Why I Like The Transactional Interpretation

Reiku

Banned
Banned
On The Nature of Thoughts and Transactional Interpretational Model of Quantum Cosmology

In a Copenhagen light there is no real explanation to why large objects seem to escape the smaller statistical averages laws that compose it, such as the infinitesimal world of electrons, protons, ect.

Decoherence is a mathematical explanation, that was tested in 1990’s by Alain Aspect, a French physicist, among other coworkers. They found that the environment of wavelike structures can entangle and collapse into a single state over a given period time, without the aid of an observer. The problem however, turned out to be according to Hawking, and many other leading scientists who work in multiple fields, still large area’s of the universe would not be in the state they are observed to be in today. Large clumps of superpositioned and virtual matter would have even after 15,000 million years of expansion, still leave the GREATER part of the universe undefined, in the sense that the virtual wavelike matter would still be ghostly and not real at all, when relativity and a conscious observer are involved.

A FEW bright sparks led scientists to believe that the reason behind this, was because we are now ‘’today’’, in the present time, so-to-say, are just ‘’now’’ shaping the undefined universe at time zero, where there was no unique radius, or structure, because there was supposedly no observer. In this interpretation, which was heavily studied by Dr. Fred Alan Wolf, among other scientists independently, it seems as though, even though we experience some kind of movement in time, and distance in space, or even a distance in time, and a movement in space, time is relativistically important, when we are involved.

In Dr. Greene’s book, ‘’The Frozen Lake’’, we are told that time itself happens in a single instance, and that all of time is all frozen out ahead of us in our past and future histories, but this grim mathematical truth seems to be a law that is broken by the very reference of a conscious observer’s point of view, where things don’t seem so ‘’stuck in time.’’ For a really good set of references for this, I advise to ‘’The Yoga of Mind,’’ and ‘’Parallel Universes,’’ by Dr. Wolf. He is quite good at explaining science, even though he is inexorably criticized sometimes that he sometimes errs in distinguishing between metaphysics and physics.

This is one of the reasons why it clicked on that the observer was somehow outside the laws of relativity, and why Dr. David Albert introduced his ‘’Principle of Secret Knowledge,’’ showing that the mind has its own secret dimensional freedom, and yet, it still knows exactly where it is going, and where it is, despite of the quantum laws of the Uncertainty Principle, which should forbid our ability to know these facts.

It came to my attention, that perhaps there are more than just a few ways to explain this. One is by saying, that consciousness is a macroscopic operational system. So that, in some strange Copenhagenistic way of seeing this, consciousness as we know it comes out of a macroscopic system, and thereby following like rules.

However, there is the question of the wave function itself, and why consciousness escapes these rules. It seems evident that there is an something unique with time when in retro-respects to Bohm’s law of $$|\psi|^2$$, so that a collapse in the wave function, by any observer, creates that thing real, and this is of course, so that it must abide as being an equation pivotal in relative working frameworks. In other words, whenever we come to measure any eigenstate of a system, (which is just the same as talking about the infinite possibilities behind such a field i.e. the wave function), a single eigenstate will appear, and all other eigenstates are disregarded, but never totally lost, due to the ‘’Information Paradox,’’ saying that no information, no matter how small it is, can never be lost to the vacuum. This is why, scientists where able to say that the uncertainty principle at the smallest levels known given by Planck's Constants, did indicate that subatomic particles did not necessarily obey the laws of cause and effect… but can experience the effect well before the cause! For reference, the best would be the Generalized Absorber Theory, because when you understand this process, we find that there are hidden variables where an action in the future is complimentary to an action in the past.

Now why should the past and future be complimentary? Well, according to physicists (ADD), you can actually violate the law of uncertainty, if a measurement of the position of let’s say for arguments sake an electron in the past, and make a measurement in the future of it’s position, you can take both the values and come up with the real answer in the present. While some scientists find it [[just]] a strange mathematical phenom, it still remains a fact that in Relativity, the future and the past are not only illusions of the mind, but the mind reflects on that illusion, because we experience a past and a future, which is forbidden in GR alone, because everything is found to be a frozen lake, where there is no observer to distinguish the two.

This is why I like the Transactional Interpretation. Not only does it give explanations to physical functions, but it also adds the notion that things cannot be seen in one direction only. Things are always operating around us, like how a ball can only fall, if it had a place to first fall from, as must as it’s end story defines what happened inbetween.
 
Some added thoughts:

Now, how did parallel universe theory come about exactly? Well, in this next essay, i will try and explain it, from the interpretation above.

Subatomic matter behaves very differently to larger masses. One example of this estranged behavior is called the 'double slit experiment' introduced by physicist Thomas Young in 1805. This experiment consists of a machine that shoots a beam of photons, electrons or even atoms towards film screen - but before the particles reach the screen and leaves tiny marks, it needs to pass through either an upper slit, or a lower slit that are closely separated. Each slit can be closed, or both can be left opened by the choice of the observer.

Now, when the beam of particles hit the screen, you would suppose the particles had to pass through either the upper slit or the lower slit, yes? However, the strange thing is, is that if you close down one of slits, more particles reach the screen than if you left both slits open! How can this be? You would imagine more particles reaching the screen if both slits were opened - but this is not the case.

One strange answer came about. The particle wasn't a pointlike particle at all. It acted as though it were a wave!
If one uses the wave description, the problem seemed to go away. We know how waves act in the sea, and this also means that the particle will take these attributes on board.

A wave could reach both slits at the same time - and just like a wave coming into contact with two openings, the wave can split into two smaller waves, one, as i am sure you can guess, in each slit. If the two waves travel different paths, they can be made to interfere with themselves after passing the slits; in doing so, less waves reach the screen. If one slit is only open, the wave will travel through the slit, and, just like a wave hitting the shore, it will hit many places simultaneously on the screen - thus hitting more places with one slit open, than having both slits open.

However, the particle wasn't only just a wave - after all, when it hit the screen, it left a tiny 'pointlike' mark. Somehow when the wave hit the screen, it hit many places on the screen as dots. Thus, a new description had to made for a particle that traveled through space as a wave, and finishes its journey as a single object - this description has been come to be called the 'wave-particle duality.' The particle therego was in fact a wave and a particle simultaneously.

Why did the particle act as a wave?
Well, at first, physicists thought that the wave was a product of the human mind - it wasn't real, and it was just a means for us to keep track of experiments. The wave became to be called the quantum wave function.' This was a wave of possibilities. The wave probability enables us to calculate the possibility for a particle and its path, location, spin, orbital reference, ect. The wave spreads out over space, and resembles likelihoods, not actualities... or does it?

In 1957 physicist Hugh Everett the third, came up with a rather bizarre conclusion concerning the wave function. His idea was that if the experiment says that the particle passed through both slits at the same time, then both particles, the one traveling past the upper slit, and the particle traveling through the lower slit, must both exist.

Question is though, how and where does this extra ghostly particle exist? The answer was parallel universes. Somehow, an identical particle existed in a parallel world; the wave represented the amount of particles it was composed of, thus one particle passed the upper slit and a particle passed the lower slit, and each 'branch', or universe, it was represented as a wave, having quite a real effect in each universe.

However, why should the particle be a wave and then suddenly become a particle again? It turns out that our universe, according to Everett, is constantly splitting and merging every time some measurement is performed or when something comes into contact with something else.

Each time the universe split, it would represent the wave function splitting into as many possibilities as there where outcomes, and the merging would represent the universe becoming superimposed all over again. Thus, in the double slit experiment, when the particle moves through both the slits simultaneously, this represents the universe splitting, creating as many universes as the possibility allows - in this case, two universes - and the merging represents the pointlike dot when it hits the screen. However, it turns out that the experiment represents only two universes - yet, it turns out that our universe is in fact one in an infinite amount of parallel universes, all 'superpositioned' upon each other, like layers on a cake.

It is amazing that something so science-fiction like parallel universes can be taken rather seriously by top physicists today. The theme is almost unimaginable... just think about it - an infinity of universes - an infinity of earths for that matter, with an infinite amount of me's, and an infinite amount of you's - worlds were i exist, and worlds were you do not - worlds were you exist and i do not. Worlds that neither of us exist... worlds that are barren of life, and worlds with life more weird and wonderful than we could ever imagine. Worlds of paradise, and hell worlds galore!

And each universe is unique, as there maybe several outcomes to a certain event, but only one individual outcome is allowed in any single universe. Thus, whenever i flip a coin and observe what side it has landed on, i become apart of the splitting of the universe, and my body is projected into two me's - one in this universe looking and observing a heads, let's say, and another me in the 'newly born' universe observing a tails. However, this easy-creation of universes disturbs some scientists. The idea is, if you flip a coin in 100 tosses, you create something equivalent to 1,267,650,600,228,229,401,496,703,205,376 universe-possibilities real; that is a little over 10^30. If every 6 billion-odd souls on earth simply stopped to flip a coin a hundred times, you could imagine the amount of universes that would split off from our own.*

* In fact, the parallel universe theory has undergone some variations over the years. Some scientists believe that not only is our universe prone to split, but all the parallel universes might in fact also split.

Matter in each of these universes permitted to contain matter, are in equal proportion, which is around 10^80 particles in each universe. However, this is where we tend to get a little confused - even though a particle, according to parallel universe theory, exists in two worlds as a wave in the double slit experiment, there is only one particle ever present whenever the universes merge! There will always be a single particle present, provided no one comes along and decided to observe the little particle, or a large electrical force pulls it out of its superpositioning - or simply, whenever anything comes into contact with something else; even in a tragedy.

Take a hypothetical man. Imagine he decided to cross the road, and he never looked both ways. A car hits him and he dies... 'Sianara?' Well, yes and no. He do indeed die, but he dies as the unfortunate outcome of this world - in a parallel universe he is living quite happily. When the car hit me, the universes flew apart, each providing a certain outcome unique among the rest.

Neither would it do us any good to say that time passes at the same rate in each of these universes - that wouldn't be accurate at all. It would be like the differential time zones on planet earth - i will be asleep in one universe, whilst i am totally awake here and now. Some universes might be so similar to ours, the only quantum difference is that you might be wearing a red tie, instead of a blue tie... A universe with these differential time traits are called 'self-contained' time.

Now, not every physicist agrees with parallel universe theory - take for granted some of the best minds in the quantum mainstream, like Stephen Hawkings entertain the 'many world hypothesis,' instead of the 'collapse of the wave function.' The wave function permeates all of spacetime. Created by Erwin Schrödinger, the mathematical function would predict the infinite amount of possible locations or paths an atom can have; for instance, in the double slit experiment, the wave represents two paths - thus the paths are represented by the wave function. The collapse of the wave function is the sudden reduction in the value of probability. The idea, is that the world suddenly reduced to a single calculation - the wave is said to collapse - the usual way to describe the collapse, is to imagine a balloon being deflated.

But here's where a new problem has arisen, and it complicates my gratidude for such a complexified theory like believing so many universe split off our own, does in fact simplify even more problems posited in physics, and relativity, the observer-dependant theory.

The theory states, that even though there are an infinity of ''us'', we are all existing in present time in parallel universes. This leads to our mind not only being connected to every other mind in these universes, but it leads to explaining why time itself is a frozen lake in relativity without any complication of a singlular universe, and a single mind here and now. So in other words, if we had one universe only, then we have the paradox of why we experience time flowing, whilst in a parallel universe model, we do not, because everything has already happened, in an equilibrium of infinity, so-to-say, and with the current conditional acceptions of how to define an infinity, it can only be said in terms of any number that is ever increasing.

Does this imply problems with the Omega Point? It should, afterall, if the universe began as a big bang, of an infinity of bangs, then at least an infinity of these universes have the ability to collapse, whilst an infinity are also allowed to not be able to collapse under its gravitational weight.

I have more questions, but i'll let each one of these posts be digested first. :cool: Chow for now, Amigos.
 
Thanks... but why be so generous? I did afterall say a few things to you only yesterday..which now on reflection, may have been bad jugdement. I'll soon discuss why we need an infinity of universes, and not a finite, even though a finite amount is allowed, in string theory. This will be interesting, if Ben, or Cpt, or even alphanumeric contributed their string theory knowledge in a respectable tone. Thats' all i will say about that.
 
The Problems with a Finite Amount of Universes?

First, let's take into account, that string theory has taken a great deal of attention and money out of the mainstream, but that is by no accident. It's because those who are educated enough to actually talk about it 100% can one see that the attention it recieved will never be in vain, even if it does die out within the next years.

It seems to say to me, at least, that we cannot deal with a single universe and a conscious observer, unless Special Relativity allows General Relativity to have other universes alined out for it; my disposition about the laws required behind parallel universes seemed to have stemmed from my dislike of string theory when you see it from an Everette point of view.

An Observer a Universe and the Wierd.

The observer designates a specific directionality to this phase. This is of course, the psychological arrow of time. This arrow allows the psyche to adapt to a certain flow within the universe… This flow is forward.
If things where going backwards, things would seem very strange indeed… According to Dr. Hawking, if time is reversed, then so must the entropy contained within the universe. This means, everything that has evolved into today’s present states, would suddenly begin to de-evolve, and the plate that fell onto the floor would suddenly reassemble on the table! Counterintuitive? Perhaps, but this is what we should expect, since the entropy reverse on the microscopic scale would indeed drag even the components it makes ‘’macroscopic objects’’ to the their previous states…

Something more can be seen in this though. The human mind, according to theory would not allow us to know that the plate had reassembled on the table. Why? Because one must assume that even ‘’secret knowledge,’’ or personal knowledge is also dragged along with the matter…
For those who believe that mind is bound by the matter of the brain, then mind too must experience the same flow of time, and same consequences. This means that personal knowledge that was increasing as time passed, now begins to decrease! Even though Hawking explains that if time went back and in result we would see the proverbial plate reassemble, we wouldn’t know!

So, what should we expect if time does move back? Should it move back at all??
According to the Omega Theory of Cosmological Evolution, everything will reach an end singularity. A singularity which halts all known forward laws of physics, and inexorably forces everything to move backwards; but this depends on a steady balance of matter against the ratio of spacetime…There are existing theories right now which currently goes against such a point, against such a symmetry in time, such as the known acceleration of the universe, which seems to be indicating that our universe is ‘’Open,’’ meaning it will continue forever to expand. If it does, this can lead to Armageddon visions such as a Big Freeze or even Big Rip.

However, such a symmetry in time leads to exciting proposals that makes us realize that in subtle ways, the end and the beginning are somehow the same thing. It is easier to understand this, by using Hawkings analogy that if the universe sprung from a singularity, it would end in a singularity… both are somehow points which oscillate in imaginary time.
Reversing time allows us to find these strange results predicted, and if we could watch a reversed time frame of the universe, we ask the question, ‘’would it look the same as it did going forward?’’

Take a jar of gas. Any gas, with about a billion, billion, billion atoms. As time moves forward, the atoms in the jar become more and more disordered, and more and more less like the original state they had evolved from. How long would we need to wait, until all of those atoms reached the same states as they begun? It’s very difficult say, but in the long run, it should take trillions of years… maybe even longer…

Now, this so far, has explained in very pragmatic terms what energy-matter is subjected to in this universe; a constant disorder which should never reach a state which it had begun, unless everything is suddenly reverted back to whence it came via an Omega Singularity, or a Big Crunch.
But what about this notion that the beginning is somehow very much like, if not the same as the end? How can one come to such a conceptualized view of the universe?
The answer turns out to be very dubious indeed. The answer might lye in closed timelike curves… In short, just to get a very quick picture of what is being said here, is that the beginning of the universe might be a state which eventually curves back onto itself so that that there is what appears to be, a superb intrical Gordian’s knot.

As will be explained later a CTC (Closed-Timelike-Curves) are states of a physical system which twists through space and time, and ends up exactly where it began. Is this the nature of the universe? It begs the question.
Let us view the universe like an atom, as described by Hawkings principle of Quantum Cosmology… and then assume that this particle/universe reaches a state which is so heavily curved upon itself, it is forced to end up where it began… then it turns out that the end is in fact the beginning, and vice versa… (This idea could be related intimately to pulsating universe theory).

But something even more sinister can arise from all of this. If the beginning is the end, and the end is the beginning, (as I believe some old wise religions and philosophies state), then there might be room for some retrocausality – but first, what is a retrocausality in physics?

It is when the effect precedes the cause… We postulate this from interpretations of general relativity, and some interpretations of quantum mechanics. In fact, Dr. Wolf reminds us that the uncertainty principle, which governs our inability to predict all that there is to be known at the very small scales of quarks and protino’s, that cause and effect breaks down!!! This is very true, and since we know that physics predicts this, we can say that retrocausality must happen everyday in our lives; we are not concerned with this strange action though, because we exist on levels which are not normally affected by such a principle.

My Thoughts on String Theory and Everette's Interpretation

Until the 'string theory' came about, it was thought that matter existed as tiny little 'pointlike' units, like a grain of sand on a beach. This idea has been challenged. Superstring theory is a mathematical insert, describing all fundamental particles as tiny strings vibrating at different frequencies, and correctfully predicts the work of the forces between particles, (especially gravity and the strong force). Strings come in two distinctive forms: Open strings and closed strings. Open strings make up fundamental matter, whilst closed strings move throughout different universes.

Open strings have two endpoints, and closed strings are envisioned as tiny loops. The two types of string play different roles, yielding two different spectra. For a quick reference, one of the closed strings is the elusive graviton, and one of the open strings make up the photon. Because open strings have two endpoints, they can inexorably join with other strings forming a closed string. Strings can split and combine, describing particles emitting or absorbing other particles.

The theory states that our universe has 11 dimensions in space, but 7 of these dimensions are undetectable so far, because they are curled up into the smallest space possible called the 'Planck length.' However, physicists Nima-Hamed, Savas Dimopoulos and Gia Dvali have brought forward new ideas how to probe these dimensions using gravity. This makes sense, since according to theory, gravity travels freely between dimensions.

We see three spatial dimensions everyday and are aware of a 4th dimension of time. We know our universe has three dimensions for sure, not only because of the apparent shape of an object, but also because of the 'inverse square law of gravity,' which allows the force between two masses to decrease as the square of the distance, represented as 'r', between them. You can imagine the distance 'r' and the gravitational field strength as being radiated through a 3-dimensional sphere enclosing a mass. The surface area of the sphere increases as the square of the distance 'r^2' and the strength of the field is distributed in proportion.

Thus, in a 4-dimensional space, similarly the surface area of the 4-dimensional sphere would emit a field that gives away with the cube of the distance 'r^3'. Therefore, adding extra dimensions, as string theory does, would mean that the gravitational field would decrease with a corresponding increase in the power of 'r'. The equation you give for this, can be seen from the implication of Newton's work;

$$I_{1}/I_{2}=N/A_{1}/N/A_{2}=A_{2}/A_{1}=4 \pi r^{2^2}/4 \pi r_{1}^{2}$$

The surface of the sphere is given as 4 \pi r² and also when we have a ratio A2, A1 then the following equation is solved by saying that the second surface is twice the distance from the source I=k/r² and is found to be in inversely proportional to the square of the distance.

$$I= r_{1}^{2}/(2r_{1})^{2}xI_{1}= r_{1}^{2}/(4r_{1})^{2}xI_{1}= I_{1/4}$$

So as it is said, if one wanted proof that this universe has three dimensions, the inverse square law is perfect.

These Other Dimensions...

Even though we have not detected these extra dimensions in spacetime, the recent lab results show us that we can probe space to a distance of 100 micrometers. Theory suggests a visible dimension curled up to about 200 micrometers - so you can imagine, we are half way there. The smallest surface around the mass where we can experimentally measure the gravitational field, would enclose the extra dimension searched for, and they would have no effect on gravity at larger distances. There is even a theory that there is a baby universe curled up into the sixth dimension of space, see hyperspace.'It is these hypothetical 'larger scale dimensions' that fits in neatly with the so-called 'brane theory,' or also known as 'membrane theory,' which is an extension to a multi-dimensional string theory.

'M-theory' stands for many expressions, such as magic, mother, mystery and of course, membrane theory. The 'm' itself however, has been attacked, by scientists calling it the 'moron' theory. M-theory added an extra dimension onto the existing dimensions of string theory - before M-theory; string theory was a '1-brane theory'. It was the realization in the mid 1990's that the string theory itself could be extended to allow higher dimensional objects.

The introduction of string theory introduces branes which are 'spatially extended objects'. The variable 'p' is for the spatial dimension of a particle; thus 0-brane means a zero dimensional particle. A 1-brane is a string and a 2-brane is a 'membrane' ect. Strings come in two particular types. They are called 'open' and 'closed strings.' Open strings would make up all of matter. Closed strings, like tiny little loops that can, if theory is correct, move into other universes. Thus gravity may actually seep between universes - explaining the great loss of gravity in this universe.

In fact, string theory, coupled with the ever-changing theories of the multiverse have robbed the scientific endeavors of other projects. The troublesome thing is though, it cannot be proven. The multiverse in string theory differs somewhat from the conventional parallel universe theory; in string theory, universes are called branes - and these 'branes' are parallel universes that exist in extended dimensions... not an infinity of them. I would say 10^150 would be sufficient; that is 10, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 universes - howsoever, i have heard some string theorists claim something equivalent to a massive 10^500 universes.

Membrane-theory brought with it an extra dimension of space, and the 'fundamental string', or 'F-string' became a 2-dimensional membrane, called a 'supermembrane.' Membrane-theory has brought other new and bizarre ideas to physics, such as the 'Holographic Principle.'

Plato, the Greek philosopher (427bc - 347bc), wrote a series of dialogues which summarized many things he had learned from his great teacher Socrates, who was executed in the year 399bc. One famous dialogue was called the 'Allegory of the Cave.' It describes a disturbing picture where people are chained to the ground inside of a cave, circling a fire, which cast their shadows on the walls of the cave. However, one escapes the prison, and went out into the light of the day and see's his true reality. When he returns to the captives inside of the cave, he tells them about the deception, but they all mock him for talking absurdities.

In 1993, a Dutch theorist and physicist G. t' Hooft put forward a rather bold proposal, using Plato's Allegory of the Cave. The theory became to be called the Holographic Principle. The idea arose based on two assumptions;

The first says that all the information contained in some region of space can be represented as a Hologram - it is ultimately a theory that exists on the boundary of that region of space. The second assertion is that the theory on the boundary be allowed at least one degree of 'Planck area.'

The Planck area is a very small 'square' measurement which has a side length equal to that of the Planck length, which is 1.616 x 10^-33 centimeters. Moving on, the principle suggests a strange reality, where everything physical in our universe is nothing more than shadows on a wall! M-Theory predicts that our 4-dimensional continuum is just the boundary of a larger space. If we could move away from this wall, this apparent restriction of reality, we would be moving into the 5th-dimension which is curled up into a space smaller than a infinitesimal size of a superstring. Move around in the dimension and you would start to shrink to the size of superstring and then back to normal size! Even if one moved into the fifth dimension, you would end up where you had started. The theory of the fifth dimension was named after its inventor Oskar Klein, 'Kaluza-Klein Theory'. The Allegory of the Cave, one might say, was the first hypothetical assumption that reality as we know it was built up of much more unseen phenomenon, such as dimensions.

String theory has come under considerable attack by many physicists, especially within the last twenty years; prominent critics involve Philip Anderson, Sheldon Glashow, Lawrance Krauss and Peter Woit. The main problem, is that string theory is not testable, and is thus not falsifiable. It is in essence, a very safe theory: Though, if nothing experimental can arise from it within the next couple of decades, it will most probably fade into the past.

A New Integration of Thought

So, whilst string theory in event, predicts a finite amount of universes, there are also models which do not, and it is these models i believe will give rise to some unification, when an observer is involved, conscious or not.

The transactional interpretation, allows our way to see the beginning as the end, when quantum cosmology is involved, (that is, the view of seeing the universe like a particle,) where this particle experienes the solutions of CTC's... and this will soon be led to why i think the universe is oscillatory, from this respect of mathematical pathologies.
 
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Reiku, there are some characters missing somewhere in the middle of the text..
 
You know much about string theory? I don't have a clue: could you explain the basics to me?
I'm afraid, i only know the basics. This is why i think it would be important for those who are educated it the mind, or like to believe they are, who knows, to possibly contribute something to this thread.
 
>>

'' Until the 'string theory' came about, it was thought that matter existed as tiny little 'pointlike' units, like a grain of sand on a beach. This idea has been challenged. Superstring theory is a mathematical insert, describing all fundamental particles as tiny strings vibrating at different frequencies, and correctfully predicts the work of the forces between particles, (especially gravity and the strong force). Strings come in two distinctive forms: Open strings and closed strings. Open strings make up fundamental matter, whilst closed strings move throughout different universes.
Open strings have two endpoints, and closed strings are envisioned as tiny loops. The two types of string play different roles, yielding two different spectra. For a quick reference, one of the closed strings is the elusive graviton, and one of the open strings make up the photon. Because open strings have two endpoints, they can inexorably join with other strings forming a closed string. Strings can split and combine, describing particles emitting or absorbing other particles.
The theory states that our universe has 11 dimensions in space, but 7 of these dimensions are undetectable so far, because they are curled up into the smallest space possible called the 'Planck length.' However, physicists Nima-Hamed, Savas Dimopoulos and Gia Dvali have brought forward new ideas how to probe these dimensions using gravity. This makes sense, since according to theory, gravity travels freely between dimensions.
We see three spatial dimensions everyday and are aware of a 4th dimension of time. We know our universe has three dimensions for sure, not only because of the apparent shape of an object, but also because of the 'inverse square law of gravity,' which allows the force between two masses to decrease as the square of the distance, represented as 'r', between them. You can imagine the distance 'r' and the gravitational field strength as being radiated through a 3-dimensional sphere enclosing a mass. The surface area of the sphere increases as the square of the distance 'r^2' and the strength of the field is distributed in proportion.
Thus, in a 4-dimensional space, similarly the surface area of the 4-dimensional sphere would emit a field that gives away with the cube of the distance 'r^3'. Therefore, adding extra dimensions, as string theory does, would mean that the gravitational field would decrease with a corresponding increase in the power of 'r'.
Even though we have not detected these extra dimensions in spacetime, the recent lab results show us that we can probe space to a distance of 100 micrometers. Theory suggests a visible dimension curled up to about 200 micrometers - so you can imagine, we are half way there. The smallest surface around the mass where we can experimentally measure the gravitational field, would enclose the extra dimension searched for, and they would have no effect on gravity at larger distances. There is even a theory that there is a baby universe curled up into the sixth dimension of space, see hyperspace.'It is these hypothetical 'larger scale dimensions' that fits in neatly with the so-called 'brane theory,' or also known as 'membrane theory,' which is an extension to a multi-dimensional string theory.
'M-theory' stands for many expressions, such as magic, mother, mystery and of course, membrane theory. The 'm' itself however, has been attacked, by scientists calling it the 'moron' theory. M-theory added an extra dimension onto the existing dimensions of string theory - before M-theory; string theory was a '1-brane theory'. It was the realization in the mid 1990's that the string theory itself could be extended to allow higher dimensional objects.
The introduction of string theory introduces branes which are 'spatially extended objects'. The variable 'p' is for the spatial dimension of a particle; thus 0-brane means a zero dimensional particle. A 1-brane is a string and a 2-brane is a 'membrane' ect. Strings come in two particular types. They are called 'open' and 'closed strings.' Open strings would make up all of matter. Closed strings, like tiny little loops that can, if theory is correct, move into other universes. Thus gravity may actually seep between universes - explaining the great loss of gravity in this universe.
In fact, string theory, coupled with the ever-changing theories of the multiverse have robbed the scientific endeavors of other projects. The troublesome thing is though, it cannot be proven. The multiverse in string theory differs somewhat from the conventional parallel universe theory; in string theory, universes are called branes - and these 'branes' are parallel universes that exist in extended dimensions... not an infinity of them. I would say 10^150 would be sufficient; that is 10, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 universes - howsoever, i have heard some string theorists claim something equivalent to a massive 10^500 universes.
Membrane-theory brought with it an extra dimension of space, and the 'fundamental string', or 'F-string' became a 2-dimensional membrane, called a 'supermembrane.' Membrane-theory has brought other new and bizarre ideas to physics, such as the 'Holographic Principle.'''
 
Guest... that's :cool:

Now,

On The Nature of CTC-Like Systems

In physics, when we consider a particle and its past, present and future path throughout the universe, we call its definite path a ‘’worldline.’’ A particle will always try to move in straight lines throughout spacetime, but because space and time are curved into each other, most of the time, they follow curved paths through space.

This is what we mean by a warped space, or distorted spacetime. We find that these distortions are in fact just gravity, or curved spacetime. And gravity is the presence of matter itself. Even light cannot escape the wrath of gravity at very strong levels, but usually, a tiny photon traveling in empty space will almost definitely travel in straight lines.

But there really isn’t just one straight line, or worldline for any particle. We find that according to Feynman’s Sum Over Histories, a particle actually has every possible path to its disposal – these path’s are of both times past and times to come.

We find that these paths have themselves a statistical element about them and will variably shape how a particle will end up in any state given upon measurement. Take a photon traveling from the past: It will take every known possible path, even those improbable paths through a black hole (but as you can imagine, the statistics for this are so vanishingly small, we can nearly neglect them, but Hawking shows that it is possible for allowing a particle to travel at superluminal speeds using the uncertainty principle), and upon arrival at Earth, we can measure the photon, and all the paths its could have taken, according to the wave function, suddenly collapses into a single probability!

For Feynman’s Sum Over History to apply to physics, one must use imaginary time, rather than the concept of real time. Imaginary time is the same thing as real space, whereas real time is the same thing as imaginary space. The two concepts are pivotal to understanding how we contemplate different ways to look at our universe at large, and even at small scales.
Granted, the concepts themselves are purely mathematical, but they play an enormous part in relativity and quantum mechanics. You need to first gather up all the possible path a particle can take, bundle them together so-to-say, and then we need to measure those statistics against real time, and the result is the real conditions of the particles history; but even those results have a slight statistical aura about them.

In the case of the universe at large and gravity, Feynman would need to have analyzed all possible histories of a curved spacetime, and this at large affects everything that has a worldline in this universe. There would indeed be a finite number of possible outcomes, but one would need to chose which outcome best fits this universe today.
Hawking reminds us, that if this is indeed the case, the class of curved spacetime that determines the universe today (including those spaces and times which are blown into unimaginable proportions, or singularities), the probabilities of such spaces cannot be determined by the theory. However, he says it is possible if we calculate them in some arbitrary way. Dr. Hawking is very cryptic this way, but what he means is that science cannot predict any history for the universe if there is a singular past. So any attempt to learn how a universe with a singularity would result, is really a disaster for science.

Now, since this study is about time and space at large, let’s consider CTC’s or ‘’Closed-Timelike-Curves.’’ This is a worldline describing a physical system which is ‘’closed’’. This means something physical in fact returns to original starting point. We call such movements ‘’sinusoidal’’.

The idea of CTC’s was in fact developed by Willem Jacob van Stockum in 1937 and later by the infamous Kurt Godel in 1949. There is indeed a lot of controversy over their existence, but if they do exist, it could revolutionize relativity including our ability to create machines capable of a global causal violation; in other words, a path that twists in space and moves through time.

Worldlines and of course Feynman’s Sum Over Histories is best described in terms of ‘’light cones’’, which is really a more specified term that is timelike in nature. It will probably be more recognized than the last two concepts. Light cones describe every possible future of a physical object in spacetime, given a current measurement during the present time. This can seem a bit strange, because not only does one deflate all possibilities of the past events to a single value upon measurement (the collapse of the wave function), but one can now calculate all possible path’s in the future in real time.
Because particles don’t have a specific arrow of directionality following cause and effect, one can have in special conditions, a particle which experiences a timespace and spacetime that is so heavily curved, it can return to the place it began – in other words, things at very small levels are able to move back through time… From effect to the cause instead of cause to the effect. These are simply basic rotations through space and through time, which are conveniently called, ‘’closed-timelike-curves’’, so just think of a loop that twists in space and moves through time back into its original starting point.

Frank J. Tipler, Prof. of mathematics and physics at Tulane University in New Orleans, developed an ingenious idea involving such closed-timelike-curves. He explains that classical relativity does in fact predict pathological behavior. The exact nature of the pathology, or, CTC’s, are however very debatable, since the predictive nature of relativity has itself many outcomes.

His design is quite old now, but it is still a probability in physics creation of time machines today. His design is to create a huge rapidly rotating cylinder (possibly in space – I assume), and the spacetime around the cylinder will be warped to such an extent, that even time itself becomes sinusoidally warped so that instead of flowing in the correct direction… that is forwards, it in fact varies in an oscillating manner. Of course, one might think that such a spacetime would rip a spacetime traveler apart, but we aren’t talking about black holes here. If one entered this machine carefully, one could avoid being turned into spaghetti and experience a dilated time frame. Perhaps this is the time machine of the future?

CTC's are intimately related to laws of retrocausality and violation of cause and effect where the law is changed into effect and cause in this directionality.
 
But there really isn’t just one straight line, or worldline for any particle. We find that according to Feynman’s Sum Over Histories, a particle actually has every possible path to its disposal – these path’s are of both times past and times to come.
Ok, sorry - more questions! I don't really understand this "sum over histories" bit. I understand the concept, but not the implementation. Could you show me a worked example or something similar so I've got something solid to deal with!

Similarly with your string theory description. I understand the concept, but not it's implementation - do you have any examples to hand that might help me out?
 
Ok, sorry - more questions! I don't really understand this "sum over histories" bit. I understand the concept, but not the implementation. Could you show me a worked example or something similar so I've got something solid to deal with!

Similarly with your string theory description. I understand the concept, but not it's implementation - do you have any examples to hand that might help me out?

Well, Sum-Over Histories is really what satistical wave vectors we have when we add all the possibilities of a system together. It has been remarked that it's creator knew what he was doing before the inventation of relativity... but anyway, Dr. Feynman found that the Path Integral of a system does not take one path alone when not being ''observed'', so all the eigentstates of the system spred out over it's realms of freedom.

The universe is much the same. If you trace it's realms of freedom back to time zero, and replay it, we find that the universe has many sums over it's history, unto which only one of these are found by a conscious observer at any given present frame of time. This was why it was suggested by scientists that even a photon can have all of its path available in the past frame of the light cone, whilst when upon arrival at the retina, all it's path are reduced to the most probable path. This connects intimately with the Principle of Least Action.

As for the latter, i would suggest you spoke to someone who would have better references than me on the work of string theory, like Ben.
 
I never claimed to be an expert on String Theory. I took one introductory graduate course in it, nothing more. If you want to ask something like if I can explain what the Nambu-Goto string action is or what light cone coordinate are or string quantization or Riemann Zeta regularization, go ahead. I don't think that will contribute anything useful to what you're trying to discuss though.

If you want critical analysis of your ideas, then I will start by taking exception to your very first sentence in the OP. The reason we don't observe quantum effects on a large scale is the result of statistical averaging, no further explanation is required. The quantum decoherence model doesn't add anything to this; on large scales both the Copenhagen and quantum decoherence interpretations give the same results, namely Newtonian physics (for non-relativistic quantum mechanics) or Special Relativity (for relativistic quantum mechanics).
 
No problem re String theory: I'll ask "Ben".

Well, Sum-Over Histories is really what satistical wave vectors we have when we add all the possibilities of a system together. It has been remarked that it's creator knew what he was doing before the inventation of relativity... but anyway, Dr. Feynman found that the Path Integral of a system does not take one path alone when not being ''observed'', so all the eigentstates of the system spred out over it's realms of freedom.

The universe is much the same. If you trace it's realms of freedom back to time zero, and replay it, we find that the universe has many sums over it's history, unto which only one of these are found by a conscious observer at any given present frame of time. This was why it was suggested by scientists that even a photon can have all of its path available in the past frame of the light cone, whilst when upon arrival at the retina, all it's path are reduced to the most probable path. This connects intimately with the Principle of Least Action.
Sorry to be a pain, but could you just provide an example? I understand the concept, but not the implementation. For example, can you outline the path integral approach for a quantum harmonic oscillator? I know the usual treatment, so it would be good if I could see the path integral approach in action!
 
A mathematical analysis you mean?

If i did, i could provide you to:

Langrangian Physics, where the Principle of Least Action plays it's part in Feynmans Integral Path of a system, or perhaps this isn't what you are asking?
 
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