symposium on philosophy and the empirical sciences 16:15welcome jaakko hintikka: natural philosophy...

Symposium on philosophy and the empirical sciences

16:15 WelcomeJaakko Hintikka: Natural philosophy in quantum theory and quantum theory in natural philosophy.Juha Himanka: On Edmund Husserl’s crisis of science.Avril Styrman: Relativity principle and absolute time.

17:50 Coffee break 20 minAri Lehto: Period doubling: Metaphysics or empiricism?Tuomo Suntola: Can the physical reality be described in an understandable way?

Discussion of the theme of the day

The Finnish Society for Natural Philosophy, 12.5.2015 – The House of Sciences, Helsinki

Period doubling:metaphysics or empiricism?

Ari LehtoPhysics Foundations Society

www.physicsfoundations.org

Finnish Society for Natural Philosophy, 12.5.2015 3

The founder of LFS (The Finnish Society for Natural Philosophy) professor K.V. Laurikainen held popular seminars in the cellar auditorium of the Department of High Energy Physics on Thursdays in the end of the 70’s. The main topic was quantum mechanics and its interpretations.

I recall specifically that ”The Heisenberg uncertainty principle can be interpreted such that (true) reality seems to be covered by a veil, but our physical worldview contains features of reality” (recollection, not a quote).

This made me ponder: Do all worldviews contain features of reality? A worldview is observer dependent! What is the worldview like of a being without any senses (mankind

always blind, deaf etc.)?

The worldview becomes: ”SOMETHING EXISTS” (fully internal, simplest possible)

Alternative: ”NOTHING EXISTS”

Let’s name these ”1” and ”0”, and a binary worldview is born, which can be described by integer powers of 2. This worldview should contain features of reality, too! A rather naive and amusing idea!!

But it can be tested!!

Physical worldview vs. reality


Let us examine ratios R of commensurate physical quantities x. An integer power of two is the simplest form of the ratio (not any binary number).

For the first test I chose two quantities, which have nothing to do with one another: The hydrogen 21 cm wavelength and the Planck length.

We obtain

The integer exponent 112 was quite a surprise (c. year 1982)!

Testing the binary worldview

N

j

i

x

xR 2

01.112221.0

lengthPlanck

mR

mc

hGlengthPlanck 35

31005.4

N=integer


After that I calculated ratios of 49 quantities including rest energies of elementary particles, radii of the orbits of the planets etc. Of course the magnitude of the ratio R depends on what is compared.

It turned out that the majority of the ratios were something else than integer powers of two.

However, the decimal part of the exponent tells how close the exponent is to an integer value (e.g. exponents 111.98 and 112.01 are close to integer 112).

More tests

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

-0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

CountN=i.00 N=i.33

N=i.66

The decimal parts seem to form three groups (i depends

on the magnitude of R) :

00.2iR

00.2iR 33.2iR 66.2iR

322n

NR

Distribution of the decimal parts

The exponents are of the form integer/3, i.e. cube roots of an integer power of 2.


The test data included ratios of different quantities (length, temperature, rest energy, wavelength), so the ratio

applies to all of these pointing to a common property, which means that the quantities in question can be expressed in terms of the same quantity.

All quantities in the test data can be expressed by using period t :

Energy : E=hf=h/tWavelength: l=ct (also circumference of an orbit)

Temperature T=h/ktMagnetic moment: m=ec2t/4p

What is a period good for?

Conclusions

32n

j

i

x

xR


Chaos was a very popular research topic in the1980’s. It was theoretically shown that nonlinear dynamical systems develop towards (apparent) chaos via a phenomenon called period doubling.

M. J. Feigenbaum (1978, 1980) showed that period doubling is a universal property of nonlinear dynamical systems.

Period doubling has been demonstrated in many experiments.

If the fundamental period is to, then the N’th period is

Especially stable are periods (i positive integer).

The ratio of periods becomes:

Is period doubling characteristic of something?

oN

N 2 (1)

322n

N

o

NR

(2)

oN

N

i

222

(valid for all quantities in question)


The N’th period is (observation)

Cubing both sides of (3) yields:

Equation (4) means that doubling takes place in the volume of the period-space.

Volume means that the system has three 3 internal degrees of freedom (dimensions of the period-space).

Interpretation of the cube root

o

n

N 32 (3)

33 2 on

N (4)n=3N

3o

32 on

Periods (=edges) have equal number of doublings.


Let us generalize (4) into a ┴ parallelepiped:

According to the observation the ratios R are cube roots, and so the perceived period is

which can be converted into other quantities, e.g. energy. In this case the system has three internal degrees of freedom, each having the related energy. The cube root (geometric mean of the energies) returns the observed energy (Joule, scalar quantity).

Generalization33 2 o

kjiijk

o

kji

ijk

32

(5)

3o

32 okji

oi 2

oj 2

ok 2

(6)

Different number of doublings


The rest energy of the pair is Eep=1.022 MeV. The so called Planck energy Eo =3.060.1022 MeV can be calculated from h, c and G. Taking this as reference energy one obtains for R:

We find that the exponent of 2 is very close to an integer divided by 3. What is 224?

Can we break 224 into a sum of integer powers of two? If so, then the system is superstable.

One obtains

meaning that the structure of the electron-positron pair is superstable (otherwise we would not exist

as we are). Eq. (8) yields the ep-pair rest energy with an inaccuracy of one thousandth.

Electron-positron pair rest energy

3

224667.74

2222

10060.3

022.1

MeV

MeVR (7)

765 2221286432224 kji

3

222 765

2

o

ep

E

ER (8)


The electron has a measurable magnetic moment. Magnetic moment µ is defined as a current loop µ=iA, where i is the current and A the area. The Planck loop serves as the natural reference, where the circumference is the Planck length lo=cto and current the elementary charge divided by the Planck time (period). The reference becomes

E-p pair magnetic moment is 4.643.10-24 Am2 , and theratio R becomes

Note the same superstability in the ep-pair rest energy! Eq’s (9) and (10) yield a practically accurate value for the electron magnetic moment (difference is 0.016 % compared to the NIST value, details in (Lehto 2009)).

Electron-positron pair magnetic moment

oo

ei

2o

ol

r

2462

10549.14

Amec o

o

(9)

3

222 765

2

o

epR (10)


Let us take the Planck charge qo as reference:

The ratio of the Coulomb energies (proportional to the square of charge) is

The Coulomb energy of the elementary charge has four internal degrees of freedom! The fourth root also brings about the +/- polarity. Is the system superstable?

39 =1+2+4+32 = 20+21+22+25

Yes it is.

The value given by (11) for the elementary charge deviates from the NIST value by 0.003 % (Lehto 1984).

How about the elementary charge e ?

hcq oo 4 (10)

4

397499.9

2

2

22

oq

eR (11)


Equations for the circumference and orbital speed are (Lehto 1990):

The Solar system

o

N

N ll 32

cvM

M

32 (13)

(12)

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

0 1 10 100

M=38

39

40

41

42

43

4445464748

r (AU)

v

Mercury

Main asteroids

calculated

observed

empty

(km/s)

The initial dust and gas accumulate into orbits determined by period doubling (attractors).

Note that the orbital velocities of the planets are given by consequent integers M from (13).

A more detailed analysis has been carried out (Lehto 2009, 2014).


Both gravitational and Coulomb potentials are 1/r nonlinear. It is possible to derive a differential equation (Lehto 2009) in period-space (t,r) (compare space-time):

the solutions of which give the 3-d and 4-d period doubling depending on the value of a (for 3-d doubling a=46.5 and 4-d a=82.4).

Other superstable systems are:• proton (rest energy, charge and magnetic moment)• hydrogen 21 cm wavelength • system producing the cosmic (microwave) background radiation (CBR, 3K temperature)

3-d period doubling can be observed in the quantized galaxy redshifts (Lehto-Tifft rule, Tifft

1997, 2014).

Theory for 1/r-potential

ra

d

rd22

2

(14)

Note: Equations (12) and (13) explain the Bode-Titius rule.


Fractal tree

A fractal tree is an example of an object, which seems to be very complex at the top.

This is an illusion, however, because the structure of the tree results from repeating the same principle.

A closer look reveals that the stem and the branches are continuously split into two when going upwards.

This phenomenon is called bifurcation, which eventually leads to an apparent chaos.

In nonlinear dynamical systems bifurcation means period doubling.

Picture (without text): http://www.learningclojure.com/2010/09/clojure-13-first-impression.html

Simple origin

Seemingly complex, present time

Complexity grows with system evolution

Base in this study: The

Planck units


Consideration of a possible relation between the simplest worldview and reality led to the discovery of the period doubling phenomenon in several natural systems. • period doubling is a universal property of nonlinear dynamical systems (Feigenbaum)• it was found out that the systems analyzed have internal degrees of freedom, which form 3-d and 4-d period-spaces. • a differential equation for the occurrence of 3-d and 4-d period doubling in 1/r-potential can be derived .• the volume of the phase space must be returned to 1-d by taking cube- and fourth roots (e.g. energy: (Joule3)1/3→Joule).• the analysis shows that the intrinsic properties of the electron and proton are superstable (rest mass, charge, magnetic moment).

Longlife (stable) structures evolve by repeating the simple period doubling process starting from the Planck scale (defined by the natural constants).

Summary


Wikipedia: ” Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:

What is ultimately there?

What is it like?”.

Pondering the relation between the simplest physical worldview and reality led to the discovery of the period doubling phenomenon in the 1/r-potential systems. This is metaphysics (?).

Wikipedia: “Empiricism in the philosophy of science emphasizes evidence, especially as discovered in experiments. It is a fundamental part of the scientific method that all hypotheses and theories must be tested against observations of the natural world rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation.”

The discovery of the period doubling phenomenon in the 1/r-potential systems and the related mathematical theory belong to the realm of empiricism.

Metaphysics or empiricism?


Feigenbaum M. J., "Quantitative Universality for a Class of Non-Linear Transformations." J. Stat. Phys. 19, 25-52, 1978

Feigenbaum M. J., “Universal Behavior in Nonlinear Systems”, Los Alamos Science, Summer 1980

Lehto A., ”On (3+3)-dimensional discrete space-time”, University of Helsinki, Report Series in Physics HU-P-236, 1984

Lehto A., ”Periodic time and the stationary properties of matter”, Chin. J. Phys. 28 (3), 215–235, 1990

Lehto A., ”On the Planck Scale and Properties of Matter”, Nonlinear Dynamics, 55, 3, 279-298, 2009

Lehto A., “On the Planck Scale and Properties of Matter”, International Journal of Astrophysics and Space Science, Vol. 2, Issue Number 6-1, December 2014

Tifft W.G., "Redshift Quantization - A Review", Astrophysics and Space Science 227 (1–2), 1995

Tifft W.G., "Redshift Quantization in the Cosmic Background Rest Frame”, J. Astrophys. Astr. (1997)18, 415–433

Tifft W.G., “Redshift – Key to Cosmology”, book 2014, ISBN:=978-0-9862619-0-9

I am greatly indebted to (late) professor K. V. Laurikainen for his active encouragement leading from the initial idea to the 1984 publication and continuation of my studies in this topic.

References


THANK YOU!

symposium on philosophy and the empirical sciences 16:15welcome jaakko hintikka: natural philosophy...

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