Jack Sarfatti 203 Lectures in the New Physics Sun, 17 Oct 1993 03:29 Jack Sarfatti: Lectures in the New Physics Faster-Than-Light Communication Loop-Holes in Quantum Mechanics Jack Sarfatti (sarfatti@netcom.com) I. Setting the stage 1a. Nonlocality "Nonlocality" in quantum mechanics implies that two tiny particles influence each other no matter how far apart in the absence of forces between them. This "action-at-a- distance" follows from the coherent superposition of quantum states. Nonlocality has been observed in a series of experiments on pairs of photons emitted form the same atom moving away from each other in opposite directions. I.1, Does each particle feel the quantum wave force? Nonlocal influences are also seen in the wave interference experiments on single particles. We know that light consists of particles because every single-particle detection is localized. The spread-out wave properties are seen in the statistical pattern of single-particle detections. However, this does not imply that each particle does not experience its quantum wave pattern directly. Thus, if the wave pattern vanishes in some region of space-time, not even one particle will be detected in that region. There are no exceptions to this rule - no fluctuations. Furthermore, if a large number of identical wave interference experiments are set up in widely separated parts of the galaxy in such a way that only one particle is sent through each experiment, a statistical correlation of the individual results will show the same wave pattern as is normally observed with a beam of particles in only one experiment. Furthermore, Aharonov has shown how "protected measurements" permit the measurement of the quantum wave pattern of a single particle. This shows that the build up of a statistical wave pattern happens because each independent local particle feels the nonlocal influence of its quantum wave. Indeed, in the De-Broglie-Vigier-Bohm model of standard linear quantum mechanics the quantum wave is a new kind of "quantum force" on the particle that is qualitatively different from the electrical, weak, strong nuclear/subnuclear forces. The quantum force on a single particle consists of faster than light influences of distant boundaries which explains how a tiny photon passing through one slit "knows" about the far away other slit that it does not pass through. For a system of several particles at a fixed time the quantum force on any one not only depends on where all the others are, but also depends upon the "shape" of the wave pattern in the infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. The relativistic generalization of the quantum force picture of standard quantum mechanics requires that each particle have its own local time. The only operationally meaningful question to ask is how a measurement on one particle depends upon measurements of the other particles no matter how far apart from each other in space-time. If some of the particles are not measured then we integrate over all space-time for each of them. I.2, Quantum gravity as alternative histories. The connection between the nonlocal quantum force and the apparently local space-time curvature of gravitation is not well understood. This problem is especially important in the Big Bang at the beginning of the visible universe about 15 billion years ago where quantum mechanics and gravitation merge together. Stephen Hawking thinks that the visible universe in "real time" splits off from an invisible universe in "imaginary time". The main lesson of quantum mechanics taught to us by the late Richard Feynman is that particles and even universes do not have only a single "history" like they do in classical physics. Nonlocality is caused by several alternative histories acting coherently together. For a particle we can think of alternative quantum paths through a fixed classical space-time. In contrast, to understand the Big Bang we must think of alternative paths for the universe in a "super-space". Each path in super-space is an entire space-time. You can think of super-space as a bundle of "many worlds" (i.e., "parallel universes"). I.3, Quantum connection communication. Can this new kind of "quantum connection" be used to communicate useful messages? "Communication" means the encoding of a message at a sender S and the "local decoding" of that message at a receiver R. I distinguish a classical communication channel from a quantum communication channel. A classical channel requires a "signal". A signal is a modulated energetic wave-packet propagating through space-time. The message in encoded in the shaping or modulation of the wave-packet. So far, all the signals we know about are "causal" which means they cannot propagate faster than the speed of light. A quantum channel does not need a signal. The words "message" and "signal" must not be confused. Quantum channels carry messages without signals. The messages on the quantum channels are causality-violating "nonlocal influences" or "quantum actions-at-a-distance". These nonlocal influences cancel each other out by random "destructive interference" in the "objective classical limit" that we perceive with our senses. However, I make the hypothesis that our interior mental subjective experiences including our sense of self emerge from non-random coherent "constructive interference" of the nonlocal influences. The nonlocal influences of quantum wave patterns form the primordial "atoms" or "pre- geometry" in "imaginary time" out of which objective events (in curved space-time with momentum-energy and charge) and subjective mental events both emerge like two trees sharing the same roots fed by "the underground stream" of old Qabalistic writings that Dirac called "the substratum" that Hawking calls the "quantum foam" and "The Mind of God". Thus, in my version of "the new physics", a primitive form of mentality has the same ontological (i.e. reality) status as the primitive forms of matter and curved space-time. So far, all attempts to achieve "quantum connection communication" have failed because while the message can be encoded, it cannot be locally decoded. The encoding of the message is seen experimentally by comparing or "correlating" data from both S and R. This correlation analysis, or "nonlocal decoding", is useful for cryptography but not for communication. Communication means the local decoding of the message by an analysis of data only at R without any correlation analysis. The correlation analysis would be done later as an error check in a quantum computer. I.4, Nonlinear quantum wave patterns. The equations for the time-evolution of the wave pattern of a particle between measurements are linear. That means that we can superpose two wave patterns to get another possible wave pattern. Chemical bonds could not exist without this quantum wave pattern linearity. Other types equations for the time evolution of observable field properties are nonlinear , but that kind of nonlinearity is not relevant to the problem of communication. It is known that models beyond standard quantum mechanics in a type of quantum connection communication in which the local probabilities to detect an R particle can be shifted at a distance by changing a controllabe parameters in the detector of its twin S particle. This type of quantum communication is allegedly forbidden in standard linear quantum mechanics by Eberhard's theorem. A potential loop- hole in Eberhard's theorem will be presented below. Steven Weinberg has made a nonlinear model with faster-than- light communication that he abandoned because it violated "causality". However, the focus of this article is standard linear quantum mechanics of photon pairs emitted by atoms. It is interesting to note in passing that Asher Peres has shown that models like Weinberg's model not only permits faster-than-light communication but also permits the extraction of useful energy from the vacuum in violation of the classical formulation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In another example, if quantum wave patterns can behave nonlinearly, then Maxwell's demon can separate fast particles from slow particles starting from a gas in thermal equilibrium. This could be used to get work out of one isothermal heat reservoir. The vacuum is a reservoir at absolute zero. Nonlinear quantum wave patterns would also allow us to tell the difference between unpolarized light prepared by circular polarizers, on the one hand, and linear polarizers, on the other. These two classically different experimental procedures describe a pair of "non-orthogonal states" that have the same "density matrix". In standard linear quantum mechanics, the density matrix is a complete description of the unpolarized photon. The ability to distinguish non- orthogonal states corresponds a "hidden variable" theory beyond standard quantum mechanics This contradicts the theorem of Wooters and Zurek that it is impossible to "clone a photon" in standard quantum mechanics. Nonlinear quantum wave patterns would permit Nick Herbert's "FLASH" faster- than-light communication device to work. Brian Josephson has suggested that the qualitative difference between living matter and dead matter is that living matter is able to make quantum wave patterns nonlinear in Weinberg's sense. P.W. Anderson says "More is different." The idea is then that there is a certain threshold of "complexity" of "open systems" far from thermodynamic equilibrium in which nonlocal quantum effects stabilize with "strange loops" that make the wave patterns nonlinear. Indeed, the mystery of ordinary consciousness enters here. The idea is that consciousness requires nonlinear quantum wave patterns. The strange loops, analogous to the "self-referential" logical statements of Godel's theorem (also "top-down feed backs" in the cortex- retinal neural net), are a manifestation of this nonlinearity. While this is an interesting line of thought, the present paper will describe a precise mathematical model within standard linear quantum mechanics which may be the "seed of life" in Josephson's sense. end of part 1 - to be continued be a precise mathematical model within standard linear quantum mechanics which may be the "seed of life" in Josephson's sense. end of part 1 - to be continued