Unit 2 Lesson 2

The Quantum, the limit of the small

In the last century, thanks to advances in technology and quantum physics, a series of elementary particles have been discovered that physicists continue to study to understand the current universe, as well as its origin and possible end. The question remains: how far can we divide matter?

In fact, the answer came several decades ago, thanks to the physicist Max Planck who discovered that particles cannot be divided infinitesimally, but that nature sets a limit for the smallest. In this case, it is no longer matter particles, but energy, because in the end matter is just concentrated energy. That unit of energy is what Planck called the quantum or quanta and from there the quantum theory was born. The energy can only manifest in small amounts or packages, below that limit it is very unlikely or almost impossible that it can exist.
For example, the bundle of light energy is called a photon. That is, the photon is the smallest possible unit of electromagnetic energy. Based on this concept, it has been possible to study the entire series of subatomic particles that have been discovered in the last century, such as bosons, leptons, hadrons... or the famous Higgs boson; the so-called elementary particles. Each of these particles has specific properties that are capable of communicating forces such as electromagnetism, or the weak and strong forces within the atom.

The gravitational force is a special case since it has not been possible to devise a theory that explains it within the framework of quantum physics, nor has its respective subatomic particle been found, which would be called a graviton. On the other hand, in the framework of relativistic physics, devised by Albert Einstein, gravity is the result of the deformation of space-time.
Returning to our topic of quantum physics: Max Planck was just the forerunner of this new branch of physics, which unlike other branches has required the participation of several scientists who have made important contributions throughout the last century. Erwin Schrödinger, David Bohm, Neils Bohr, Louis De Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born…
Quantum physics began to take shape at the beginning of the 20th century, from the discovery of the quantum by Max Planck and it was until 1927 when several physicists met to try to give cohesion and an interpretation to everything they had discovered in three decades, to what they called the Copenhagen interpretation and the mathematical model that allows describing, in great detail, the behavior of subatomic particles they called: Quantum mechanics.

Physicists who participated in the elaboration of the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Mechanics such as Erwin Schrödinger, David Bohm, Neils Bohr, Louis De Broglie, Werner Heisenberg, Max Born... Also present Albert Einstein (center-bottom).

The paradoxes of quantum physics

Quantum physics opens a new paradigm and breaks with the concepts that had prevailed since Newton wrote his book Principia. Apparently, the subatomic world is governed by laws completely different from the laws of classical physics. Let's look at some of the peculiarities that physicists discovered.
Uncertainty principle. The laws of quantum mechanics can accurately indicate the probability that a particle exists at any given point. But only in the probabilistic realm, since in reality there is no way to determine the exact position of a particle. That is, particles exist only as a probability that can be represented as a wave. It is until the moment that we measure or observe them, when we can already determine their position. This strange phenomenon is what physicists called the collapse of the wave function. That is, the moment of observation, when the "particle" changes from being an indeterminate wave or a corpuscle with established speed and position.
Since the exact position of a particle cannot be precisely known, this makes it impossible to make exact predictions and to know the future of a system. This led Erwin Schrödinger to imagine an experiment, devised in such a way that the life of a cat would depend on the state that an individual subatomic particle can take. The particle would have a 50% chance of emitting radiation and a 50% chance of not emitting it. If it emits radiation, it would break a jar that would release a poison, killing the cat.

Let's imagine that the whole experiment: cat and other devices with the poison are inside a closed box that nobody can observe. As long as nobody opens the box, the cat will be in an indeterminate state, according to quantum physics it will be 50% alive and 50% dead. But this does not mean that he would be dying, or from the waist up alive and from the waist down dead.
What it implies is that the cat only exists as the sum of the possibilities: 50% alive and 50% dead, something impossible to understand rationally since reality is made up of certainties: either the cat is alive or dead, but it cannot be in both states at the same time. But for quantum physics it is possible. Although it cannot be verified in the case of a cat, it has been verified in the case of subatomic particles, such as electrons, which can be in several states at the same time, which is called quantum superposition.
In Schrödinger's hypothetical cat experiment, it is not until the moment the scientist opens the box that the probabilistic wave collapses and reality is created, making the cat dead or alive. So to understand quantum physics we have to stop thinking about corpuscles of matter, we even have to abandon the idea of packets of energy and start thinking about probabilities. The world of quantum physics is made up of probabilistic waves that can be described by mathematical equations. What our senses see is the end result of those waves of probability. It is only when we observe that the wave "materializes" and the particle appears in a certain place and time - collapse of the wave function -.

The double slit experiment

The double-slit experiment is interesting because it creates a series of paradoxes that have stumped scientists. The issue goes back centuries when scientists have tried to determine whether light is made up of particles or waves. First, Isaac Newton declared that light was made up of particles. Then, in Thomas Young's double-slit experiment in 1801, it was concluded that light behaves like waves.

This experiment consists of a dark chamber where a plate with two small slits separated by a minimum distance is placed. When the light passes, an interference pattern is created, that is, the light behaves as a wave and not as a particle. On the other side of the slits, a screen can be placed where you can see that the interference pattern creates light fringes, where the crests of the light waves add up, and dark fringes, where the light waves cancel each other out. . The interference pattern is the same phenomenon that we see, for example when we throw two stones simultaneously into a pond and see how the waves overlap.
If light behaved as a particle, instead of seeing an interference pattern, we would see on the screen only two fringes corresponding to the straight path between the light source passing through the slits. This experiment shows that light behaves like a wave, while others, such as the photoelectric effect devised by Albert Einstein, show that it behaves like a particle. So the dilemma about the nature of light: wave or particle? continued into the 20th century.
But new versions of the double-slit experiment, carried out in the 20th century, yielded even more surprising results. Light can behave in any way, like a wave, or like a particle, but it all depends on "the question" that the experimenter asks.
With the new technology in the 20th century, scientists did the experiment, but this time by launching the photons (particles of light) one by one. Thus various dots appeared on the photographic plate, and after some time the interference pattern became apparent once more. This means that the photons, even launched one at a time, follow a probability pattern, and that probability pattern behaves exactly like a wave, producing interference patterns that in turn create the light fringes on the photographic plate. If we see an individual photon, it will just be a point on the plate, but if we see the whole set, then the pattern makes sense. And that pattern of probability, by creating the fringes again, indicates that light behaves like a wave, regardless of whether the electron travels individually, somehow it "knows" that it is just one element of "a whole" and that a "choreography" must follow within the "dance of the particles"; even when the other dancers are not present on stage, the dancer knows how he has to perform his dance.

But the physicists did not stop there and wanted to know exactly which path each photon followed, so they placed a minimally invasive detector in one of the slits to find out if it crossed slit A or B. And indeed they could detect which slit each photon crossed, But to the surprise of the experimenters, the interference pattern disappeared, and instead they only got two fringes of light.
That is to say that when we observe the trajectory followed by the photon, then it stops behaving as a wave and behaves as a particle. This leads us to the conclusion that, unlike the other sciences, in quantum physics the observer is an integral part of the experiment itself. The observer cannot be separated from the object of observation. The philosophical (ontological) implication of this phenomenon is even more difficult to accept, especially for physicists: consciousness and matter are intimately linked.
Quantum physics has not only changed the way we see matter and energy, but has also questioned what we consider reality. Theoretical physicists do not really stop at philosophical questions, for them the important thing is that the equations of quantum mechanics are capable of predicting atomic behavior with several decimal places of precision. However, there have always been various critics, including Albert Einstein, who said about the uncertainty principle.

“"I can't believe that God plays dice with the universe.”

Or regarding the relationship between consciousness and reality: “I want to think that the Moon exists, even when I am not observing it.”

Quantum entanglement

Another phenomenon that emerges from quantum physics is non-local effects, or what we could also call quantum entanglement, which is of special interest for understanding telebioenergetics.
Quantum physics predicted that entangled particles could be created at the quantum level. This means that both particles are part of the same system and therefore there will always be a close relationship between them. For example, both must maintain a balance of momentum, momentum defined as the sum of their masses and velocities. So if one particle starts to spin to the right, the other must spin to the left. Quantum physics predicts that both particles will retain their initial momentum, regardless of the distance between them. That is to say that one can be here on Earth and the other particle in a distant star, or in another galaxy and even so, both will maintain an instantaneous communication called quantum entanglement.
Einstein proposed in his theory of relativity that nothing can travel faster than light (299,792 km / sec), so, according to his theory, instant communication at a distance is impossible. So he called the supposed quantum entanglement “Spooky effect”, in advance, thinking that it was impossible. And to prove it he proposed, together with two other physicists Rossen and Podolsky, an experiment that would expose the absurdity of quantum entanglement.
The ERP experiment. (taking the initials of its authors: Einstien, Podolsky and Rossen) first requires creating two entangled particles. Then they are sent in opposite directions and as a third step the "spin" (turn) of some of them is measured. Let us remember that the spin is indeterminate until the moment of measurement. Therefore, when measuring the spin of particle A, automatically that of particle B must rotate in an axis and direction opposite to that of particle A.
The experiment was devised theoretically by Einstein and the other two colleagues in 1935, being merely a hypothetical experiment, since at that time the technology did not exist to carry it out physically. Later, in the year of 1965, mathematician John Bell developed Bell's theorem, which in mathematical form can analyze the results of the experiment and determine whether quantum entanglement can exist or not.

In 1976, the experiment could finally be carried out for the first time in physical (real) form. To date, several EPR experiments with different variants have been carried out, now called quantum teleportation experiments, which in reality are not about teleportation of particles, but about sending information instantly (a not insignificant result).
Conclusion: Einstein was wrong, information can somehow travel instantly, violating what Einstein proposed in his theory of relativity. So we have to assume that there is another level of existence, in which the laws of space-time do not apply, that is to say that we are talking about a metaphysical level - beyond the physical - or to put it in the current language: a quantum level. Fortunately, Einstein did not live to see how wrong he was, he passed away in 1955. Quantum mechanics has provided a new vision of the universe, in which matter is no longer the protagonist, nor is energy, but rather the mind, which makes up the universe, as two great physicists of the 20th century have described:
According to physicist James Jeans:

“The flow of knowledge is directed towards a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine.” The mind is no longer akin to an accidental intruder into the realm of matter…rather we should welcome it as the creator and ruler of the realm of matter.” But physicists have yet to follow Galileo's example and convince everyone of the wonders of quantum mechanics. As Arthur Eddington explained: “It is difficult for the realistic physicist to accept the view that the substratum of everything is mental in nature.” ^1.

In the next chapter we will analyze the relationship between the new paradigm of quantum physics, biomagnetism and bioenergetics.

 

 

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1- Ken Wilber; Cuestiones cuánticas, escritos místicos de los físicos más famosos del mundo (Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists); Editorial Kairós; Barcelona, España. (1991); p 196.

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