Here is a new article to the series about RealQM as an alternative to StdQM:
fredag 23 maj 2025
Weak Reactivity of Gold by RealQM
onsdag 21 maj 2025
Origin of CMBR?
Here is an interesting video about the possible origin of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation CMBR other than an "afterglow" of a Big Bang proving the Big Bang hypothesis to be correct, as the currently most popular cosmological theory:
The video recalls early theories about a static Universe filled with some form of interstellar dust radiating a Planck spectrum of around 2-5 Kelvin. Such a thing was detected in 1967 at 2.7 K and was then connected to Big Bang deleting the old theories from the map. In particular the Big Bang theory claimed to resolve the mystery of the observed red-shift of galaxies increasing with distance suggesting an accelerated expansion of the Universe.
One of the old theories was the "tired light" hypothesis presented by Zwicki in 1929 suggesting that the red-shift could be the result of a loss of energy of light passing through interstellar dust over long distance with energy scaling with frequency.
The idea of an active interstellar dust actively radiating at 2.7 K seems more natural than that of a Big Bang "afterglow" still hanging on after 13.8 billion years.
Zwicki's "tired light" hypothesis can be connected to some form of dark matter as source of gravitation which shows up as CMBR resulting from sucking up energy from passing light. I have discussed dark matter in posts on Neo-Newtonian Gravitation.
Computational vs Theoretical Mathematics in Physics
The mathematical models of physics take the form of partial differential equations like Euler's Equations for incompressible inviscid fluid flow EE, corresponding Navier-Stokes equation for viscous flow NSE and Schrödinger's equations for atoms and molecules SE.
The task of a theoretical mathematician has been to prove by symbolic analytical techniques (i) existence, (ii) uniqueness and (ii) regularity of solutions to a given equation with data given in some large class of possible data with data including initial data, forcing and parameters like viscosity in NSE.
The task of a computational mathematician has been to compute solutions for specific choices of data which in each specific case can answer (i)-(iii) by inspection of the computed solution.
It has been argued that computation is not enough, even if for each specific choice of data (i)-(iii) can be answered, because only a limited number of specific choices can be inspected. The possibly very large class of data can thus never be exhausted by computation, which gives analytical symbolic mathematics a role to play by covering a large class of data.
It is natural to ask if there are examples of equations for which the class of relevant data is so small that it can be exhausted by computation. This means first that the equation cannot contain any parameter like viscosity. Are there any models of interest which are parameter free? Inspection of EE and SE shows that they are both parameter free, and so meet the requirement of Einstein of an ideal mathematical model opening to say something about the world without measuring anything. This is like learning the area of a circular disc by computation with unit radius as only input.
Solving EE computationally thus delivers the drag of a body moving through a slightly viscous fluid such as air and water at a subsonic speed with the only data being the shape of the body and not any viscosity as parameter. This limits the class of data to shapes of bodies with a limited range of shapes of interest to be covered by computation. This is all described here.
The case of SE is in its traditional form of Standard Quantum Mechanics StdQM troubled by the fact SE by its multi-dimension nature is uncomputable and so needs dimensional compression which introduces parameters.
RealQM is different realisation of the same parameter-free Hamiltonian as StdQM into computable form without introduction of any parameter. RealQM thus expresses SE in parameter-free computable form and so opens the possibility of saying something about the atomic world without experimental input. RealQM thus computes the ground state of an atom with the only input being the number of electrons and so can exhaust the Periodic Table.
An analytical estimate of ground state energy as the result of a longer or shorter sequence of successive bounds, can be seen as a form of symbolic computation, while a numerical computation can be seen as very long arithmetic proof.
Computation with a parameter-free mathematical model can produce a rich set of outputs from very limited structural input, which can serve as data for AI in need of rich data. Computation is then used both to produce data and to learn from data. Symbolic mathematics has an important role to set up computation.
The Clay Institute Millennium Problem on (i)-(iii) for NSE is still open in the form of symbolic mathematics with no progress reported over 25 years. Can computation get the million dollar Prize?
tisdag 20 maj 2025
Covalent Bonding by RealQM
Here is the next article in a sequence of articles exhibiting the capabilities of RealQM as an alternative to StdQM as the canon of modern physics:
Shut up and Calculate vs Compute, Learn and Speak
- Chemistry is a discipline of two faces, one applied and the other theoretical. The applied face focuses on the design and synthesis of molecules and solids, while the theoretical face looks for explanations of a molecule or solid’s properties.
- ....the divide that exists in chemistry between those who seek their understanding within a universe wherein the laws of physics apply and those who prefer alternative universes wherein the laws are suspended or bent to suit preconceived ideas.
- The underlying physical laws necessary for the mathematical theory of a large part of physics and the whole of chemistry are thus completely known and the difficulty is only that the exact application of these laws leads to equations much too complicated to be soluble. It therefore becomes desirable that approximate practical methods of applying quantum mechanics should be developed, which can lead to an explanation of the main features of complex atomic systems without too much computation.
måndag 19 maj 2025
RealQM Article: Stability of Atoms
Here is another article in a series of articles about RealQM to be submitted:
fredag 16 maj 2025
RealQM Article to Submit
I am now now preparing to submit a sequence of articles about Real Quantum Mechanics to relevant journals and here is a first test to check out reaction:
lördag 3 maj 2025
Political Role of Quantum Mechanics
The shift from the old quantum mechanics of Niels Bohr happened with Werner Heisenberg's July 1925 "Reinterpretation" article introducing a new form of matrix mechanics without Bohr's electron trajectories to form the new quantum mechanics.
Heisenberg was a student of Max Born at the University of Göttingen with the mathematician Hilbert as world authority of mathematical physic acting as Born's mentor. Göttingen mathematical physics was an important part of the "Weimar Renaissance" during the recovery of Germany after the defeat in WWI getting momentum in 1925.
It is thus possible to give Heisenberg's new quantum mechanics political dimensions stretching into WWII with Heisenberg as leading scientist in Germany's quest for an atomic bomb in the "Uranium Club".
Planck had a similar role at the height of the German Empire when he in 1900 took on the responsibility to resolve the outstanding open physics problem of black-body radiation, when to avoid failing he resorted to statistics of quanta which resurfaced in Born's interpretation of Heisenbergs new quantum mechanics.
Heisenberg worked as Bohr's assistant in 1925 and Bohr invited Born to Copenhagen in 1926, and so they came to form the Bohr-Born-Heisenberg Copenhagen school setting the agenda for quantum mechanics from its beginning into our time.
Schrödinger entered in 1926 with his equation showing to be equivalent to matrix-mechanics, but Schrödinger did not accept the Copenhagen Interpretation and so left the field to come back only in 1954 to discover that BBH still controlled the scene.
After WWII the US took over quantum mechanics still in the spirit of BBH.
All physicists of today say that following the idea of the mathematician von Neumann that the wave function of quantum mechanics lives in a Hilbert space of infinite dimension and most physicists will confess to the Copenhagen Interpretation even if its meaning is unclear. Schrödinger's request of physicality is met with "shut up and calculate".
What do the Chinese say? Is it time for Schrödinger to come back in the form of RealQM in the "China Renaissance" that is now reshaping the world? It is not impossible since the Chinese are very clever, very organised and result oriented towards a clear plan.
ChatGPT: After completing his doctoral work in Budapest and Zurich, von Neumann spent the academic year 1926–27 at Göttingen. There he
Studied under David Hilbert, attending Hilbert’s lectures on the mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics,
Sat in on Max Born’s seminar on the new quantum theory, and
Published his first quantum‐mechanical notes out of Göttingen later that year.
Issues with Standard Quantum Mechanics 1926-2026
There are basic unresolved foundational "issues" with Standard Quantum Mechanics StdQM based on Schrödinger's Equation SE, basically issues with SE:
- Unitary deterministic evolution of the wave function.
- Collapse of the wave function upon observation.
- Statistics of collapsed wave function by Born's Rule.
- What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
- Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.
- The reality we can put into words is never reality itself.
- The atoms or elementary particles themselves are not real; they form a world of potentialities or possibilities rather than one of things or facts.
- The existing scientific concepts cover always only a very limited part of reality, and the other part that has not yet been understood is infinite.
- The ontology of materialism rested upon the illusion that the kind of existence, the direct "actuality" of the world around us, can be extrapolated into the atomic range. This extrapolation is impossible, however.
- The conception of objective reality ... has thus evaporated ... into the transparent clarity of mathematics that represents no longer the behavior of particles but rather our knowledge of this behavior.
- If God has made the world a perfect mechanism, He has at least conceded so much to our imperfect intellect that in order to predict little parts of it, we need not solve innumerable differential equations, but can use dice with fair success.
- I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actually philosophy.
- The universe is not a puzzle to be solved, but a mystery to be embraced.
- It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how Nature is. Physics concerns what we say about Nature.
- Nothing exists until it is measured.
- Opposites are not contradictory but complementary.
- When we measure something we are forcing an undetermined, undefined world to assume an experimental value. We are not measuring the world, we are creating it.
- When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry.
- There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum physical description. It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about Nature.
fredag 2 maj 2025
Why Quantum Mechanics is "Weird"
- Quantum mechanics describes nature as absurd from the point of view of common sense. And yet it fully agrees with experiment. So I hope you can accept nature as She is - absurd. (Feynman)
- I think I can safely say that nobody understands Quantum Mechanics. (Feynman)
- If quantum mechanics has not profoundly shocked you, you have not understood it yet. (Bohr)
- $H_{weird}= \sum_{i}(-\frac{1}{2}\Delta_i -\frac{Z}{\vert x_i\vert}) +\sum_{j<i}\frac{1}{\vert x_i-x_j\vert}$
- If from a knowledge of classical continuum mechanics, you are not shocked by $H_{weird}$, then you have not understood classical continuum mechanics.