Life and quantum physics - NOT amateur radio

One of the "takeaway" things from my university course on quantum mechanics (that seems a very long time away now!) was that things could also be described as waves. These waves exist in all space and all time, but are much more probable here and now. To all intents and purposes they are "things" here and now.

The intriguing thought is that in some sense we have always existed everywhere.

Now my understanding may well be flawed, but it goes to show that what we experience as reality may not be how things are. Reality for us is based on our experiences of life.  It pays to be humble: we only know a very little. Be open minded.

Google "quantum entanglement".

One thing I am sure about: one hundred years from now we will look back at these times with amazement: did they really believe that and did they really drive around in vehicles that needed fossil fuels?

Time - NOT amateur radio

Over 50 years ago I did a very mathematical course at university on quantum mechanics. It was fascinating. 

One thing I remember was that everything can be thought of as a wave function existing in all space and all time. What we experience here and now is just most probable. Tunnel diodes only work because there is a finite probability of electrons existing the other sides of a wall by a process known as quantum mechanical tunnelling.

Now, I may have some things wrong, but what this taught me is that a very radical view is equally possible. We experience time as going from the past into the future, whereas this may be totally wrong. What if memories are new every day? What if time is just an illusion? One thing is sure: in the next 150 years some of our views and assumptions may prove to be quite wrong. Think how are views have changed in the last 150 years. In the future I am sure we will look back in amazement.

What we know today is fuzzy. As time goes by we may change our world view radically.

Quantum Entanglement - NOT amateur radio

One of the aspects of quantum mechanics that fascinates me is quantum entanglement. According to quantum theory, quantum entanglement suggests that particles completely separated (even at the other ends of the universe) can share something in common. One day, this may be a clue to teleportation. There are aspects of this which are totally weird. 

In my view, we still have a lot to learn about physics. Quantum mechanics and relativity seem to be imperfect descriptions and I can imagine in the next 100 years we will find other more integrated, theories that better describe things.

In 100 years you can imagine our descendants looking back at our theories in amazement.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement .

Quantum entanglement - NOT amateur radio

It is a fact (I think) that Einstein had problems with quantum physics. Experiments have been done that prove quantum physics is real, if counter-intuitive. Very many years ago, I did a course in quantum theory at university. It was very mathematical and I struggled!

One thing I remembered (I think correctly) was that according to quantum mechanics everything can be described as a wave function that exists in all space and all time. What we experience as the "here and now" can be thought of as a wave that is most probable here and now. Indeed, tunnel diodes only work because of quantum mechanical tunnelling.

All this brings me to quantum entanglement in which entangled particles even at other ends of the universe instantly have a kind of affinity. Look up some videos on YouTube. On the face of it, this breaks the laws of relativity that says nothing can travel faster than the speed of light.

Does this mean teleportation might be possible? Apparently the Chinese have already done this with fundamental particles. In the future, who knows? One thing is certain: we really know and understand very little.

More on time travel

A rather long, but fascinating article on the possibilities and issues with time travel is on Wikipedia.

Quantum time machine?

Researchers at MIT may have come up with a way of travelling through time (and space) using quantum closed timeline curves or CTCs. It has always fascinated me that in quantum mechanics one can describe things as wave functions that have existed in all space and all time, past present and future. It takes a leap of imagination to consider the possibilities. For an explanation see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7904712/Quantum-time-machine-allows-paradox-free-time-travel.html

This is the abstract of the original MIT paper:

"This paper discusses the quantum mechanics of closed timelike curves (CTC) and of other potential methods for time travel. We analyze a specific proposal for such quantum time travel, the quantum description of CTCs based on post-selected teleportation (P-CTCs). We compare the theory of P-CTCs to previously proposed quantum theories of time travel: the theory is physically inequivalent to Deutsch's theory of CTCs, but it is consistent with path-integral approaches (which are the best suited for analyzing quantum field theory in curved spacetime). We derive the dynamical equations that a chronology-respecting system interacting with a CTC will experience. We discuss the possibility of time travel in the absence of general relativistic closed timelike curves, and investigate the implications of P-CTCs for enhancing the power of computation."

Simple ??? See http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.2615