NPA Saturday Talk 8 Sept 2012 A new light on the nature of Light

1. NPA Saturday Talk 8 Sept 2012A new light on the nature of Light Prof Rati Ram Sharma DSc, PhD Retired Professor & Head, Biophysics Dept. PGIMER, Chandigarh, India 1

2. WAVE VS QUANTUM NATURE OF LIGHT • Light is older than humanity yet its nature continues defying human comprehension • In 1678 Dutch physicist Christian Huygens wrote a treatise 'Traite de la Lumiere' on the wave theory of light. • But Corpuscular Theory of Sir Issac Newton (1643-1727) held that a luminous body continuously emits tiny 'corpuscles' in all directions. It remained in force for100 years largely due to great position of Newton. 2

3. NATURE OF THE LIGHT PROPAGATING MEDIUM-1 • Newton did not commit on aether because his light corpuscles could jolly well move in the vacuous space and his theory of universal gravitation was an ‘action-at-a-distance’. • However when corpuscular theory failed to explain interference, diffraction and polarization of light Huygens' wave theory was favored. But wave theory's need of an ‘extremely more rigid than air’ aether to propagate high-speed light (misconstrued as elastic wave like sound) created a conceptual impasse. 3

4. NATURE OF THE LIGHT PROPAGATING MEDIUM-2 • Quantum Theory and Relativity the two prominent theories of light have remained far apart for the past over a century. But the authors of both had admitted their unclarity about the nature of light & light propagating medium. • Heisenberg argued that the wave and particle are mutually too exclusive in properties for visualizing a thing to be both at the same time. Quantum Theory was therefore formulated as a mathematical scheme since mathematics does not need visualization. 4

5. NATURE OF THE LIGHT PROPAGATING MEDIUM-3 • Quantum Theory's wave-or-quantum duality arises from the limitations of language. • Since words can describe only things which mind visualizes, one cannot even invent a new language to describe the objective reality in words . • The 1927 Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Theory had even put objective reality outside the scope of Physics! 5

6. NATURE OF THE LIGHT PROPAGATING MEDIUM-4 • On 12 December 1951 Einstein wrote to his friend Besso: "All these 50 years of conscious brooding have brought me no nearer to the answer to the question: What are light quanta?" • Thus Einstein, like Heisenberg, remained unclear about the true nature of light throughout his life and even from 1905 to 1916 when he published three different but still popular theories of light. 6

7. NATURE OF THE LIGHT PROPAGATING MEDIUM-5 • First, to revive Newton's corpuscular theory in a modified form and explain the photoelectric effect Einstein extended Planck's theory to postulate that light is not only emitted and absorbed but also propagated as quanta. • However, this freely moving particulate 'photon‘ could not avoid sharing the source-observer motion as against his own theory of Special Relativity founded on the two postulates of light velocity's constancy and invariance to source-observer motion. 7

8. NATURE OF THE LIGHT PROPAGATING MEDIUM-6 • Actually, a wave exists only in its propagating medium, which also composes the wave. • But Special & General Relativity Theories replaced the physical medium for light-wave with mathematical 4-dimensional spacetime continuum bereft of any physical existence! • This illustrates the state of confusion and unclarity about the natures of light, light propagating medium and other scientific concepts, which has existed during the twentieth century and still continues. 8

9. SPACE, TIME, SPACETIME CONTINUA IN UNIFIED THEORY • Einstein introduced the 'spacetime' continuum to propagate light after discarding a physical medium as 'superfluous' for his mathematics. • However ‘light wave’ like any other ‘wave’ should have a real physical medium to propagate and compose it. • A deep intuition reveals that abstract concept of space evolves from our direct perceptions of spatial successions "there, here, there" and that of time from those of temporal successions "then, now, then" all arising from the motions and changes of the surrounding objects. The “time arrow” moves only forward and never backwards due to irreversibility of the natural processes of change generating the time concept. 9

10. SPACE, TIME, SPACETIME CONTINUA IN UNIFIED THEORY-2 • space and time, being so intangible and abstract concepts, cannot fuse into any tangible "spacetime continuum", concrete enough to propagate light and gravitational wave . • So all multidimensional spacetime continua, basic to relativity and/or other theories, are mere mathematical constructs bereft of any real physical existence. But existence of a particulate space medium, like our sharmon-medium is not in doubt. • The sharmon medium is irremovable by any means since the tiny ~10─33 cm sharmon can pass through spaces between molecules and atoms of even the densest solid but also between orbital electrons. Its inter-sharmon distance 10 −5 cm compares with the Mean Free Path for the real gases (e.g. for Hydrogen 1.12x10−5 cm, Oxygen 0.64x10−5 cm, Nitrogen 0.595x10−5 cm). 10

11. NATURE OF THE LIGHT PROPAGATING MEDIUM-7 • Our Unified Theory , unifying physical concepts arising largely from the all-composing and all-pervading real physical 'sharmon medium' as 'basic substance', heralds a trend towards realistic Physics and Cosmology. • This paper replaces Quantum Theory’s Uncertainty Principle by the new Principleof Null Action(see next slide), shows Relativity’s spacetime continuum and Higgs boson as nonexistent, presents the Wave-Quantum unity of light propagated in the real physical sharmon medium and realistically explains the Michelson-Morley experiment, photoelectric effect and bending of light under gravity etc. • It also contests the conclusions of the 2011 Physics Nobel laureates that expanding Universe is in fact accelerating. It will end as a cool empty space. 11

12. QUANTUM THEORY’S UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE REPLACED BY NEW PRINCIPLE OF NULL ACTION • The 1927 Copenehageninterpretaion gave Quantm Theory its final form. • It deals in what can be known about, and not in what there actually is in, the micro Cosmos. • It regards objective reality as a metaphysical speculation out side the scope of Physics, hence does not recognize things as they really are. • Relativity, likewise, is also based on the observed magnitudes of governing parameters. 12

13. QUANTUM THEORY’S UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE REPLACED BY PRINCIPLE OF NULL ACTION-2 • Heisenberg even advocated formulation of physical laws using only the observable or measurable parameters. • But the very processes of measurement uncontrollably alters the measured magnitudes as given by the uncertainty relations (1) and (2) below. • ∆ E . ∆ t ≥ h/2π (1); • ∆ p . ∆ x ≥ h/2π (2) 13

14. QUANTUM THEORY’S UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE REPLACED BY PRINCIPLE OF NULL ACTION-3 • Heisenberg relations(1) & (2) give the energy-distance uncertainty relation ∆ E . ∆ x ≥ h/2π(3) • Perceptual (not objective) relations (1), (2), and (3) were essentially deduced for the uncertainties in the magnitudes of observed parameters. • Confusion arose which still continues when ∆ E, ∆t, ∆p, ∆x were misconstrued to represent actual variations or spontaneous fluctuations in the objectively actual parameters of the observed physical object or system. 14

15. QUANTUM THEORY’S UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE REPLACED BY PRINCIPLE OF NULL ACTION-4 • Relations (1) and (2) led to the unrealistic concepts of the spontaneous creations and annihilations of “virtual” (i.e. unreal) energy-quanta and particle-antiparticle pairs in Nuclear Physics and of the 'initial creations of matter out of nothing' in Big Bang & Steady State theories of expanding universe. In our Unified Theory totality of matter in the universe is eternally conserved. There is no creation from, or dissolution into, nothing. • Relation (3) put into disarray all the classical concepts of location, boundary and trajectory, and even of the size and composition of micro particles. • It led to the bizarre notion of a micro particle being constituted and bound by more massive sub-particles because in confining to small ∆x the uncertainty ∆E in energy E becomes larger than E itself. 15

16. THE NEW PRINCIPLE OF NULL ACTION • However, the natural conservations of energy E and momentum p ordain the conservation also of the action ∆E . ∆t or ∆p . ∆x with its quantum as Planck constant of action h. During a real physical change any increase ∆E in energy E or ∆p in momentum p generates the action: ∆E . ∆ t = nh (1a) ; ∆p . ∆x = nh. (2a) • Here ∆E and ∆p are objectively actual increases, in contrast to subjectively observed uncertainties of Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. 16

17. THE NEW PRINCIPLE OF NULL ACTION-2 • According to the new Principle of Null Action path chosen by an isolated closed system during a real physical change between two equilibrium states is such that the summation or integration of action covering all variations of energy or generalized momentum, discontinuous or continuous, is zero or null. 17

18. THE NEW PRINCIPLE OF NULL ACTION-3 • The “working equations” of the new Certainty Principle of Null Action are: d/dqr (dF/ d qkr) - d F/ d qk = d F/ d qr . qrk • (These have universal applications. Their application to any specific case requires expressing F in a suitable form and then solving the resultant (n-1) differential equations to derive working equations of e.g. Euler’s Eqns., Lagrange eqns., Maxwell Eqns., Newton’s laws, Thermodynamic Eqns. of State, Discharge of a capacitor through inductance & resistance, etc. 18