Reckoning quanta, quantum events – nostalgia for absoluteness?

May 24, 2023May 27, 2023 John Healy3 Comments

TABLE OF CONTENTS Alice & Bob et al. measure quantum states & wonder about predicting outcomes. In continuous quantum fields, localized disturbances (excitations) interact and exchange energy between fields – as real outcomes. “We suppress dimensions in order to make sense of things.” Modeling interactions of excitations with vacuum states of quantum fields gets weird.… Continue reading Reckoning quanta, quantum events – nostalgia for absoluteness?

General · Language · Problem

Knotty fields – quantum-topology-knot theory

May 22, 2022August 21, 2022 John Healy

[“Knot theory” series] Regarding the topology of fundamental particles as spinors, like the electron, I prefer the term knot, rather than kink or twist or vortex [1]. Then I’m curious about ordering the complexity (à la generations) of these knots. And whether such knots are situated in additional dimensions. Wiki: In quantum field theory, the… Continue reading Knotty fields – quantum-topology-knot theory

General · Language · Media

Does the universe have a shape?

September 28, 2020December 4, 2020 John Healy3 Comments

This Quanta Magazine article (below) is a helpful visual recap of whether the cosmos is “flat” or not. Does the cosmic landscape of stars and galaxies extend / expand in all directions like an endless piece of paper? Or another “flat” geometry – “by cutting a chunk out of Euclidean space and gluing it together.”… Continue reading Does the universe have a shape?

General · Language · Media

When is a coffee mug like a donut?

August 12, 2020October 2, 2021 John Healy1 Comment

[Draft] A recent Nature article (below) was inspiration for this post. I’ve been encountering the use of topology in physics for some time. Typically the mathematics is elusive, but the notions are compelling. Wiki > Topology A continuous deformation (a type of homeomorphism) of a mug into a doughnut (torus) and a cow into a… Continue reading When is a coffee mug like a donut?

Here's a twist on spontaneous parametric down-conversion, and how the non-classical correlation was verified. • Physics World > "Microwave photons…

The quest for the quantum signature of Planck scale spacetime. Here's another article on research which uses the path integral…

Speaking of the formulation of path integrals (which paths should you sum), here's an abstract of a research paper on…

So, you can learn to read Feynman diagrams. But how do you setup the path integral sum? – which paths…

This month NASA released a visualization of gamma-photon activity from astrophysical sources and cosmic events between February 2022 to February…

Physics says what?

Entangled 'verse … 10^n and 10^-n

Tag: Topology

Reckoning quanta, quantum events – nostalgia for absoluteness?

Knotty fields – quantum-topology-knot theory

Does the universe have a shape?

When is a coffee mug like a donut?