Posts Tagged ‘time dimension’

Time As A Dimension

January 7, 2021

COMMENTARY ON THE RESULTS FROM THE PREVIOUS POST: I realized that confirmation of the mathematical validity of the theory (a group wave composition of wave components will always appear to move at constant speed regardless of the observer’s frame of reference velocity) has much more impact than I first thought. When Einstein discovered the constant speed of light as derived from Maxwell’s equations, he interpreted that to mean that space and time are interchangeable depending on an observer’s frame of reference. From that came the realization that time could be treated as a dimension, and from there on, physics has accepted that as foundational. Dirac’s prediction of antiparticles, and the subsequent experimental verification of antiparticle existence via oppositely curving positrons led Feynman and others to postulate that antiparticles experience time in the reverse direction. Since then, many have attempted to use dimensional time to explain quantum decoherence, unification with gravity, and so on.

The thing I really don’t like about this is that Dirac’s equation results from the incorporation of Lorentz invariance (special relativity) into Schroedinger’s equation, and as such it builds in time-symmetric solutions. So, when Feynman ran into difficulty figuring out how the self energy of an electron in its own field would work, he pulls out the rabbit in the hat–retarded and advanced potentials–that was built in to the Dirac equation. What did they expect–build in negative time, get an answer that includes negative time solutions. I may be naive about what happened but I think Feynman’s famous skepticism took a vacation here. The Dirac equation needs another constraint added to it to make it match reality–the laws of thermodynamics that enforces forward time passage. There must be a negative energy solution to the Dirac equation that does not require a negative time interpretation.

As a result of this thought process, my big problem as an amateur physicist is that I think interpreting time as dimensional is a mistake. I think there is better evidence that time is a property of particles in their own frame of reference. Aside from quantum uncertainty that exists for both space and time, we have no evidence of visitors, particles, or waves, or anything else from the future. If a particle is moving relative to an observer, the apparent time passage that the particle experiences can look different, but isn’t actually different in his own frame of reference. And there’s no question that when a particle is accelerated, time as a property of the particle does slow down relative to a static observer.

The big glaring elephant in the room is the fact that to observe an antiparticle curve in the opposite direction, it has to be moving forward in time, continuously coincident in time with all non-antiparticles. If an antiparticle really were moving backwards in time, it would only exist as a momentary blip in the spacetime plane of normal particle existence. The fact that the constant speed of light has the alternate explanation described in my paper reinforces the idea that interpreting time as a dimension could be a mistake.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a single physicist out there that will go against established theory about time as a dimension, there has been too much published research for them to arbitrarily believe my hypothesis that they all got something wrong. To make matters worse, there is the well deserved disdain for those who claim established physics is wrong–if I were to persist, I would fall into the crackpot trap. I cannot do that. All I can do is say I have my doubts, and that I can show another way this could work that doesn’t require time to be a dimension.

So, what does that mean? Nothing more than that I can continue on uncovering what I can with what I know. But my accepting this result as reality means I will travel alone on this journey, no serious researcher will go with me.

Agemoz

The Arrow of Time and Misuse of Statistics

June 5, 2016

As an amateur physicist I try to avoid disputing established science, but one place I believe science has it wrong is the dimensionality of time.  If you read this blog at all, you’ll see I am trying to create a self-consistent world-view that conforms with peer-reviewed science.  My world-view attempts to add analysis and conclusions on some of the unanswered questions about our universe such as why are there so many elementary particles or how can quantum entanglement work.  I try never to dispute established science and to accept that my world-view is a belief system, not fact that must be forced on others–that is the mark of a crackpot that has just enough knowledge to waste other peoples’ time.

However, one place I break my rules of good behavior is this concept that time is one-dimensional.  For a long time, I’ve recoiled at the notion that the observer’s timeline could physically intersect a particular local spacetime neighborhood of an object event  multiple times.  I discussed this in a previous post, but now I want to discuss this disagreement from another angle–the claim for an existence of an Arrow of Time.

The Arrow of Time is a concept that describes the apparent one way nature of the evolution of a system of objects.  We see a dropped wine glass shatter on the floor,  but we never see a shattered wine glass re-assemble itself and rise up back onto a table.  We record a memory of events in the past, but never see an imprint of the future on our brain memory cells.  This directional evolution of systems is a question mark given that the math unambiguously allows evolution in either direction.  To put it in LaGrange equation of motion terms, the minimum energy path of an object such as a particle or a field element is one dimensional and there are two possible ways to traverse it.  The fundamental question is–why is one way chosen and not the other?

The standard answer is to invoke statistics in the form of the Laws of Thermodynamics, and I have always felt that was not the right answer.  Here is why I have trouble with that–statistics are mathematical derivations for the probability something will happen, and cannot provide a force that makes a particle go one way or the other on a *particular* LaGrangian minimum energy path.  It’s a misuse of statistics to use the thermodynamics laws to define what happens here.  In the case of the shattered wine glass, there are vastly more combinations of paths (and thus far higher probability) for the glass pieces to stay on the floor than there are for the glass shards to reassemble themselves–but that is not why they stay there!

The problem with the Arrow of Time interpretation comes from thinking the math gives us an extra degree of freedom that isn’t really there.  The minimum energy path can truly be traversed in either the time-forward or time-backward path, but it is an illusion to think both are possible.  Any system where information cannot be lost will be mathematically symmetric in time, creating the illusion of an actual path in time if only the observer were in the right place to observe the entirety of that path.  Einstein developed the equations of special relativity that were the epitomy of the path illusion by creating the concept of spacetime.  Does that mean the equations are wrong?  Of course not–but it exemplifies the danger of using the math to create an interpretation.  Just because the math allows it does not mean that the Arrow of Time exists–any relativistic system where information cannot be destroyed will allow the illusion of a directionality of time.

So what really is going on?  I’ll save that for a later post, but in my world-view, time is a property of the objects in the system.  There is only ONE copy of our existence, it is the one we are in right now, and visits to previous existences is simply not possible.  Our system evolves over time and previous existences no longer exist to visit.   Relativity does mean that time between events has to be carefully analyzed, but it does not imply its dimensionality.

Agemoz