TYPES OF ENTANGLEMENT (आरादुपकारक & संनिपत्योपकारक) – 4. – Shri Basudeba Mishra
ON SUPERPOSITION (अध्यास).
The word superposition is derived from the Latin word “super”, which means above, and the word “position”, which means place. Superposition was also known since time immemorial. Vedanta uses it profusely (अध्यास – अधिरीश्वरे + आसँ॒ उप॒वेश॑ने). In 1669 Nicolaus Steno made the first clear statement that strata (layered rocks) show sequential changes, that is, that rocks have histories. From his work in the mountains of western Italy, Steno realized that the principle of superposition in stratified (layered) rocks was the key to linking time to rocks. The superposition principle states that when two or more waves overlap in space, the resultant disturbance is equal to the algebraic sum of the individual disturbances. Thévenin and Norton used this principle to simplify known electrical sub-circuits. But in Quantum Mechanics, it has been thoroughly misinterpreted in describing wave-particle duality.
Waves were known since time immemorial. The basic properties of waves: wavelength, frequency, time period, speed and amplitude; are same for all types of waves. The concept of matter waves arose from a fantasy by Louis de Broglie’s Hypothesis: the so-called dual nature of matter; its apparent ability to exist both as a particle and a wave. As an example, a beam of electrons can be diffracted just like any other beam of electromagnetic radiation or water wave. They claim that electron is both a particle and a wave. But till now, no one knows what an electron is. I have shown that electrons are the tips of the radiation emitted by the proton confined in its negatively charged environment. Waves involve the transport of energy without the transport of matter. Everything in the universe moves only in waves, though it is not always apparent. Waves were known since time immemorial. Waves involve the transport of energy without the transport of matter. Everything in the universe moves only in waves, though it is not always apparent.
Nothing can be a wave and a particle simultaneously, as the properties of a wave and a particle are mutually exclusive. A wave is a continuous disturbance that travels through a medium without any fixed position and no independent form, transporting energy from one location to another location without transporting matter (समुद्रो हि तरङ्गः न तरङ्गो समुद्रः). The medium doesn’t resist the motion except for friction due to density. A wave may take the form of elastic deformation, a variation of pressure, electric or magnetic intensity, electric potential, or temperature. A particle is a discreet localized object in a base with a fixed position and devoid of elastic deformation, and to which can be ascribed several physical properties, such as volume, density, dimension and mass etc. and chemical properties of interaction with other particles. A wave can’t have the above properties of particles.
Light is described both as a wave and as a particle based on two experiments to reveal different aspects of light. The so-called photons have no mass and each one carries a specific amount of energy. The reality is everything in the universe moves as waves, though it is not evident always.
WHAT is light? That by using which we can see objects (आ + लोकृँ॒ दर्श॑ने). Without light, everything is dark. But can we see light itself? No. Light is dark (कृष्ण). We know sunlight is all around us. But we see everything other than sunlight. Hence sunlight itself is dark. Whenever it is reflected from some object, that object is visible to us when such reflected light interacts with the radiation emitted by our eyes and gets measured. If the total light is reflected, or if such reflected light doesn’t interact with the radiation emitted by our eyes, we will not be able to see the object. In other words, part of the energy of light is used to uncover objects. We see only that part, which is uncovered.
If we open a box with our hand to see what is inside. Do our hands act as light? No. It is the transfer of energy of our hand to remove the lid that allows light to enter the box and get reflected. So light is transfer of energy to remove some obstacle and get partially reflected.
What is that obstacle? Everything in the universe is constituted of atoms. Contrary to popular belief and according to experimental verification that has been suppressed, in any compact object including atom, the negative charge of the electron is a little more than the positive charge of the proton (अग्निर्जागार तमयं सोम आह तवाहमस्मि सख्ये न्योकाः). The neutron also contains a little negative charge (यो जागार तमयं सोम आह तवाहमस्मि सख्ये न्योकाः). This excess negative charge is directed towards the nucleus – away from us. Hence we do not feel it. This energy binds the atom together. There is no separate binding energy. That makes the atom a compact object. The electromagnetic radiation disturbs this arrangement. Like if you pour milk into a cup full of milk, some milk flows out, the disturbance to the electronic arrangement of the atoms, This releases other radiation, which, when interacts with the radiation emitted by our eyes, gets measured. The result is what we see. We do not “see” the object emitting radiation, but see only the emitted radiation. We can touch the objects emitting radiation, though we do not touch the radiation. We require both for a total description of the object (अनवर्ने इमे भूमी).
MECHANISM OF PERCEPTION.
Why do we see only by the eye or hear only through ears or smell only through our nose? What are sense organs and their mechanism of perception? One fundamental energy acts like fuel (इन्धन) to ignite all interaction (बलस्य निखिलाकृतिः, hence called इन्द्र) pervades everything. There is no space without it (नेन्द्राद् ऋते पवते धाम किञ्चन). Energy is a great unknown entity. Its existence is recognized only during its state of change – mutation from potential to kinetic and back (वाग् वा इन्द्र । न ह्येते वाच पवते धाम किञ्चन). This mutative principle is called Sentiency (चेतना). While the outgoing radiation is called Sentiency, the reflected radiation, that is cognized by us, is called information (विज्ञानम्).
While the body consists of atoms (पृथ्वी), liquids having magnetic potential (जल), radiation with heat potential (तेज), gravitational potential (वायु) and intermittent space (आकाश), everything is not equally distributed everywhere. Some of these are concentrated in some body parts. Those body parts are called sense organs (इन्द्रिय). They are externally directed (पराञ्चिखानि). Hence, they (ज्ञानेन्द्रिय) measure the incoming impulses. Since measurement is a comparison between similars, the body part where some potential is highly concentrated, can measure that aspect only (नियतविषय). Our eyes contain excess of radiation. Hence it can measure radiation and we can see only by our eyes. The ear drum is more porous than other body parts. It is more sensitive to longitudinal waves bumping into nearby air molecules which in turn bump into their neighbors, and so on. And so on. Some sense organs (कर्मेन्द्रिय) carry out specialized functions like legs for motion. But it is not their exclusive function. We can move without legs also.
Energy has no shape, but acquires the shape of the object which contains it like water doesn’t have a shape, but acquires the shape of the container. So the tip of the wave is said to be a particle, as it generates a stress at that point. Mass is the stress generated by an object on its base. Since waves do not touch any base, but move laterally, they do not have any mass till they reach an end point. Everything in the universe moves in waves (तिरश्चीनो विततो रश्मिरेषामधः स्विदासी३दुपरि स्विदासी३त्). When a particle or a body moves, it faces resistance from its medium against its direction of motion. Thus, it moves either upwards or downwards. There it faces similar resistance forcing it to revert in the opposite direction, while retaining its forward move based on its energy content. This makes the body to move in a wavy pattern within a band. While it is not perceptible in the macro world, it becomes prominent in the quantum world.
FALLASIES OF THE DOUBLE SLIT EXPERIMENT.
In modern physics, the double-slit experiment is wrongly used as a demonstration that light and matter can display characteristics of both classically defined waves and particles and it displays the fundamentally probabilistic nature of quantum mechanical phenomena. The photoelectric effect demonstrates the particle nature of light. The Davisson–Germer experiment showed the wave-nature of matter, and completed the theory of wave-particle duality in which electrons, scattered by the surface of a crystal of nickel metal, displayed a diffraction pattern. These notions raises some questions.
In my childhood days, after reading about the double slit experiment, I carried out in a river with multichannel bridges using some paper boats and found the exact pattern as in the double slit experiment. When I directed the boats through one or the other channels, they showed a predicted pattern – no interference fringe appeared. When I made waves in the water and left the boats from a distance to take their course, there was interference, as carried by air or interfering waves, some of them moved through one channel while others moved through the other channel.
Here we must remember that the Observer observes the state t’ of a state, “after” it is attained at time t. Hence, the observer can’t interfere in the process. The cat would be dead or alive at time T depending upon whether the poisonous gas has leaked or not or due to natural causes. The observer will record the state as alive or dead depending upon whether he observes the cat before or after T. There is nothing like collapse. It is fiction.
The photoelectric effect is a phenomenon where irradiating a blue light on metal emits electrons from it. However, red light does not cause electron emission from metal no matter how long or how intense the light is applied. Einstein asserted that light is a particle containing energy corresponding to their wavelength. But he examined the issue from energy angle only forgetting the amplitude and wavelength, which are regulated by energy. It is like tunneling. If you strain tea in a cup, the leaves will not pass through, while the liquid and small particles will pass through. But the text books give a wrong analogy of a cyclist climbing a stiff hill. Or trying to break a stone with two hammers: one wooden and the other iron. Blue light with more energy has more penetrating power and goes in to disturb the electronic arrangement. Red light like a wooden hammer, couldn’t break the stone.
Intensity is energy density at a point in space. Multiplying it by the velocity at which the energy is moving gives the resulting vector, which has the units of power divided by area (watts per square meter). Blue light has shorter wavelength of between 450 and 495 nanometers and frequency of about 750 terahertz. Red light has longer wavelengths of between 620 to 750 nm and a frequency of about 430 terahertz. The amount of energy is directly proportional to the frequency and inversely proportional to the wavelength. The higher the photon’s frequency, the higher its energy. The longer the photon’s wavelength, the lower its energy. The kinetic energy of the electron is linearly proportional to the frequency of the incident radiation above a threshold value. It is independent of the intensity of the radiation. An increase in intensity will lead to an increase in the number of photons emitted and therefore an increase in the number of electrons affected. Using less energy to produce a product reduces the intensity.
When we decrease the strength of sound waves, their amplitude decreases and finally disappears. But in case of the double slit experiment with light, if we decrease the number of light signals, the overlapping signals the fringe pattern become separate and more sporadic. If we weaken the signals further, the number of signals become more separate and sporadic, but the strength of the signal doesn’t fall below a certain point.
Based on Einstein’s light quantum hypothesis, the duality of the photon was said to be confirmed in quantum-mechanical experiments and examinations. The photon is now regarded as a particle in fields related to the interaction of material with light that is absorbed and emitted; and regarded as a wave in regions relating to light propagation. But as I had shown earlier, photon is only the tip of the wave. It has no independent existence than the energy that created the wave.
All observed elementary particles are either bosons or fermions as described earlier. As I had explained through the boat in the channel experience, when we direct the boats through one of the channels (like fermions), we find one result. But when the boats move by waves interference before the channel and by the air (like bosons), we get different results. It has nothing to do with observation. But it is related to superposition.
(to be continued)