Wednesday 6 March 2019

Possible face to face with Joy Christian and Richard Gill



Richard Gill and Joy Christian are discussing having a public symposium at Leiden University concerning the quantum entanglement correlations that according to Joy can be explained classically. Over many years Richard has opposed to this view, as can be seen by comments by them at former posts on this blog and many places elsewhere where Bell’s theorem is discussed. 

Now they have decided to meet in person, and have a debate moderated by Jay R. Yablon, who has also been involved earlier in these discussions.
The plan is to have the symposium in autumn this year, or otherwise next year.

Saturday 30 September 2017

Rejected, citing that 'the hidden variables are not of scientific interest'

Bryan O'Sullivan has written a new article 1) on his vision on todays quantum mechanics, and added a popularized movie to summarize his view.

The movie is fun to see, and in combination with the text it is hard to understand that the majority of physicist are still in favor of the Copenhagen or similar interpretation of QM.
Especially the film exposes the strange way of arguing of the founder of this QM interpretation, Niels Bohr, in comparison with the usual scientific method.

Unfortunately Bryan's scientific version of his argument (“The Hopf-Fibration and Hidden Variable in Quantum and Classical Mechanics” 2) has been repeatedly rejected for review, using the argument from this blog title.


  1. The 4th Dimension and the End of Quantum Mechanics (feb 2017?) http://www.meditations-on-geometry.net/
  2. The Hopf-Fibration and Hidden Variable in Quantum and Classical Mechanics 2015, https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.02569

Wednesday 10 May 2017

Double slit is no longer proof of non-classical quantum behaviour II

A year ago I wrote a post about the same topic 1).  Very recently a new publication was posted on Arxiv, summarizing the latest work on classically simulating quantum effects appearing in single and double split experiments 2).
Some citations from the document:


[The model] reflects the old idea of de Broglie’s particlewave duality.
This model contains, on the one hand, a possible explanation of the work-energy exchange between the two separated motions, thereby providing an energy quantisation as originally postulated by Max Planck. On the other hand, the system perfectly obeys the Bohmian-type law of motion in full accordance with quantum mechanics.
And specific about the double slit:
Then,on the basis of classical physics,the exact intensity distribution on a screen behind a double-slit has been derived, as well as the details of the more complicated particle current, or of the Bohmian particle trajectories, respectively.  




  1. Double slit is no longer proof of non-classical quantum behavior. Apr, 2016 
  2. Current-based Simulation Models of Quantum Motion, Johannes Mesa Pascasio, 26 April 2017
     

Sunday 20 November 2016

The Hopf-Fibration and HiddenVariables in Quantum and ClassicalMechanics

Brian O’Sullivan has rewritten his latest article about having quaternions as hidden variables for a particle and thereby explaining several of the phenomena observed in the quantum reign.

He also proposes an experiment to verify whether his theory is correct, using 3 Stern-Gerlach apparatus in series. 

Although his final conclusions have a bit weakened in comparison to his earlier version (see my previous post), the remain is still very interesting:


In light of the fact that the Quantum theory has not recognized that the qubit is a unit quaternion, we conclude that Quantum Mechanics is not only incomplete but observably inadequate as there are indeed hidden variables unaccounted for by the theory. These hidden variables are found in the parameter space of the spinor.

As written before his ideas very much align with those from Joy Christian, but he has not yet accounted for probably the most profound 'proof of entanglement' in QM, being the EPR-Bell experiment. I am looking forward to see more from this author.

Add 2016/12/10: I have updated the link to the article below, as the former didn't work anymore.
  1.  The Hopf-Fibration and HiddenVariables in Quantum and ClassicalMechanics, http://www.meditations-on-geometry.net/s/Meditations-On-Geometry1stMeditation.pdf
  2. Brian O’Sullivan website: http://www.meditations-on-geometry.net/

Sunday 19 June 2016

Independent Confirmation of Joy Christian’s Model

Last week a young physicist from Ireland, Brian O'Sullivan, published an article(1) in which he arrives at the same conclusion as Joy Christian that the hidden variable that is responsible for the spin related behavior of fundamental particles, is based on the constraints of the surface of a 4-dimensional sphere (S3).

While Brian's approach is quite different (for example he uses the quaternion representation of the spin, while Joy tends to use bivectors and Geometric Algebra) both physicists state that the particular quantum behavior is caused by the hopf-vibration between the S3 and the S2 space.

His conclusions are as remarkable as those of Joy Christian:

The parameter space of the quaternion accounts for the statistics of all the fundamental particles, integer and half-integer, in a natural way, and most importantly it does so deterministically.
The theory of the fundamental particles formed from Hamilton's quaternions is a deterministic local Hidden Variable theory.
and
With no superposition, there is no decoherence, and it follows that Quantum Information is a fundamentally flawed science, and the reason that Quantum Computing has not been achieved to date is that it will never be achieved ...
Brian has not referenced the work of Joy Christian. This, and the fact that his approach is quite different, makes it reasonable to believe that he has made his case and conclusions independently from those of Joy Christian.

EDIT 26/06/2016: The author has temporary retracted his article: "Withdrawn due to the lack of sensitivity regarding the consequences of the presented results"

  1. The Hopf-Fibration and Hidden Variables in Quantum and Classical Mechanics, Brian O'Sullivan, June 14, 2016, http://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.02569.pdf

Wednesday 27 April 2016

Double slit is no longer proof of non-classical quantum behaviour!


Today it struck me again that the more then 50 years old position from Feynman about the double slit experiment:


"is impossible, absolutely impossible, to explain in any classical way" (1)


is still presented as being true in modern scientific and popular publications (2,5). In an earlier post I have already briefly discussed the experiments by Ives Couder (3), where he can mimic many quantum-like behaviors using macroscopic 'walkers' - tiny droplets bouncing on an silicon oil bath -, including the effects found for the double slit experiment.

Gerhard Grössing, from the Austrian Institute for Nonlinear Studies, has since then be working on simulating these pure classical behaviors. The most relevant publication in this context might be (4), where he summarizes:


"Despite claims in the literature that this scenario is to
be described by a dynamical nonlocality that could best be understood in the framework of the
Heisenberg picture, we show that an explanation can be cast within the framework of the
intuitively appealing Schrödinger picture as well"


The simulation (using individual particles at a time) reveals beautifully the interference bands of the dual split:

Within they're framework they explain how particles going individually through one of the slits can 'feel' whether or not the other slit is open or not. This is the paradox  Feynman stumbled over.



  1. Feynman, R.P., Leighton, R.B., and Sands, M. (1965). The Feynman Lectures in Physics Volume 3, Section 1–1, Addison–Wesleyhttp://www.sci.buu.ac.th/~physics/chainarong/fundamental%20physics/Richard%20Feynman%20-%20The%20Feynman%20Lectures%20on%20Physics%20Volume%203.pdf
  2. Quantum interference experiments, modular variables and weak measurements,Tollaksen et al, 2008, http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/12/1/013023/pdf
  3. Single-Particle Diffraction andInterference ata Macroscopic Scale , Yves Couder, 2006,https://hekla.ipgp.fr/IMG/pdf/Couder-Fort_PRL_2006.pdf
  4. “Systemic Nonlocality” from Changing Constraints on
    Sub-Quantum Kinematics, Grössing et al, 2013,  
    http://arxiv.org/pdf/1303.2867v1.pdf
  5. Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology (2014), Jim Al-Khalili et al., https://66853306a5a50e53d218b618b57187c98158872c.googledrive.com/host/0B2zRsOz7CYloZjV6aURDc1daWjQ/hasil_29/0307986810-Life-Edge-Coming-Quantum-Biology.pdf

Wednesday 10 June 2015

A flatlanders view on Joy Christian's simulations


Flatlanders living in the plane below are witnessing something strange. Normally any object of any form that rotates in their world spans the surface of a perfect circle. But in the current experiment they measure something rotating in their world that spans an oval instead. So in their 2d system they try to simulate what they see to understand the process. But they don't succeed unless, for example, they use a loophole where they change the size of the object during rotation.
 
For us being privileged 3d persons it is easy to understand that the flatlanders are witnessing a projected effect from our world.

This example illustrates the discussions about Joy Christian's theory and simulations. In a nutshell Joy's theory postulates that an object has to undergo a 4pi rotation  to return to its original state (1) (and not 2pi). Currently all attempts to simulate this in an event by event Monte Carlo simulation have been done in an algebraic system that doesn't support this 4pi constraint. The simulations that have been carried out by Joy (2) and others are based on the analytic proof of the theory. But transferred our 'flat' 3d space algebra this means that results falling into the 'green area' should be rejected, because, like in the flatlander's case, these outcomes do not exist.




Joy might be right. But to completely support this by an event by event simulation, I think the total EPR process should be calculated using an algebra that naturally incorporates this 4pi feature. Quaternions? Multivectors? Or maybe yet something else?



  1. Macroscopic Observability of Spinorial Sign Changes under 2π Rotation, Joy Christian, http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10773-014-2412-2 The arxiv text: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1211.0784.pdf     
  2. Joy about his latest simulation: http://www.sciphysicsforums.com/spfbb1/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=168&p=4172#p4172