. Quantum classical correspondence requires that the geometry of the space-time sheet should correlate with the quantum numbers characterizing positive (negative) energy part of the quantum state. One could argue that by multiplying WCW spinor field by a suitable phase factor depending on charges of the state, the correspondence follows from stationary phase approximation. Also this crossword looks unsatisfactory.

  4. In quantum measurement theory classical macroscopic variables identified as degrees of freedom assignable to the interior of the space-time sheet correlate with quantum numbers. Stern Gerlach experiment is an excellent example of the situation. The generalization of the imbedding space concept by replacing it with a book like structure implies that imbedding space geometry at given page and for given causal diamond (CD) carries information about the choice of the quantization axes (preferred plane M2 of M4 resp. geodesic sphere of CP2 associated with singular covering/factor space of CD resp. CP2 ). This is a big step but not enough. Modified Dirac action as such does not seem to provide any hint about how to achieve this correspondence. One could even wonder whether dissipative processes characterizing the outcome of quantum jump sequence should have space-time correlate. How to achieve this? There are no guesses for the crosswords here.

Each of these problems makes one suspect that something is lacking from the modified Dirac action: there should be a manner to feed information about quantum numbers of the state to the modified Dirac action in turn determining vacuum functional as an exponent Kähler function identified as Kähler action for the preferred extremal assumed to be dictated by by quantum criticality and equivalently by hyper-quaternionicity.

This observation leads to what might be the correct question. Could a general coordinate invariant and Poincare invariant modification of the modified Dirac action consistent with the vacuum degeneracy of Kähler action allow to achieve this information flow somehow? This seems to be possible. In the following I proceed step by step by improving the trial to get the final result.

1. The first guess

The idea is simple: add to the modified Dirac action a source term which is analogous to the Dirac action in M4×CP2.

  1. The additional term would be essentially the analog of ordinary Dirac action at the imbedding space level. Sint= ΣAQA∫Ψbar gAB j ΓαΨ g1/2d4x ,

    gAB= jAkhkljBl ,

    gABgBCAC ,

    j=jBkhklαhl.

    The gamma matrices in question are modified gamma matrices defined by Kähler action with possible instanton term included. The sum is over isometry charges QA interpreted as quantal charges and jAk denotes the Killing vector field of the isometry. gAB is the inverse of the tensor gAB defined by the local inner products of Killing vectors fields in M4 and CP2. The space-time projections of the Killing vector fields j have interpretation as classical color gauge potentials in the case of SU(3). In M4 degrees of freedom j reduce to the gradients of linear M4 coordinates in case of translations.

  2. An important restriction is that by four-dimensionality of M4 and CP2 the rank of gAB is 4 so that gAB exists only when one considers only four conserved charges. In the case of M4 this is achieved by a restriction to translation generators QA=pA. gAB reduces to Minkowski metric and Killing vector fields are constants. The Cartan sub-algebra could be however replaced by any four commuting charges in the case of Poincare algebra. In the case of SU(3) one must restrict the consideration either to U(2) sub-algebra or its complement. CP2=SU(3)/SU(2) decomposition would suggest the complement as the correct choice. One can indeed build the generators of U(2) as commutators of the charges in the complement.

  3. The added term containing quantal charges must make sense in the modified Dirac equation. This requires that the physical state is an eigenstate of momentum and color charges. This allows only color hyper-charge and color isospin so that there is no hope of obtaining exactly the stringy formula for the propagator. The modified Dirac operator is given by Dtot= D+ Dint= ΓαDα+ ΣAQAgAB jΓα .

    The conserved fermionic isometry currents are

    J= ΣBQBΨbar gBC jCkhkljAlΓαΨ

    =QAΨbar ΓαΨ .

    Here the sum is restricted to a Cartan sub-algebra of Poincare group and color group.

2. Does one obtain stringy propagator?

Before trying to answer to the question whether one really obtains stringy propagator one must define what one means with "stringy propagator".

  1. The first guess would be that the added term corresponds to QAγA involving sum over momenta and color charges analogous to pAγA term in super generator G0 and the modified Dirac operator D=ΓαDα corresponds to the analog of super-Kac Moody contribution. Here Γα denotes modified gamma matrix defined by Kähler action. I have considered this option earlier and the detailed analysis shows that the generalized eigenvalues of the 3-D modified Dirac operator should behave like n<1/a. This ad hoc assumption does not make this option convincing.

  2. Could one consider a generalization of the additional term to include also charges associated with Super Kac-Moody algebra acting on light-like 3-surfaces? The first problem is that the matrix gAB is invertible only for four vector fields so that one should give up the assumption that charges are conserved. Second problem is that super generators carry fermion number and it seems impossible to define bosonic counterparts for them.

The next question is "What do we really need?". Only the information about quantum numbers of quantum state in super-conformal representation at partonic 2-surface must be feeded to the propagator. The minimum of this kind is information about isometry charges: that is conserved four-momentum and color quantum numbers. This observation inspires the third guess. All that is needed is that the eigenvalue of pA belongs to the mass shell defined by Super Virasoro conditions at partonic 2-surface. Same applies to the eigenvalues of color hypercharge and isospin. Let us forget for a moment electro-weak quantum numbers and look what this gives.

  1. The modified Dirac operator D would take the role of pAγA which looks quite a reasonable generalization and that added term carries information about the momentum and color quantum numbers.

  2. One can avoid the difficulties due to the fact that Gn carry fermion number and just the relevant information about states of Super Virasoro representation is feeded to the modes and spectrum of the modified Dirac equation and to the classical space-time physics defined by the exponent of Kähler action which must receive an additional term coupling it to isometry charges.

  3. The modified Dirac operator D+Dint would annihilate the spinor modes in the interior of the space-time surface expect at the light-like 3-surfaces or partonic 2-surfaces at the ends of light-like 3-surface serving as sources. This gives to the induced spinor field additional terms expressible in terms of the stringy propagator. The propagator would not have exactly stringy character - in particular, only the color hyper charge and isospin appear in it- but there is no absolute need for this. What is essential is that the information about mass and color quantum numbers of the state of super-conformal representation is feeded into the space-time physics.

  4. Dint represents also a mass term in the modified Dirac equation so that particle massivation has a space-time correlate. For instance, the mass calculated by p-adic thermodynamics makes itself visible at the level of classical physics.

3. Should one assume that the source term is almost topological?

Kähler function contains besides real part also imaginary part which does not however contribute to the configuration space metric since it is induced by instanton term assignable to Kähler action and corresponding modified Dirac action. The CP breaking term is unavoidable in the previous scenario and is expected to relate to the small CP breaking of particle physics and to the generation of matter antimatter asymmetry. It is not completely clear what the situation is in the recent case.

  1. The most general option is that the modified gamma matrices appearing in the added term could correspond to a sum of modified gamma matrices assignable to Kähler action and its instanton counterpart.

  2. One can also consider the analog Chern-Simons term with 3-D modified gamma matrices defined by Chern-Simons action and assigned to the light-like wormhole throats at which the induced metric changes its signature from Euclidian to Minkowskian. Wormhole throats define the lines of generalized Feynman diagrams so that the assignment of 3-D stringy propagator with them looks sensible and conforms with quantum holography. Instanton action reduces to Chern-Simons action assignable to wormhole throats but it is not clear whether the instanton term in Dirac action and its counterpart involving coupling to isometry charges are subject to a similar reduction.

    There is support for Chern-Simons option. In the case of Kähler action the dimensional reduction of the modified Dirac operator at wormhole throats is problematic because the determinant of the induced 4-metric vanishes: the dimensional reduction of D to D3 can be defined only through a limiting procedure (this is however nothing unheard-of: in AdS/CFT correspondence similar situation is encountered). For Chern-Simons action situation is different and it defines modified gamma matrices and couplings to isometry charges are well-defined.

A careful consideration of the CP breaking effects predicted by various options should make it possible to make a unique choice.

4. The definition of Dirac determinant and the additional term in Kähler action

The modification forces also to reconsider the definition of the Dirac determinant.

  1. The earlier definition was based on the slicing of space-time sheets by 3-D light-like surfaces and dimensional reduction to 3-D Dirac operator D3 with Dirac determinant identified as a product of generalized eigenvalues of D3. This definition generalizes to the recent context and implies that instead of massless particle one has massive particle carrying also other quantum numbers.

  2. The interaction term induced to Kähler action should be consistent with vacuum degeneracy of Kähler action. The interaction term of form

    Lint= C(m2,I3,Y) QAgABj (JαK+iJαI)(g4)1/2

    satisfies this condition. The coefficient C(m2,I3,Y) can depend on mass and color charges. JαK and JαI denote Kähler current and instanton current respectively. 3-D Chern-Simons term is equivalent with instanton term.

    This term is not the most general possible. One can add also couplings to conserved isometry currents as well as to currents whose existence is guaranteed by quantum criticality. For these currents only the covariant divergence vanishes. This would support the interpretation in terms of a measurement interaction feeding information to classical space-time physics about the eigenvalues of the observables of the measured system. The resulting field equations remained second order partial differential equations since the second order partial derivatives appear only linearly in the added terms.

  3. The CP breaking term in the modified Dirac equation means a breaking of time reflection symmetry at the level of fundamental physics. The vision is that the classical non-determinism of Kähler action allows to have space-time correlates for quantum jumps sequences and therefore also for dissipation. This motivates the question whether the CP breaking term could give rise to dissipative effects allowing description in terms of the coupling of the conserved charges to Kähler current and to conserved isometry currents.

5. A connection with quantum measurement theory

It is encouraging that isometry charges and also other charges could make themselves visible in the geometry of space-time surface as they should by quantum classical correspondence. This suggests the interpretation in terms of quantum measurement theory.

  1. The interpretation resolves the problem caused by the fact that the choice of the commuting isometry charges is not unique. Cartan algebra corresponds naturally to the measured observables. For instance, one could choose the Cartan algebra of Poincare group to consist of energy and momentum, angular momentum and boost (velocity) in particular direction as generators of the Cartan algebra of Poincare group. In fact, the choices of a preferred plane M2 subset M4 and geodesic sphere S2 subset CP2 allowing to fix the measurement sub-algebra to a high degree are implied by the replacement of the imbedding space with a book like structure forced by the hierarchy of Planck constants. Therefore the hierarchy of Planck constants seems to be required by quantum measurement theory. One cannot overemphasize the importance of this connection.

  2. What about the space-time correlates of electro-weak charges? The earlier proposal explains this correlation in terms of the properties of quantum states: the coupling of electro-weak charges to Chern-Simons term could give the correlation in stationary phase approximation. It would be however very strange if the coupling of electro-weak charges with the geometry of the space-time sheet would not have the same universal description based on quantum measurement theory as isometry charges have.

    1. The hint as how this description could be achieved comes from a long standing un-answered question motivated by the fact that electro-weak gauge group identifiable as the holonomy group of CP2 can be identified as U(2) subgroup of color group. Could the electro-weak charges be identified as classical color charges? This might make sense since the color charges have also identification as fermionic charges implied by quantum criticality. Could electro-weak charges be only represented as classical color charges by mapping them to classical color currents in the measurement interaction term in the modified Dirac action? At least this question might make sense.

    2. It does not however make sense to couple both electro-weak and color charges to the same fermion current. There are also other fundamental fermion currents which are conserved. All the following currents are conserved.

      Jα=Ψbar OΓαΨ ,

      where O belongs to the set {1,J== JklΣklAB, ΣABJ} .

      Here Jkl is the covariantly constant CP2 Kähler form and ΣAB is the (also covariantly) constant sigma matrix of M4 (flatness is absolutely essential).

    3. Electromagnetic charge can be expressed as a linear combination of currents corresponding to O=1 and O=J and vectorial isospin current corresponds to J. It is natural to couple of electromagnetic charge to the the projection of Killing vector field of color hyper charge and coupling it to the current defined by Oem=a+bJ. This allows to interpret the puzzling finding that electromagnetic charge can be identified as anomalous color hyper-charge for induced spinor fields made already during the first years of TGD. There exist no conserved axial isospin currents in accordance with CVC and PCAC hypothesis which belong to the basic stuff of the hadron physics of old days.

    4. There is also an infinite variety of conserved currents obtained as the quantum critical deformations of the basic fermion currents identified above. This would allow in principle to couple an arbitrary number of observables to the geometry of the space-time sheet by mapping them to Cartan algebras of Poincare and color group for a particular conserved quantum critical current. Quantum criticality would therefore make possible classical space-time correlates of observables necessary for quantum measurement theory.

    5. Note that various coupling constants would appear in the couplings. Quantum criticality should determine the spectrum of these couplings.

  3. Quantum criticality implies fluctuations in long length and time scales and it is not surprising that quantum criticality is needed to produce a correlation between quantal degrees of freedom and macroscopic degrees of freedom. Note that quantum classical correspondence can be regarded as an abstract form of entanglement induced by the entanglement between quantum charges QA and fermion number type charges assignable to zero modes.

  4. Space-time sheets can have several wormhole contacts so that the interpretation in terms of measurement theory coupling short and long length scales suggests that the measurement interaction terms are localizable at the wormhole throats. This would favor Chern-Simons term or possibly instanton term if reducible to Chern-Simons terms. The breaking of CP and T might relate to the fact that state function reductions performed in quantum measurements indeed induce dissipation and breaking of time reversal invariance.

  5. The experimental arrangement quite concretely splits the quantum state to a quantum superposition of space-time sheets such that each eigenstate of the measured observables in the superposition corresponds to different space-time sheet already before the realization of state function reduction. This relates interestingly to the question whether state function reduction really occurs or whether only a branching of wave function defined by WCW spinor field takes place as in multiverse interpretation in which different branches correspond to different observers. TGD inspired theory consciousness requires that state function reduction takes place. Maybe multiversalist might be able to find from this picture support for his own beliefs.

  6. One can argue that "free will" appears not only at the level of quantum jumps but also as the possibility to select the observables appearing in the modified Dirac action dictating in turn the Kähler function defining the Kähler metric of WCW representing the "laws of physics". This need not to be the case. The choice of CD fixes M2 and the geodesic sphere S2: this does not fix completely the choice of the quantization axis but by isometry invariance rotations and color rotations do not affect Kähler function for given CD and for a given type of Cartan algebra. In M4 degrees of freedom the possibility to select the observables in two manners corresponding to linear and spherical Minkowski coordinates could imply that the resulting Kähler functions are different. The corresponding Kähler metrics do not differ if the real parts of the Kähler functions associated with the two choices differ by a term f(Z)+(f(Z))*, where Z denotes complex coordinates of WCW, the Kähler metric remains the same. The function f can depend also on zero modes. If this is the case then one can allow in given CD superpositions of WCW spinor fields for which the measurement interactions are different. This condition is expected to pose non-trivial constraints on the measurement action and quantize coupling parameters appearing in it.

6. New view about gravitational mass and matter antimatter asymmetry

The physical interpretation of the additional term in modified Dirac action forces quite a radical revision of the ideas about matter and antimatter.

  1. The term pAαmA contracted with the fermion current is analogous to a gauge potential coupling to fermion number. Since the additional terms in the modified Dirac operator induce stringy propagation, a natural interpretation of the coupling to the induced spinor fields is in terms of gravitation. One might perhaps say that the measurement of four momentum induces gravitational interaction. Besides momentum components also color charges take the role of gravitational charges. As a matter fact, any observable takes this role via coupling to the projections of Killing vector fields of Cartan algebra. The analogy of color interactions with gravitational interactions is indeed one of the oldest ideas in TGD.

  2. One could wonder whether the two terms in the modified Dirac equation be analogous to Einstein tensor and energy momentum tensor in Einstein's equations. Coset construction in which gravitational and inertial four-momenta are replaced by super-symplectic and super Kac-Moody algebras does not support this idea.

  3. The coupling to four-momentum is through fermion number (both quark number and lepton number). For states with a vanishing fermion number isometry charges therefore vanish. In this framework matter antimatter asymmetry would be due to the fact that matter (antimatter) corresponds to positive (negative) energy parts of zero energy states for massive systems so that the contributions to the net gravitational four-momentum are of same sign. Antimatter would be unobservable to us because it resides at negative energy space-time sheets. As a matter fact, I proposed already years ago that gravitational mass is magnitude of the inertial mass but gave up this idea.

  4. Bosons do not couple at all to gravitation if they are purely local bound states of fermion and anti-fermion at the same space-time sheet (say represented by generators of super conformal Kac-Moody algebra). Therefore the only possible identification of gauge bosons is as wormhole contacts. If the fermion and anti-fermion at the opposite throats of the contact correspond to positive and negative energy states the net energy receives a positive contribution from both sheets. If both correspond to positive (negative) energy the contributions to the net four-momentum have opposite signs.

For background and more reader friendly formulas see the section "Handful of problems with a common solution" of the chapter Construction of Quantum Theory: Symmetries of the book "Towards M-matrix".

Thursday, September 17, 2009

The latest vision about the role of hyperfinite factors in TGD

I realized of the importance of von Neumann algebras known as hyper-finite factors for more than half decade ago. The mathematics involved is extremely heavy technically and for a physicist at my age and with my brain the only reasonable goal is to understand this notion conceptually and see whether it relates naturally to own visions. Fermionic Fock space finding geometrization in quantum TGD is indeed a canonical representation for HFFs of II1 having very close relations to quantum groups, topological quantum field theories, statistical mechanics, etc.. so that there are excellent motivations for taking HFFs of various types seriously.

It is clear that at least the hyper-finite factors of type II1 assignable to WCW (world of classical worlds) spinors must have a profound role in TGD. Whether also HFFS of type III1 appearing in relativistic quantum field theories emerge when WCW spinors are replaced with spinor fields in WCW is not completely clear. I have proposed several ideas about the role of hyper-finite factors in TGD framework. In particular, inclusions of factors and Connes tensor product provide an excellent candidate for defining the notion of measurement resolution.

The perspective provided by zero energy ontology, the recent advances in the understanding of M-matrix at QFT limit using the notion of bosonic emergence, as well as the more mature view about what these mysterious factors are, motivate a fresh discussion of the subject. There are several question to be considered but before posing these questions it is good to give some references.

1. Basic notions related to factors

It would take too much text to explain the basic ideas and facts of factors so that I give links to references that I have used with comments.

  1. There is Wikipedia article about von Neumann algebras. Hyper-finite factors of type II1, II and type III1 are of special importance from TGD point of view. HFFs of type III1 are encountered also in quantum field theories.

  2. The slides of Longo with title Operator Algebras and Index Theorems in Quantum Field Theory should be useful. In particular, it explains Tomita-Takesaki formula, which turned out to have very nice interpretation in zero energy ontology. The ordinary fermionic Fock space does not satisfy the conditions of the theorem (existence of cyclic and separable state) but the space formed by zero energy states naturally does so. Positive and negative energy parts of zero energy states for which vacua are annihilated by creation resp. annihilation operators corresponds to the decomposition of the space of bounded operators of Hilbert space to a "vee" product of factors and its commutant generalizing the tensor product in the description of mutually non-interacting systems.

  3. The article Von Neumann algebra automorphisms and time- thermodynamics relation in general covariant quantum theories of Connes and Rovelli should give ideas about physical interpretation. The insights given by article allowed to realize that the hope about the identification of the modular automorphism Δit as M-matrix for a complex value of t is not realistic.

  4. The article The role of Type III Factors in Quantum Field Theory by Yngvason gives a good idea about their role in relativistic QFT and helped to realize that WCW local Clifford algebra and WCW spinor fields from fixed causal diamond define naturally HFF of type II since isotropies correspond to group SO(3) leaving the tips of CD invariant. The extension to the union of WCWs associated with Lorentz boosts of CD would give naturally rise to HFF of type III1.

  5. Crossed product is an important concept which I have not applied earlier in TGD framework. Essentially semi-direct product of algebra with group is in question and under some assumptions gives rise to factor. Now the algebra is that of WCW spinor fields in CD and group Lorentz group transforming CDs. Crossed product construction leads to an understanding of factors in quantum TGD and it seems that the relevant factors in TGD framework are HFFs of type III1. The minimal choices for the group in question is Lorentz group and its non-compactness implies HFF of type III1 as a result. Translations acting on either tip of CD induce Lorentz transformation so that they induce also as modular automorphisms.

  6. KMS The notion of KMS state is important and gives a connection between thermodynamics and factors.

  7. A strongly TGD colored brief summary about basics of von Neumann algebras and the recent view about M-matrix contra HFFS can be found in the section "The latest vision about the role of HFFs in TGD" of the chapter Construction of Quantum Theory: M-matrix of "Towards S-matrix".

2. Conceptual problems

It is safest to start from the conceptual problems and take a role of skeptic.

  1. Under what conditions the assumptions of Tomita-Takesaki formula stating the existence of modular automorphism and isomorphy of the factor and its commutant hold true? What is the physical interpretation of the formula M¢=JMJ relating factor and its commutant in TGD framework? The answer turned out to be that positive and zero energy parts of the zero energy state relate in this manner and the transformation involves also time reflection with respect to the center of CD in rest frame of CD inducing transformation of light-like 3-surfaces and space-time surfaces to the time-mirrored counterparts.

  2. Is the identification M=Δit sensible is quantum TGD and zero energy ontology, where M-matrix is "complex square root" of exponent of Hamiltonian defining thermodynamical state and the notion of unitary time evolution is given up? The notion of state ω leading to Δ is essentially thermodynamical and one can wonder whether one should take also a "complex square root" of ω to get M-matrix giving rise to a genuine quantum theory.

  3. TGD based quantum measurement theory involves both quantum fluctuating degrees of freedom assignable to light-like 3-surfaces and zero modes identifiable as classical degrees of freedom assignable to interior of the space-time sheet. Zero modes have also fermionic counterparts. State preparation should generate entanglement between the quantal and classical states. What this means at the level of von Neumann algebras?

  4. What is the TGD counterpart for causal disjointness. At space-time level different space-time sheets could correspond to such regions whereas at imbedding space level causally disjoint CDs would represent such regions.

3. Technical problems

There are also more technical questions.

  1. What is the von Neumann algebra needed in TGD framework? Does one have a a direct integral over factors (at least direct integral over zero modes)? Which factors appear in it? Can one construct the factor as a crossed product of some group G with direct physical interpretation (say Lorentz group affecting CD) and of naturally appearing factor A? Is A a HFF of type II assignable to a fixed CD? What is the natural Hilbert space H in which A acts?

  2. What are the geometric transformations induced modular automorphisms of II inducing the scaling down of the trace? Is the action of G induced by the boosts in Lorentz group. Could also translations and scalings induce the action? What is the factor associated with the union of Poincare transforms of CD? log(Δ) is Hermitian algebraically: what does the non-unitarity of exp(log(Δ)it) mean physically?

  3. Could ω correspond to a vacuum which in conformal degrees of freedom depends on the choice of the sphere S2 defining the radial coordinate playing the role of complex variable in the case of the radial conformal algebra. Does *-operation in M correspond to Hermitian conjugation for fermionic oscillator operators and change of sign of super conformal weights?

The exponent of the modified Dirac action gives rise to the exponent of Kähler function as Dirac determinant and fermionic inner product defined by fermionic Feynman rules. It is implausible that this exponent could as such correspond to ω or Δit having conceptual roots in thermodynamics rather than QFT. If one assumes that the exponent of the modified Dirac action defines a "complex square root" of ω the situation changes. This raises technical questions relating to the notion of square root of ω.

  1. Does the complex square root of ω have a polar decomposition to a product of positive definite matrix (square root of the density matrix) and unitary matrix and does ω1/2 correspond to the modulus in the decomposition? Does the square root of Δ have similar decomposition with modulus equal equal to Δ1/2 in standard picture so that modular automorphism, which is inherent property of von Neumann algebra, would not be affected?

  2. Δit or rather its generalization is defined modulo a unitary operator defined by some Hamiltonian and is therefore highly non-unique as such. This non-uniqueness applies also to |Δ|. Could this non-uniqueness correspond to the thermodynamical degrees of freedom?

4. Cautious conclusions

The cautious conclusions are following.

  1. The notion of state as it appears in the theory of factors is not enough for the purposes of quantum TGD. The reason is that state in this sense is essentially the counterpart of thermodynamical state.

  2. The construction of M-matrix might be understood in the framework of factors if one replaces state with its "complex square root" natural if quantum theory is regarded as a "complex square root" of thermodynamics. The replacement of exponent of Hamiltonian with imaginary exponent of action is the counterpart for this generalization in QFT framework.

  3. The identification of Δit as M-matrix is not consistent with zero energy ontology and causal diamond as basic building block of WCW. It might be that the varying thermodynamical part of M-matrix -say that giving rise to p-adic thermodynamics- involves Δt.

  4. Also the idea that Connes tensor product could fix M-matrix is too optimistic but an elegant formulation in terms of partial trace for the notion of M-matrix modulo measurement resolution exists and Connes tensor product allows interpretation as entanglement between sub-spaces consisting of states not distinguishable in the measurement resolution used. The partial trace also gives rise to non-pure states naturally. M-matrix as a complex square root of ω could be determined uniquely from the condition of universality and the requirement that it decomposes to a tensor product of M-matrices associated with factors space M/N and N for any reasonable choices of N.

The challenge is to show that the identification of M-matrix as a "complex square root" of state ω is consistent with the definition of M-matrix using only the modified Dirac action for second quantized induced spinor fields identifiable as square root" of Kähler action emerges. The key idea is the notion of bosonic emergence used as a guideline in the construction of QFT limit of TGD and meaning that bosonic propagators and vertices emerge radiatively from fermionic loops.

For details see either the section "The latest vision about the role of HFFs in TGD" of the chapter Construction of Quantum Theory: M-matrix of the book "Towards S-matrix" or of the chapter Was von Neumann Right After All of the book "Overall View about TGD".

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Comments about M-matrix and Connes tensor product

I have proposed that the identification of M-matrix as Connes tensor product defined by finite measurement resolution could lead to a universal definition of dynamics. This hypothesis is fascinating but - mainly due to my poor understanding of HFFS of type II1 - has remained just an interesting hypothesis. In the following I represent a formulation of this idea which is more precise than the earlier formulations and take the role of skeptic and reconsider also hyper-finite factors of type III1 appearing in quantum field theories. I also consider the possibility that M-matrices could relate to a quantum variant of so called 2-vector space formulated by John Baez and collaborators.

1. Finite measurement resolution and M-matrix

Consider first the formulation of finite measurement resolution in terms of inclusions of HFFs of type II1.

  1. Finite measurement resolution means that M-matrix elements are defined by integrating- that is taking a trace- over the degrees of freedom defined by the sub-factor N subset M in the sense that states created by N from a given state do not differ from it in given measurement resolution. As a consequence,N takes the role of complex numbers in the ordinary quantum theory.
  2. This requires that the tensor product decomposition M= (M/N)⊗ N .

    exists in some sense. The factor space M/N could be seen as an analog of or even identical with a tensor product of quantum spinors with different quantum phases q=exp(i2π/n), n > 3, and would have a fractal quantum dimension fixed by the inclusion. Quantum spinors are finite-dimensional.

  3. Consider M-matrix elements M(r,n),(r1,n1), where r labels the states of M/N. Transition probabilities with a finite measurement resolution are defined by taking trace over N meaning summation over both n and n1. One obtains

    p(r1→ r2)=∑n,n1 M(r,n), (r1,n1) M+(r1,n1),(r,n) .

  4. The subscript '+' refers to Hermitian conjugation here.
  5. Suppose one multiplies the state by element n of N. Since one has a tensor product structure, the trace over N separates out so that one obtains a factor Tr(n+n) giving a multiplicative constant just as is obtained by multiplying the states appearing in the ordinary S-matrix by a constant. Note that the measurement resolution could be different for initial and final states: in this case the smaller algebra would serve as measurement algebra.

  6. The condition that N acts like complex numbers has not been used yet and the above picture makes sense even without this condition. For the ordinary S-matrix the action of complex number on final state affects S-matrix in the same manner as the action of its conjugate on initial state. Generalizing, in positive energy ontology S-matrix elements would be anti-linear with respect to (say) initial quantum states as inner product like and the action of element n on the final state would be equal to the action of n+ on the initial state. In zero energy ontology M-matrix is bilinear in positive and negative energy parts of the zero energy state. The condition that N acts like complex numbers means that the action of an element of N on the final final state in M-matrix induces the same effect as the action of n (-rather than that of n+) on the initial state. This condition is rather powerful and expected to determine the M-matrix highly uniquely.

  7. This picture does not require gauge invariance with respect to N. One can however consider also a stronger condition stating that the action of unitary elements of N act as gauge symmetries. In zero energy ontology this would mean that symmetries represent elements of infinite-dimensional orthogonal group.

  8. Connes tensor product makes sense also in construction of many-particle states and gives rise to irreducible entanglement not visible in measurement resolution.

2. How unique the Connes tensor product really is?

I have used to state in rather light hearted manner that Connes tensor product is highly unique but what the situation really is? Is my belief just a folk wisdom that I have gather somewhere? Let us try to think ourselves. How unique the M-matrix could be?

  1. The simplest solution to the conditions could be written as a formal tensor product M=M1⊗ M2, where M1 is M-matrix in M/N and M2 projection operator PN in to N. The appearance of PNN would say that in N degrees of freedom entanglement coefficients are identical and basic condition would be satisfied since PN would commute with elements of N. If one replaces PN with a more general operator, it must also commute with all elements of N, which means that it must represent direct sum of HFFs of type II1 since the definition property of factors is that only unit matrix commutes with all operators of the factor.

  2. This representation would suggest that M1 can be chosen completely freely as an analog of a complex square root of Hermitian density matrix. The skeptic would conclude that Connes tensor product does not say anything about the physically interesting part of M-matrix!

  3. This formal representation very probably does not make sense as such since M1 is tensor product of quantum spinor spaces and tensor product property might reveal itself only as a factorization of trace into a product of traces over M/N and N parts of the tensor product like structure.

This argument must be of course take as childish babbling of a poor physicist knowing nothing about the delicacies of this branch of mathematics. It is quite possible that the delicacies of the Connes tensor product bring in uniqueness.

3. Is the resulting M-matrix realistic?

Are there hopes that the resulting M-matrix is realistic?

  1. The resulting M-matrix defined in quantum Hilbert space has fractal quantum dimension. Since the unitary representations of quantum groups are finite-dimensional, one can expect that finite-dimensionality results. Therefore skeptic would ask whether the use of mere HFFs of type II1 is enough and whether the outcome is just a topological S-matrix of braid theories. This would be dissapointing. One can however easily add factor of type I as a tensor product factor to give HFF of type II giving also the structure of ordinary wave mechanics.

  2. The physical picture is that the orbits of fermions and antifermions at light-like 3-surfaces defined braids and the topological M-matrix can be assigned with the legs of generalized Feynman diagrams. The remaining configuration space degrees of freedom could correspond to factors of type I.

  3. In finite measurement resolution space-time surface decomposes to strings connecting the braid strands at different light-like 3-surfaces and this stringy interaction should guarantee that the theory does not reduce to a topological QFT. This interaction is between braids so that something new is needed. Does this something new allow a description in terms of finite measurement resolution too or is factor of type I enough? Or could the almost TQFT property mean that N does not act anymore like complex numbers so that Connes tensor product is deformed?
  4. One can also wonder what is the role of the dynamics in the parameters labeling the copies of HFF. One interpretaton is in terms of zero modes for the Kähler metric of world of classical worlds and therefore as non-quantum fluctuating degrees of freedom. One can also consider interpretation of superposition over these parameters in terms of thermodynamical degrees of freedom.

4. Should one replace HFFs of type II1 with HFFs of type III1?

These skeptic arguments encourage a serious reconsideration of an alternative approach for achieving uniqueness by extending the HFF of type II1 with HFF of type III1 (I have considered this generalization already earlier). The dream would be that any M-matrix with a finite measurement resolution is obtained from a universal M-matrix with infinite measurement resolution existing in some sense by tracing over HFF N of type III1 and multiplying by the projector to N. Tomita-Takesaki theorem raises the hope that this universal M-matrix indeed exists and is unique apart from the inner automorphisms of HFF of type III1 and complex parameter t whose real and imaginary parts have interpretation as time and temperature.

  1. In quantum field theories in Minkowski space hyper-finite factors of type III1 appear and it would not be surprising that they would appear also in quantum TGD. These factors can be expressed as so called crossed products of hyper-finite factors of type hyper-finite II factor and real numbers, whereas the latter correspond to a tensor product of hyper-finite II1 factor and I factor (for the basic wisdom about von Neumann algebras see this).

  2. One can assign to any M-matrix in factor M an M-matrix associated with any quantum space M/N by tracing over N. This could make sense also for HFFs of type III1. In this case the trace Tr(n*n) over N would be always infinite so that multiplication by operator of n of N would be analogous to a multiplication of the moduli square of S-matrix elements with an infinite scale factor. Maybe this relates to infinite multiplicative renormalization factors appearing in quantum field theories.

  3. Tomita-Takesaki theorem assumes a von Neuman algebra acting on complex Hilbert space and the existence of a cyclic state Ω of Hilbert space (vacuum state in physics). Furthermore, the existence of a faithful state ω(x) = (xΩ,Ω) satisfying by definition ω(x*x) > 0 is assumed. Faithful state is analogous to a thermodynamical ensemble. For any anti-linear operator S one has the polar decomposition S=JΔ1/2, where Δ = S*S > 0 is positive self-adjoint operator and J is anti-unitary involution with maps the algebra acting in Hilbert space to the algebra commutating with it by x→ JxJ. ω→ σωt = AdΔit is canonical "evolution" associated with ω and maps von Neumann algebra to itself. This automorphism is unique apart of inner automorphism and thus characterizes the von Neumann algebra itself. So called KMS condition holds true: ω(yx) =ω(σtω(x)y), t→ i, in the sense of analytic continuation. This condition is easy to understand by checking it for matrix algebras.

  4. The facts that the automorphism defined by Δ characterizes the algebra itself and the automorphism is non-trivial for factors of type III led Connes and Rovelli to propose that thermodynamics represents a deeper level of physics than Hamiltonian (unique apart from inner automorphism) defining it and one could define Lorentz invariance thermodynamical time using thermodynamics for von Neumann algebras of type III.

  5. In zero energy ontology where M-matrix corresponds to a generalized thermodynamical state a variant of this idea suggests itself. The automorphism for hyper-finite factor of type III1 would define M-matrix depending on complex parameter t apart from inner automorphism of the factor. The real part of the parameter t would correspond to the Lorentz invariant temporal distance between the tips of CD quantized in powers of 2. Imaginary part of t would correspond to the inverse temperature.

5. The notion of 2-vector space and entanglement with finite measurement resolution

John Baez and collaborators are playing with very formal looking formal structures by replacing vectors with vector spaces. Direct sum and tensor product serve as basic arithmetic operations for vector spaces and one can define category of n-tuples of vectors spaces with morphisms defined by linear maps between vectors spaces of the tuple. n-tuples allow also elementwise product and sum. The obtain results which make them happy. For instance, the category of linear representations of give group forms 2-vector spaces since direct sums and tensor products of representations as well as n-tuples make sense. The 2-vector space however looks more or less trivial from the point of physics.

The situation could become more interesting in quantum measurement theory with finite measurement resolution described in terms of inclusions of hyperfinite factors of type II1. The reason is that Connes tensor product replaces ordinary tensor product and brings in interactions via irreducible entanglement as a representation of finite measurement resolution. The category in question could give Connes tensor products of quantum state spaces and describing interactions. For instance, one could multiply M-matrices via Connes tensor product to obtain category of M-matrices having also the structure of 2-operator algebra.

  1. The included algebra represents measurement resolution and this means that the infinite-D sub-Hilbert spaces obtained by the action of this algebra replace the rays. Sub-factor takes the role of complex numbers in generalized QM so that one would obtain non-commutative quantum mechanics. For instance, quantum entanglement for two systems of this kind would not be between rays but between infinite-D subspaces corresponding to sub-factors. One could build a generalization of QM by replacing rays with sub-spaces. It seems that quantum group concept does more or less this: the states in representations of quantum groups could be seen as infinite-dimensional Hilbert spaces.

  2. One could speak about both operator algebras and corresponding state spaces modulo finite measurement resolution as quantum operator algebras and quantum state spaces with fractal dimension defined as factor space like entities obtained from HFF by dividing with the action of included HFF. Possible values of the fractal dimension are fixed completely for Jones inclusions. Maybe these quantum state spaces could define the notions of quantum 2-Hilbert space and 2-operator algebra via direct sum and tensor production operations. Fractal dimensions would make the situation interesting both mathematically and physically.

Suppose one takes the fractal factor spaces as the basic structures and keeps the information about inclusion.

  1. Direct sums for quantum vectors spaces would be just ordinary direct sums with HFF containing included algebras replaced with direct sum of included HFFs.

  2. The tensor products for quantum state spaces and quantum operator algebras are not anymore trivial. The condition that measurement algebras act effectively like complex numbers would require Connes tensor product involving irreducible entanglement between elements belonging to the two HFFs. This would have direct physical relevance since this entanglement cannot be reduced in state function reduction.

  3. The sequences of super-conformal symmetry breakings identifiable in terms of inclusions of super-conformal algebras and corresponding HFFs could have a natural description using the 2-Hilbert spaces and quantum 2-operator algebras.

For background see the chapter Construction of Quantum Theory: M-matrix of "Towards M-matrix".

My defence statement

Following von Neumann known from his factors of type I, II, and III, one could classify mathematicians to those of type I and type II. I hope that mathematicians do not feel insulted by this kind of classifications;-).

Mathematicians of type I believe in the uniqueness of those mathematical structures, which are really God given. Classical number fields and groups would be the basic example about God-given-ness. Also physics would be fixed uniquely by the condition of the mathematical existence of the theory and by its maximal richness.

Mathematicians of type II prefer genericity. Everything that can be imagined is possible. In physics this would mean that space-time dimension four just happens to be 4 in this particular corner of the multiverse and symmetries of physics - if real rather than figments of our imagination - just happen to be just those of standard model in this little pocket of multiverse.

String theorist began as mathematicians of type I and were fascinated by the idea that they had the theory of everything allowing to calculate proton mass to arbitrary number digits within decade or two. As they suffered a phase transition to M-theorists they woke up as mathematicians of type II and realized how wonderful it after all is that M-theory predicts nothing. Lubos is one of few exceptions. Personally I am also still of type I and I can only represent excuses for my conservatism. I hope that jury bothers to listen for humanitarian reasons if not for anything else.

  1. The Kähler geometry of the worlds of classical worlds is unique already for loop spaces. In 3-D context there are excellent hopes that even the imbedding and therefore symmetries of physics can be fixed from the existence condition. The basic outcome is that infinite-dimensional symmetries are not figments of our imagination: they are absolutely essential for the infinite-dimensional geometric existence. Extended super-conformal invariance indeed fixes space-time dimension correctly and implies M4×S decomposition for imbedding space.

  2. The isometries of this particular infinite-D space which has the special property that it exists and also of corresponding finite-dimensional imbedding space must have very special meaning. Number theoretic one is the natural guess. Classical number fields and their complexifixations are natural here.

  3. The choice of S remains to be fixed from number theoretic considerations. The existence of M8-M4×CP2 duality ("number theoretical compactification") with M8 is interpreted as hyper-octonionic plane of complexified octonions with Minkowskian metric, means the possibility to map space-time surfaces identified as hyper-quaternionic surfaces of M8 to M4xCP2. This map preservers induced metric and Kahler form. Standard model symmetries are the outcome.

M8-M4× CP2 duality implies also the core element of gauge invariance and stringy picture.

  1. Only if the hyper-quaternionic plane assignable to a point of space-time surface contains preferred M2 (hypercomplex plane) of M8 having interpretation as plane of non-physical polarizations, it can be labeled by a point of CP2 so that the map of X4 in M8 to X4 in M4×CP2 exists naturally and maps M4 point to M4 point and hyper-quaternionic plane to CP2 point.This is the physical essence of gauge conditions. It seems to be possible to assume that the choices of the preferred polarization plane is local.

  2. The duality also implies decomposition of space-time surface to string world sheets parameterized by partonic 2-surface and in finite measurement resolution implying the replacement of partonic 2-surface by a discrete set of points, the replacement of space-time surface with string world sheets.

Therefore the existence of the geometry of the world of classical worlds plus classical number theory would imply both gauge invariance and stringy description in finite measurement resolution besides M4×CP2 and 4-dimensionality of space-time.

That was my defence. Jury can decide;-).

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Condensed matter monopoles found

Kram sent me a New Scientist story telling about the finding of condensed matter monopoles. I decided to write something about this but Lubos was faster than me in his reactions and I can only recommend his blog for explanation what Dirac monopoles are and what the condensed matter monopoles are not. Lubos gives also link to a popular article in Nature and also other links. Unfortunately, the article Dirac Strings and Magnetic Monopoles in Spin Ice Dy2Ti2O7 itself is not freely accessible.

As Lubos tells, the monopoles are not Dirac monopoles with quantized magnetic charge, which are not allowed by the gauge invariance of Maxwell equations in topologically trivial space-time. They do not seem to be GUT monopoles either. Rather, they seem to correspond to magnetic flux tubes having opposite effective magnetic charges at their ends. This kind of objects are imaginable even in the standard Maxwellian theory. It is however important to notice that the flux must continue beyond the ends by a conservation of magnetic flux if Maxwell's equation in flat space are true so that the ends are fictive to some extent. What one can think in Minkowski space is the analog of a bar magnet with return flux dispersing at the ends of magnet.

These Dirac strings are very interesting from TGD point of view since CP2 has a non-trivial topology. The fact that the second homology group is non-trivial (integers) means that there are non-contractible 2-surfaces in CP2. These surfaces are characterized homologically by integer valued Kähler magnetic flux. These monopoles are not Dirac monopoles but homological monopoles for which the topological half of Maxwell's equations remains true (Faraday's induction law and vanishing of divergence of magnetic field).

Since the projection of Kähler form to space-time defines Maxwell's field (part of electromagnetic field and under some conditions all of it) these homological monopoles can appear at space-time level.

  1. If space-time surfaces are orientable, these monopoles appear always as pairs with opposite Kähler magnetic charges.

  2. For CP2 type vacuum extremals representing elementary fermions the flux is confined inside CP2 rather than flowing radially out. Same is true for a piece of CP2 type vacuum extremal representing gauge boson as a wormhole contact.

  3. If one allows non-orientable space-time surfaces so that homology becomes Z2 valued also genuine monopoles carrying even value of magnetic charge are possible. I would guess that CP2 projection of space-time surface must be non-orientable in this case. Klein bottle and Möbius strip imbedded in CP2 could server as basic examples. By gluing handles one obtains more complex non-orientable 2-surfaces.

Let us restrict the consideration mostly to the orientable case.

  1. Magnetic flux tubes at the ends of string like objects (cosmic strings with enormous string tension) would be the basic realization. Simplest extremal is just Cartesian product X2× Y2, where X2 is string orbit in M4 and Y2 a complex sub-manifold of CP2. Cosmic strings are basic objects in TGD inspired very early cosmic string dominated cosmology when space-time sheets had not yet emerged. During cosmic evolution these flux tubes would widen to magnetic flux tubes carrying arbitrary weak magnetic field. These flux tubes could (dare I say "would"?) be still present. I would guess that non-orientable 2-surfaces of CP2 do not allow a representation as complex manifolds so that I would not expect them to give rise to cosmic string like objects.

  2. Fermions correspond in TGD Universe to light-like 3-surfaces separating so called CP2 type vacuum extremal with Euclidian signature of metric from space-time sheet with Minkowskian signature of metric. This light-like 3-surface can be interpreted as an orbit of a partonic 2-surface and besides fermionic quantum numbers could carry magnetic charge so that magnetically charged variants leptons and quarks could exist. A good guess is that these states are very massive. One would have a long ranged radial magnetic field and the second member of monopole pair could correspond to the outer boundary of the space-time sheet. Whether boundary conditions allow this is not clear.

  3. Also bosonic variants of monopoles are possible. Gauge bosons are identified as wormhole contacts (piece of CP2 type vacuum extremal) connecting space-time sheets with Minkowskian signature of metric and there would be pair of throats carrying opposite magnetic charges. Throats could carry fermionic and anti-fermionic quantum numbers so that all gauge bosons and possible Higgs particle could have magnetically charged variants. In two-sheeted space-time picture one would have magnetic dipoles with magnetic charges extremely near to each other . From the point of view of either space-time sheet one would have monopole carrying classical magnetic field giving rise to a genuine force.

  4. I have proposed that magnetic flux in super-conductors could be transferred between space-time sheets through these kind of wormhole contacts carrying at its throats opposite magnetic charges possibly carrying also other elementary particle numbers and behaving as bosons. The magnetic flux tubes observed in superconductors could enter to the super-conductor from a larger space-time sheet and return to it through this kind of wormhole throats.

There is also a much more mundane possibility but still representing something new. Flux tubes could be just flux tubes with outer boundary (of form X2× S2, D2 disk, rather than of form X1× Y2. Y2 closed manifold in CP2) and beginning from the boundary of space-time sheet or from wormhole throat and carrying magnetic flux which need not satisfy Dirac condition. Condensed matter monopoles could be this kind of objects.

Notice that spin glasses in which the Dirac fluxes are observed are systems in which the direction of magnetization is frozen in a given patch but varies from patch to patch. In TGD framework the notion of 4-D spin glass landscape emerges naturally from the vacuum degeneracy of Kähler action meaning same for 4-D space-time region so that kind of dynamical spin glass would be in question.

For background see the chapters General View About Physics in Many-Sheeted Space-Time: Part I and General View About Physics in Many-Sheeted Space-Time: Part II of "Physics in Many-Sheeted Space-time".

Friday, September 04, 2009

Videos about TGD

I have at my home page videos summarizing both the basic ideas of TGD and the visions behind quantum TGD. My intention is to build a kind of video library about TGD gradually.

The motivations for seeing this trouble are two-fold. The amount of material at my home page is so enormous that many a visitor might leave it in despair. These short information bursts containing only the essentials (because of my laziness!;-)) might help to build an overall view.

There are also selfish motivations. Talking and explaining is very important for anyone making research. For reasons which I do not want to go here, this has not been possible for me. The preparing of the videos help in this respect. This talking to web camera also feeds the theory literally into the spine and allows easier identification of inconsistencies in texts and even some new idea can pop up now and then. I hope my broken English is not an insurmountable difficulty.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

About life as a scientific dissident in Finland

Life as a scientific dissident in Finland keeps the stress hormones level high. I have been unemployed for most of my professional life. This has been the only possible manner for me to do science. In a norm ethics based on dead rules my strategy of survival could be regarded as a misuse of unemployment money. My ethics however relies on real values rather than blind rules, and my basic values imply that I would be criminal, if I would waste my life by doing something just for money and gaining easy social acceptance.

I must emphasize that I have had no other options than this. A person whose work can be regarded as Nobel risk becomes automatically Out-of-Law in Finnish academic circles. In my case this happened when John Wheeler- one of the greatest physicists of last century and teacher of Feynman- wrote a review about my first published paper and regarded the work as brilliant. They could not prevent the publication of the work as thesis but the Dear Brother Net has taken care that I have had not received not a single coin from a work that I have done these 28 years after the thesis. Of course, I did not receive any support even before this but for a short period after thesis I really thought of having the same rights as those who had needed an advisor for their thesis.

I received the latest dose of stress hormones yesterday. First some background. The right wing has been for some years in power in Finland and they have done a lot to make my life difficult. For instance, I must participate regularly into meetings in which plans are made in order to that I would get a job in future. This is of course just a theater: people in employment office know that I am fully occupied top scientist and would make a hunger strike if forced to stop my work. They are decent human beings and regret that they have no other option than to force me to participate this farce producing a lot of trash paper and wasting money of tax payers.

The newest bright idea of these right wing politicians is what they call "activation" of long term un-employed people. The victim receives a letter in which he is invited to a discussion in which "we together decide how to help you". Also I received this kind of letter yesterday. In practice "activation" means frightening of the victim to take a job of any kind irrespective of the background education. The letter makes clear that if I am not willing to participate this "activation" process, I will loose both the unemployment money and the support from the social office. This is against constitutional law guaranteeing a minimum income so that I will not die to hunger but these right wing politicians do not care too much about this kind of details.

I took a phone call to the employment office and told that I do not need any help. I am not an alcoholist, I do not use drugs, I am not socially handicapped, I have no problems of mental health. Simply: I do not want to be "activated" since I am extremely active already now. I am sitting at computer terminal 8-12 hours per day and thinking intensively also the rest of time. I have written during last month a new chapter to one of books, transformed all 15 books to net books with references realized as web links, just now I am busily preparing video lectures about TGD, I am doing my best to communicate my life work through my homepage and via discussions, etc., etc. This all is in vain. I am not paid for this activity so that I am not "active" in the sense they define activity. Therefore I need "help" and they are going to "help" me irrespective of whether I want or not.

What can I do? Should I try to tell these decision makers or perhaps even some colleagues in Finland that the best manner to help me would be an address to highest decisions makers containing sufficiently many names and telling about the horrible situation in the academic world of Finland: is it really impossible to anything for this mafia of old envious men? Of course not! This would be useless since all these people known that in Finland there are no mafias - and certainly not in the Finnish academic world. Besides this, Finland is the only country in the world where there is no corruption -as also media has told us all these years! Think about that! Instead, we have this wonderful Dear Brother Net. No written documents... if you understand what I mean;-)! It is not even necessarily to say anything aloud...;-)! Just a favor and the counter favor when it is needed;-)!

Monday, August 31, 2009

A resolution of cosmological entropy paradox

Anonymous made an interesting question about how TGD solves the cosmological entropy paradox. The initial state of cosmology seems to be maximum entropy state. The recent state should have even larger entropy if second law holds. One can however argue that this is not the case.

The TGD inspired proposal is that the resolution of cosmological entropy paradox relates to the relationship between subjective and geometric time.

  1. It is subjective time with respect to which second law holds true. It corresponds to the geometric time of observer only locally.

  2. One can apply second law only for to what happens inside 4-D causal diamond (CD) corresponding to the time scale of observations: in positive energy ontology second law is applied at fixed value of geometric time and this leads to problems. In cosmology the relevant CD extends from the moment of big bang and to the recent time or even farther to geometric future. The idea that entropy grows as a function of cosmic time is simply wrong if you accept zero energy ontology.

More concretely.

  1. In each quantum jump re-creating entire 4-D Universe the entire geometric future and past changes.

  2. Initial state of big bang in geometric sense(!)- the zero energy states associated with small CDs near the light-cone boundary corresponding to Big Bang- are replaced by a new one at every moment of subjective time. Hence the "subjectively recent" initial state of Big Bang can be assumed to have maximum entropy as also states after that when the time scale of observations (size of CD) is the age of the universe. Gradually the entire geometric past ends up to a maximum entropy state in time scales below the time scale characterizing the time scale of observations. Thermal equilibrium in 4-D sense rather than 3-D sense results and the paradox disappears.

Note: The breaking of strict classical determinism of Kahler action allowing CDs within CDs picture is essential mathematical prerequisite: otherwise this picture does not make sense. It makes possible also space-time correlates for quantum jump sequence rather than only for quantum states.

Note: One proposal for the resolution of entropy paradox could relate to generation of black holes with large entropy. In TGD framework this does not work since for gravitational Planck constant the value of black hole entropy is ridiculously small.

Friday, August 28, 2009

The planet that should not exist

There is an interesting news story about a planet that should not exist. Thanks to Kea also for additional references: see this and this. The exoplanet is so close to its Sun that it should have spiralled long ago to the Sun. For some reason this has not happened.

The finding brings in mind more than hundred year old problem: why the electron orbiting atom did not spiral into atomic nucleus? The solution of the puzzle was provided by the discovery of quantum theory. The postulate was that electron moves on Bohr orbits and can make only transitions between the Bohr orbits emitting light in these transitions. There is minimum value for the radius of Bohr orbit. Later wave mechanism emerged from Bohr model.

TGD view about dark matter suggests an analogous solution to the astrophysical variant of this puzzle. Planets correspond to Bohr orbits but for a gigantic value of Planck constant whose value is dictated by Equivalence Principle to high degree. This Planck constant could be assigned to the space-time sheet mediating gravitational interaction or even with matter. This means astroscopic quantum coherence and the interpretation is that astroscopic quantum coherence is associated with dark matter around which visible matter condenses and makes in this manner visible the quantum character of dark matter.

That the planet does not spiral to the star means smallness of dissipation and this is guaranteet by the large value of hbar. The naive estimate is that dissipation rate is proportional to the inverse of hbar. As Donkerheid noticed also Mars-Phobos forms a similar mysterious system and the explanation would be same.

A more refined view about the situation is in terms of light-like 3-surfaces, which are basic dynamical objects in quantum TGD. At elementary particle level their size is about CP2 size (about 104 Planck lengths). Also macroscopic and even astroscopic sizes are possible and this would be the case for dark matter for which Planck constant and thus also quantum scales are scaled up. Note that light-like 3-surfaces are boundaries between regions of space-time with Euclidian and Minkowskian signature of metric. The recent TGD inspired vision about Universe is as a kind of Indra's net formed by light-like 3-surfaces appearing in all length scales and having extremely complex topology. For details see the chapter Anyons and Quantum Hall Effect of "Towards M-matrix" explaining Quantum Hall Effect in terms of macroscopic light-like 3-surfaces and suggesting that this kind of anyonic phases are realized also in astrophysical scales for dark matter.

Amusingly, the counterpart of Planck length scaling as (hbar G)1/2 is apart from numerical constant equal to (v0)-1/2 GM (2GM is Scharschild radius) if one assumes that hbar= GM2/v0 is associated with an astrophysical system with mass M: v0/c ≈ 2-11 holds true for the inner planets in the solar system. Planck length would be few orders of magnitude larger than Schwartscild radius so that Planck scale physics would be scaled up to astrophysical length scale! Black-hole entropy which is proportional to 1/hbar is of order unity and would be extremely small for the ideally dark black-hole. Obviously M-theorists would be forced to reconsider the physcal significance of their black hole entropy calculations if this picture is correct.

The interested reader can consult the chapter Quantum Astrophysics of "Physics in Many-Sheeted Space-time" and the chapter Anyons and Quantum Hall Effect of "Towards M-matrix".

Did Boltzmann understand all about time?

Lubos Motl wrote a pedagogical review about the notion of time. The title of the posting is "The arrow of time: understood for 100 years". As a conservative Lubos believes that all interesting things about time were said by Boltzmann already before the birth of quantum theory. Second law would summarize all that is interesting. Lubos is also impatient about the fact that there are still people who feel that the nature of time is not fully understood.

The core of the Boltzmannian view about time is simple to summarize.

  1. The time development can be seen as analogous to Markov process. To continue, let us introduce discrete time tn = n×Δt. One could regard this as a technical simplification but will find that Δt has interpretation as time scale of quantum coherence.

  2. Physical events are identified as transitions from state i to state j taking place during time interval Δt and the probabilities P(i,j) characterize them. The probability of state i at time t=tn is given by p(i,tn) and once the probabilities p(i,0) for initial state are given by summing the probabilities over all paths j→k→...→i leading from j to i and calculating the average over the initial states

    p(i,tn)= ∑j (Pn)(i,j)× p(j,0).

    This formula leads to the second law stating the increase of entropy defined by Shannon formula.

There are several unpleasant questions that Lubos leaves out of consideration.

  1. Boltzmann's approach was developed before the advent of quantum mechanics but involves classical probabilistic approach not very natural in classical physics. Quantum theory indeed allows to calculate the transition probabilities p(i,j) from first principles. There are however deep interpretational problems. Can one say when quantum transition -state function reduction - breaking the deterministic Schrödinger evolution really takes place? How long is the period of non-determinism if it occurs? Is the non-determinism really assignable to the geometric time or could it be that the relationship between the geometric time and experienced time is what we do not actually understand? These are basic problems of quantum measurement theory which is a useful bag of calculational recipes but does not really deserve to be called a theory.

  2. At the technical level these problems are avoided by assuming that transitions take place during an infinitely long time interval. This idealization means that quantum coherence is present in infinitely long time scale. The resulting probability proportional to a square of energy conserving delta function is transformed to a rate by dividing with the length of this infinitely long time interval dividing away one delta function expressing the conservation of energy. One can feed the resulting rates to kinetic equations and assume that quantum coherence is present only in infinitely short time scales. Do not get frustrated: this is the situation! One can guess that there must be some finite time scale for which quantum coherence and sum over amplitudes makes sense and in longer time scales one must use Boltzmann's discretized approach and sum over probabilities.

There are also problems related to the justification of probabilistic approach.

  1. To some degree this picture could be formally justified by using path integral formulation of quantum field theory. What one must do is to replace the modulus squared for the path integral approximated with a sum over discrete paths with a sum in which all interference terms are neglected. This means a de-coherence. This kind of approximation can be defended by saying that due to the small value ofΔt in the example discussed. Do we really understand the origin and mechanisms of de-coherence? Could de-coherence have a more detailed description involving perhaps new physics?

  2. De-coherence assumption is rather strong in the many-sheeted space-time of TGD. TGD based view about dark matter as a hierarchy of phases partially labeled by Planck constant predicts macroscopic quantum coherence even in astrophysical time and length scales so that the Markovian view can be used only if one restricts the consideration to processes in definite time scale below the natural time scale characterizing the time intervals during which observations are made.

The basic problem of this approach is that the observer is not part of the Universe. In classical physics observer was a complete outsider and in quantum measurement theory the situation remains the same although the measurement interaction leading to state function reduction affects the measured system.

TGD inspired theory of consciousness can be seen as a generalization of the quantum measurement theory to resolve its basic paradox by making observer part of the Universe via the notion of self as well as to understand the differences and relation between the time of physics (geometric time) and experienced time by identifying the chronon of latter as quantum jump defining moment of consciousness.

  1. The outcome is what I call zero energy ontology. Zero energy states are pairs of positive and negative energy states localizable to the upper and lower boundaries of causal diamonds defined as intersections of future and past directed light-cones of Minkowski space (and taking Cartesian product with CP2). There are CDs within CDs and they form a hierarchy.

  2. The hierarchy of CDs is also a correlate for a hierarchy of conscious entities which I refer to as selves. CD represents the perceptive field of self. CD represents correlate for quantum jump identified as the chronon of experienced time and there is an infinite hierarchy of chronons. CD also defines also quantum coherence region inside which the sum over probabilities must be replaced with the sum over amplitudes so that Boltzmann's kinetic description fails.

  3. The notion of time measurement resolution reduces to the time scale of CD. If this time scale comes as powers of 2, p-adic length scale hypothesis follows. One would have a hierarchy of physics realized in different p-adic length and time scales characterized by primes near integer powers of 2.

  4. Although one has quantum coherence in a given time scale (CD), it is possible to have de-coherence in shorter time scale (sub-CDs). The description of hadronic reactions in terms of quarks and gluons using kinetic distributions defined in relatively short time and length scales and the description of hadrons using wave functions defined in considerably longer scales is a good example about de-coherence within coherence.

  5. This gives hopes about improved understanding of the second law in living matter. The essentially new notion is that of scale: when one speaks about second law one must specify the time scale in which it is applied. Only if applier is CD modeling what happens in the ensemble of sub-CDs this description works. If one tries to understand what happens in CDs characterized by time scale longer than the natural time scale of the observation- the approach fails. These CDs are expected to be highly relevant in biology.

I will not continue here further but give instead a link to the article About the Nature of Time and also a link to a video summarizing the recent view about the relation between geometric and subjective time: this includes explanation for the emergence of the arrow of time and for the fact that the contents of sensory experience are about very narrow time interval although one would expect that entire CD determines the contents of also sensory experience. I hope that I do not sound too authoritative and that my badly broken English is not too painful an experience;-).

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Is N=8 supergravity finite?

Kram sent to me a link to a highly interesting popular article relating to N=8 supergravity. Zvi Bern and collaborators have been able make a progress in attempt to prove the finiteness of N=8 supergravity. Work has been done during one decade: good to learn during the age of hyper hype physics that work in this time scale is still done. For some reason the work has not been commented by Lubos nor by others. If the finiteness is true, one can only admire the incredible power of Einstein's conceptualization.

I have not anything interesting to say about the topic but I can give link to Vanquishing Infinity: Old Methods Lead To New Approach To Finding Quantum Theory Of Gravity.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Three new physics realizations of the genetic code and the role of dark matter in bio-systems

TGD inspired quantum biology leads naturally to the idea that several realizations of genetic code exist. Besides the realizations based on temporal patterns of electromagnetic fields I have considered three different new physics realizations of the genetic code based the notions of many-sheeted space-time, magnetic body, and the hierarchy of Planck constants explaining dark matter in TGD framework.

  1. The first realization - proposed in the model for DNA as topological quantum computer (tqc) - maps the nucleotides A,G and T,C to dark quarks u,d and their anti-quarks assignable to the ends of magnetic flux tubes representing braid strands and connecting nucleotides to lipids of cell membrane.

  2. Second realization was discovered in the model of dark nuclei as strings of dark baryons. Dark baryons realize codons in terms of quantum entanglement and without decomposition to letters. Dark baryons are strings of 3 quarks connected by two color flux tubes. The neutral states of the dark baryon predicted by the model are in 1-1 correspondence with DNA, RNA, aminoacids. Candidates for the counterparts of tRNA anticodons are also obtained if one accepts that genetic code actually decomposes to 2 steps 64→40→20 such that there are 40 dark baryon counterparts for tRNA anticodons. The amazing finding is that vertebrate genetic code comes out correctly.

  3. The third realization is a physical realization for the divisor code proposed by Khrennikov and Nilsson. The realization relies on two integers labeling magnetic flux tubes containing dark matter. The dark magnetic flux tubes assignable to DNA codons and amino-acids could be labeled by these integers providing a representation of the genetic code consistent with the divisor code. Also a physical mechanism implying the physical equivalence of the dark baryon code and divisor code can be imagined.

The basic proposal is that dark baryon counterparts of basic bio-molecules and genetic code were present from beginning and gave rise to pre-biotic life at the magnetic flux tubes so that the evolution of biological life meant the development of translation and transcription mechanisms allowing to transform dark baryon variants of the codons to their chemical variants. These mechanisms would be still at work inside the living cell and allow the living matter to perform genetic engineering. This proposal is consistent with recent findings about large variations of genomes inside organism.

There is a strange experimental finding by a roup led by a HIV Nobel winner Montagnier giving support for this picture. A water solution containing human cells infected by bacteria is sterilized by a filtering procedure and healthy cells are added to the filtrate. Within few weeks the infected cells re-appear. A possible explanation is that dark baryon variant of the bacterial genome realized as nano-sized particles remains in the solution despite the filtering.

The codes are discussed from the point of view of DNA as tqc hypothesis and the model for protein folding and bio-catalysis. The basic selection rules of bio-catalysis could be based on the two integers assignable to the dark magnetic flux tubes. Only bio-molecules whose dark magnetic bodies contain a layer characterized by same integers can be connected by dark magnetic flux tubes. The reconnection of the dark magnetic flux tubes selecting the bio-molecules participating the catalytic reaction and the contraction of these flux tubes induced by a phase transition reducing Planck constant and forcing the bio-molecules near to each other would represent basic mechanisms of bio-catalysis.

For background see the new chapter Three new physics realizations of the genetic code and the role of dark matter in bio-systems of "Genes and Memes".

Monday, August 10, 2009

In what sense c could be changing in solar system?

There have been continual claims that the speed of light in solar system is decreasing. The latest paper about this is by Sanejouand and to my opinion must be taken seriously. The situation is summarized by an excerpt from the abstract of the article:

The empirical evidences in favor of the hypothesis that the speed of light decreases by a few centimeters per second each year are examined. Lunar laser ranging data are found to be consistent with this hypothesis, which also provides a straightforward explanation for the so-called Pioneer anomaly, that is, a time-dependent blue-shift observed when analyzing radio tracking data from distant spacecrafts, as well as an alternative explanation for both the apparent time-dilation of remote events and the apparent acceleration of the Universe.

Before one can speak about change of c seriously, one must specify precisely what the measurement of speed of light means. In GRT framework speed of light is by definition a constant in local Minkowski coordinates. It seems very difficult to make sense about varying speed of light since c is purely locally defined notion.

  1. In TGD framework space-time as abstract manifold is replaced by 4-D surface in H=M4×CP2 (forgetting complications due to the hierarchy of Planck constants). This brings in something new: the sub-manifold geometry allowing to look space-time surfaces "from outside", from H-perspective. The shape of the space-time surface appears as new degrees of freedom. This leads to the explanation of standard model symmetries, elementary particle quantum numbers and geometrization of classical fields, the dream of Einstein. Furthermore, CP2 length scale provides a universal unit of length and p-adic length scale hypothesis brings in an entire hierarchy of fixed meter sticks defined by p-adic length scales. The presence of imbedding space M4×CP2 brings in light-like geodesics of M4 for which c is maximal and by a suitable choice of units could be taken c=1.

  2. In TGD framework the operational definition for the speed of light at given space-time sheet is in terms of the time taken for light to propagate from point A to B along space-time sheet. In TGD framework this can occur via several routes because of many-sheeted structure and each sheet gives its own value for c. Even if space-time surface is only warped (no curvature) this time is longer than along light-like geodesic of M4(×CP2) and the speed of light measured in this manner is reduced from its maximal value. The light-like geodesics of M4 serve as universal comparison standards when one measures speed of light - something which GRT does not provide.

What TGD then predicts?

  1. TGD inspired cosmology predicts that c measured in this manner increases in cosmological scales, just the opposite for what Louise Riofrio claims. The reason is that strong gravitation makes space-surface strongly curved and it takes more time to travel from A to B during early cosmology. This means that TGD based explanation has different cosmological consequences as that of Riofrio. For instance, Hubble constant depends on the space-time sheet in TGD framework.

  2. The paradox however disappears since local systems like solar system do not normally participate in cosmic expansion as predicted by TGD. This is known also experimentally. In TGD Universe local systems could however participate cosmic expansion in average sense via phase transitions increasing Planck constant of the appropriate space-time sheet and thus increasing its size. The transition would occur in relatively short time scales: this provides new support for expanding Earth hypothesis needed to explain the fact that continents fit nicely together to form single super continent covering entire Earth if the radius of Earth is by a factor 1/2 smaller than its recent radius (see this).

  3. If one measures the speed of light in local system and uses its cosmic value taken constant by definition (fixing particular coordinate time) then one indeed finds that the speed of light is decreasing locally and the decrease should be expressible in terms of Hubble constant.

  4. TGD based explanation of Pioneer anomaly can be based on completely analogous reasoning.

Addition: I added a videoclip about varying light velocity here.

For background see for instance the chapter TGD and Astrophysics of "p-Adic length Scale Hypothesis and Dark Matter Hierarchy".

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Indications for excited states of Z0 boson

Tommaso Dorigo is a highly inspiring physics blogger since he writes from the point of view of experimental physicist without the burden of theoretical dogmas and does not behave aggressively;-). I share with him also the symptons of splitting of personality to fluctuation-enthusiast and die-hard skeptic. This makes life interesting but not easy. This time Tommaso told about the evidence for new neutral gauge boson states in high energy ppbar collisions. The title of the posting was A New Z' Boson at 240 GeV? No, Wait, at 720!?.

1. The findings

The title tells that the tentative interpretation of these states are as excited states of Z0 boson and that the masses of the states are around 240 GeV and 720 GeV. The evidence for the new states comes from electron-positron pairs in relatively narrow energy interval produced by the decays of the might-be-there gauge boson. This kind of decay is an especially clean signature since strong interaction effects are not present and it appears at sharp energy.

240 GeV bump was reported by CDF last year in ppbar collisions at cm energy s1/2=1.96 TeV. The probability that it is a fluctuation is .6 per cent. What is encouraging that also D0 found the same bump. Tommaso explains much better the experimental side so that I need not lose that little credibility that I might still have. If the particle in question is analogous to Z0, it should decay also to muons. CDF checked this and found a negative result. This made Tommaso rather skeptic.

Also indications for 720 GeV resonance (this is just a nominal value, the mass could be somewhere between 700-800 GeV) was reported by D0 collaboration: the report is titled as Search for high-mass narrow resonances in the di-electron channel at D0. There are just 2 events above 700 GeV but background is small;-): just three events above 600 GeV. It is easy to guess what skeptic would say.

Before continuing I want to make clear that I refuse to be blind believer or die-hard skeptic and that I am unable to say anything serious about the experimental side. I am just interested to see whether these events might be interpreted in TGD framework. TGD indeed predicts -or should I say strongly suggests- a lot of new physics above intermediate boson length scale.

Are exotic Z0 bosons p-adically scaled up variants of ordinary Z0 boson?

p-Adic length scale hypothesis allows the p-adic length scale characterized by prime p ≈ 2k vary since k can have several integer values. The TGD counterpart of Gell-Mann-Okubo mass formula involves varying value of k for quark masses. Several anomalies reported by Tommaso during years could be resolved if k can have several values. Last anomaly was the discovery that Ωb baryon containing two strange quarks and bottom quark seems to appear with two masses differing by about 110 MeV. TGD explains the mass difference correctly by assuming that second strange quark has mass two times the ordinary. The predicted mass difference is 100 MeV.

One can look whether p-adic length scale hypothesis could explain the masses of exotic Z0 candidates as multiples of half octaves of Z0 mass which is 91 GeV. k=3 would give 257 GeV, not too far from 240 GeV. k=6 would give 728 GeV consistent with the nominal value of the mass. Also other masses are predicted and this could serve as a test for the theory. This option does not however explain why muon pairs are not produced in the case of 240 GeV resonance.

Support for topological explanation of family replication phenomenon?

An improved explanation is based on TGD based view about family replication phenomenon.

  1. In TGD the explanation of family replication is in terms of genus of 2-dimensional partonic surface representing fermion. Fermions correspond to SU(3) triplet of a dynamical symmetry assignable to the three lowest genera (sphere, torus, sphere with two handles). Bosons as wormhole contacts have two wormhole throats carrying fermion numbers and correspond to SU(3) singlet and octet. Sooner or later the members of the octet - presumably heavier than singlet- should be observed (maybe this has been done now;-)).

  2. The exchange of these particles predicts also charged flavor changing currents respecting conservation of corresponding "isospin" and "hypercharge." For instance, lepton quark scattering e+s → μ+d would be possible. The most dramatic signature of these states is production of muon-positron pairs (for instance) via decays.

  3. Since the Z0 or photon like boson in question has vanishing "isospin" and "hypercharge", it must be orthogonal to the ordinary Z0 which couples identically to all families. There are states particles of this kind and they correspond to superpositions of fermion pairs of different generations in TGD framework. The two bosons - very optimistically identified as 240 GeV and 720 GeV Z0, must be orthogonal to the ordinary Z0. This requires that the phase factors in superposition of pairs adjust themselves properly. Also mixing effects breaking color symmetry are possible and expected to occur since the SU(3) in question is not an exact symmetry. Hence the exotic Z0 bosons could couple preferentially to some fermion generation. This kind of mixing might be used to explain the absence of muon pair signal in the case of 240 GeV resonance.

  4. The prediction for the masses is same as for the first option if the octet and singlet bosons have identical masses for same p-adic mass scale so that mass splitting between different representations would take place via the choice of the mass scale alone.

Could scaled up copy of hadron physics involved?

One can also ask whether these particles could come from the decays of hadrons of a scaled up copy of hadron physics strongly suggested by p-Adic length scale hypothesis.

  1. Various hadron physics would correspond to Mersenne primes: standard hadron physics to M107 and new hadron physics to Mersenne prime M89=289-1. The first guess for the mass scale of "light" M89 hadrons would be 2(107-89)/2=512 times that for ordinary hadrons. The electron pairs might result in a decay of scaled up variant of pseudoscalar mesons π , η, or of η' or spin one ρ and ω mesons with nearly the same mass. Only scaled up ρ and ω mesons remains under consideration if one assumes spin 1.

  2. The scaling of pion mass about 140 MeV gives 72 GeV. This is three times smaller than 240 GeV but this is extremely rough estimate. Actually it is the p-adic mass scale of quarks involved which matters rather than that of hadronic space-time sheet characterized by M89. The naive scaling of the mass of η meson with mass 548 MeV would give about 281 GeV. η' would give 490 GeV. ρ meson with mass would give 396 GeV. The estimates are just order of magnitude estimates since the mass splitting between pseudoscalar and corresponding vector meson is sensitive to quark mass scale.

  3. This option does not provide any explanation for the lack of muon pairs in decays of 240 GeV resonance.

To conclude, family replication phenomenon for gauge bosons is consistent with the claimed masses and also absence of muon pairs might be understood. It remains to be seen whether only statistical fluctuations are in question.

For background see the chapter p-Adic Particle Massivation: New Physics of "p-Adic length Scale Hypothesis and Dark Matter Hierarchy".

Monday, August 03, 2009

Why viXra?

viXra is a new electronic e-print archive (not a mirror site of arXiv.org;-)) giving hopes for people like me in attempts to overcome the censorship wall making impossible to communicate using ordinary channels. The following quote summarizes the reasons why for viXra.
In 1991 the electronic e-print archive, now known as arXiv.org, was founded at Los Alamos National Laboratories. In the early days of the World Wide Web it was open to submissions from all scientific researchers, but gradually a policy of moderation was employed to block articles that the administrators considered unsuitable. In 2004 this was replaced by a system of endorsements to reduce the workload and place responsibility of moderation on the endorsers. The stated intention was to permit anybody from the scientific community to continue contributing. However many of us who had successfully submitted e-prints before then found that we were no longer able to. Even those with doctorates in physics and long histories of publication in scientific journals can no longer contribute to the arXiv unless they can find an endorser in a suitable research institution. The policies of Cornell University who now control the arXiv are so strict that even when someone succeeds in finding an endorser their e-print may still be rejected or moved to the "physics" category of the arXiv where it is likely to get less attention. Those who endorse articles that Cornell find unsuitable are under threat of losing their right to endorse or even their own ability to submit e-prints. Given the harm this might cause to their careers it is no surprise that endorsers are very conservative when considering articles from people they do not know. These policies are defended on the arXiv's endorsement help page. A few of the cases where people have been blocked from submitting to the arXiv have been detailed on the Archive Freedom website, but as time has gone by it has become clear that Cornell have no plans to bow to pressure and change their policies. Some of us now feel that the time has come to start an alternative archive which will be open to the whole scientific community. That is why viXra has been created. viXra will be open to anybody for both reading and submitting articles. We will not prevent anybody from submitting and will only reject articles in extreme cases of abuse, e.g. where the work may be vulgar, libellous, plagiarius or dangerously misleading. It is inevitable that viXra will therefore contain e-prints that many scientists will consider clearly wrong and unscientific. However, it will also be a repository for new ideas that the scientific establishment is not currently willing to consider. Other perfectly conventional e-prints will be found here simply because the authors were not able to find a suitable endorser for the arXiv or because they prefer a more open system. It is our belief that anybody who considers themselves to have done scientific work should have the right to place it in an archive in order to communicate the idea to a wide public. They should also be allowed to stake their claim of priority in case the idea is recognised as important in the future. Many scientists argue that if arXiv.org had such an open policy then it would be filled with unscientific papers that waste peoples time. There are problems with that argument. Firstly there are already a high number of submissions that do get into the archive which many people consider to be rubbish, but they don't agree on which ones they are. If you removed them all, the arXiv would be left with only safe papers of very limited interest. Instead of complaining about the papers they don't like, researchers need to find other ways of selecting the papers of interest to them. arXiv.org could help by providing technology to help people filter the article lists they browse. It is also often said that the arXiv.org exclusion policies don't matter because if an amateur scientist were to make a great discovery, it would certainly be noticed and recognised. There are two reasons why this argument is wrong and unhelpful. Firstly, many amateur scientists are just trying to do ordinary science. They do not have to make the next great paradigm shift in science before their work can be useful. Secondly, the best new ideas do not follow from conventional research and it may take several years before their importance can be appreciated. If such a discovery cannot be put in a permanent archive it will be overlooked to the detriment of both the author and the scientific community. Another argument is that anybody can submit their work to a journal where it will get an impartial review. The truth is that most journals are now more concerned with the commercial value their impact factor than with the advance of science. Papers submitted by anyone without a good affiliation to a research institution find it very difficult to publish. Their work is often returned with an unhelpful note saying that it will not be passed on for review because it does not meet the criteria of the journal. In part viXra.org is a parody of arXiv.org to highlight Cornell University's unacceptable censorship policy. It is also an experiment to see what kind of scientific work is being excluded by the arXiv. But most of all it is a serious and permanent e-print archive for scientific work. Unlike arXiv.org it is truly open to scientists from all walks of life. You can support this project by submitting your articles.
I love physics but -to be honest- find it very diffult to say the same about physicists in general. I used to think that people with highest academic ranks would behave like civilized human beings but my fate has been to gradually learn that too often scientist is what you obtain by subtracting what makes us humans - ethical behavior. Just a few days ago I learned that a new queen of beehive kills mercilessly all other candidates for queens. This could be understood as basic biology: Dawkins might speak about selfish genes. This brought to my mind the behavior of dictators like Stalin and what quite generally happens when a new idea is transformed to ideology. As super-string theory -just one example about a winner meme- became an ideology it used its fanatic proponents as instruments to kill competing memes using censorship and funding policy. This behavior brings to my mind a small child who thinks that he is the center of the world but slowly learns that also other human beings have desires and goals. Human kind has gone through a long cultural evolution and developed something called ethics and this kind of 'ideology justifies anything' and 'winner takes all' behavior means regression from culture to mere biology. My hope that viXra could help to create a new culture of science in which intellectual freedom would prevail and barbaric crackpot labeling and exclusion from scientific community would not be the everyday practice to treat those who have courage and ability to develop new views about reality.