The Nature of Quantum Physics

The famous quantum physicist Richard Feynman once said that anyone who thought he understood quantum physics, did not understand it enough to understand that he did not actually understand it. Quantum theory is the theoretical basis in modern physics that attempts to explain the nature of matter and energy on the atomic and subatomic levels. As one moves from the macroscopic world towards the quantum world, the laws that govern matter and energy begin to fail. Thus classical physics falls short of actually being able to describe particles and their interactions at the quantum level. But what are these particles?

The Building Blocks of Matter

All matter consists of molecules made up of atoms. Atoms are composed of protons, neutrons and electrons. Until the 1960’s, science considered these to be the smallest indivisible particles that made up the universe. However, in the 1960’s and 1970’s, quarks were first discovered at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. These represented yet smaller subcomponents of matter.

If we look at a simple drop of water, we see that it is composed of molecules consisting of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.

Taking a closer look at the Hydrogen atoms, we see they are composed of one proton, surrounded by an electron (a lepton).

The proton is composed of yet smaller particles, or quarks. These are the up and down quarks, held together by gluons.

The Standard Model

Physicists created the Standard Model to describe the interactions between elementary building blocks (quarks and leptons) and the force carriers (bosons). Gravity is not yet part of this framework, and a central question of 21st century particle physics is the search for a quantum formulation of gravity that could be included in the Standard Model.

Though still called a model, the Standard Model is a fundamental and well-tested physics theory. Physicists use it to explain and calculate a vast variety of particle interactions and quantum phenomena. High-precision experiments have repeatedly verified subtle effects predicted by the Standard Model.

The model consists of six quarks and six leptons, together with four bosons. One essential ingredient of the Standard Model, however, still eludes experimental verification: the Higgs field. It interacts with other particles to give them mass. The Higgs field gives rise to a new force carrier, called the Higgs boson, which has not yet been observed.

The Particles

The model consists of two groups of particles, the quarks and the leptons.

Quarks are the only particles that interact through all four fundamental forces.

Leptons possess a spin of ½ and do not experience strong nuclear force.

As an aside, Mesons (middleweight particles) are made of two quarks. Baryons (heavyweights, including protons and neutrons in the nuclei of atoms) are made of three quarks.

What is spin? Quantum spin is a quantum mechanical state. It has nothing to do with the spin in the real macroscopic world. For instance an electron has two spin states (+1/2 and -1/2), but that doesn't mean that the electron is rotating with different Angular Momentum directions. Spin is how you determine the quantum state of a particle. An interesting fact is that particles that have spins like 1/2, and which rotate through 360 degrees have a quantum state that is measurably different than when it started. If it rotates another 360 degrees its quantum state returns to where it started. So particles must 'rotate' a total of 720 degrees to make it back to the state they started in. The angular momentum and the spin concept in quantum mechanics are abstract. The name 'spin' was given to this quantum mechanical state during the development of Quantum Mechanics.

To date, physicists have identified a total of 12 building blocks that are the fundamental constituents of matter. Our everyday world is made of just three of these building blocks: the up quark, the down quark and the electron. This set of particles is all that's needed to make protons and neutrons and to thus form atoms and molecules, giving rise to all the matter that surrounds us. The electron neutrino, observed in the decay of other particles, completes this first set of four building blocks. These four building blocks, (the first column in the diagram), form what is known in the model as Generation I.

This first generation of quarks and leptons is replicated in nature to create the second and third generations to produce a total of six quarks and six leptons, with increasing mass. Like all quarks, the sixth quark, named top, is much smaller than a proton (in fact, no one knows how small quarks are), but the top is as heavy as a gold atom.

Although there are reasons to believe that there are no other quarks and leptons, theorists speculate that there may be other types of building blocks, which may partly account for the dark matter implied by astrophysical observations. This poorly understood matter exerts gravitational forces and manipulates galaxies.

The Fundamental Forces

The above particles transmit forces among each other by exchanging force-carrying particles called bosons. These force mediators carry discrete amounts of energy, called quanta, from one particle to another. This is sort of like passing a ball back and forth between two people.

The Standard model describes three of the four elementary types of forces in physics:

• Electromagnetic interactions, which cause all phenomena associated with electric and magnetic fields and the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation. The photon carries the electromagnetic force; it also transmits light.
  
• Strong interactions, which bind atomic nuclei. The gluon mediates the strong force; it “glues” quarks together.
  
• Weak nuclear force, which governs beta decay - a form of natural radioactivity - and hydrogen fusion, the source of the sun's energy. The W and Z bosons represent the weak force; they introduce different types of decays.
  

(The Standard Model does not describe the fourth fundamental force, gravity. The gravitational force acts between massive macroscopic objects. Although it plays no role at the microscopic level, (its influence is so small as to be negligible), it is the dominant force in our everyday life and throughout the universe. Physicists expect that the gravitational force may also be associated with a boson particle. Named the graviton, this hypothetical boson is extremely hard to observe since, at the subatomic level, the gravitational force is many orders of magnitude weaker than the other three elementary forces.)

Antimatter

Although it is a staple of science fiction, antimatter is as real as matter. For every particle, physicists have discovered a corresponding antiparticle, which looks and behaves in almost the same way. Antiparticles, though, have the opposite properties of their corresponding particles. An antiproton, for example, has a negative electric charge while a proton is positively charged.

Less than 10 years ago, physicists at CERN (1995) and Fermi lab (1996) created the first anti-atoms. They carefully added a positron (the antiparticle of an electron) to an antiproton. The result: anti-hydrogen.

Storing antimatter is a difficult task. As soon as an antiparticle and a particle meet, they annihilate, disappearing in a flash of energy. Using electromagnetic force fields, physicists are able to store antimatter inside vacuum vessels for a limited amount of time.

From Simplicity All Things Form

While there is a vast array of mathematical formulas and computational rules not covered here, this view of matter is a testament to the simplicity that scientists insist is at the heart of nature: a compact and precise mathematical description of our universe. Like DNA, from four simple particles give rise to all that is.

What is Quantum Entanglement?

Quantum Entanglement is an interesting concept that basically throws the proverbial monkey-wrench into basic physics.

It occurs when two particles are created from a single source. For example, a photon pair can be created in the laboratory by 'shooting a photon through a specially designed crystal. This results in some of the photons 'splitting' into two photons. However, each photon has a lower energy (or energy frequency). In fact, the total energy of both new photons when summed, equals the total energy of the original.

What's more interesting though is that these two photons will be exact opposites of each other. If we look at their 'polarity' and 'spin' (a non-scientific analogy for their quantum state) they will be perfectly mirror images of each other. But it doesn't end there, once created, they will ALWAYS be the mirror of each other.

If we now allow these photons to separate and expose one to say a magnetic field to say increase its spin, when we observe the other particle, its spin also changes (albeit in the direct opposite direction). The other particle INSTANTLY acquires the opposite quantum state of the particle that we passed through the magnetic field.

But how is this possible? Einstein also wondered about that, calling it "Spooky action at a distance." He refused to believe that it was possible since it violated the theory of special relativity by implying that a communication was occurring between the two particles that was FASTER than the speed of light.

The EPR Paradox that was created in 1935, (EPR standing for the creators - Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen) was a thought experiment that demonstrated that quantum mechanics violated special relativity.

However strange, this occurs and has been demonstrated in many experiments. In fact, it has spawned off numerous research areas, including Quantum Cryptography and Quantum Computing. In the computing world, this 'parallelism' is being studied the for parallel computing systems that surpass the performance of current systems, as they leverage this 'instantaneous communication.'

So what does this all mean? For the particles to instantly communicate over a distance they must be either communicating faster than the speed of light (which most scientists believe to be impossible) or they are communicating in a dimension in which distance does not apply. In this 'dimension' all objects are connected and communicate freely with each other.

It is in this 'dimension' or field that all things exist and are connected as one. It is through this that the holodynamic universe communicates and its in this field that the intelligence of creation exists. We will look more into that in a future post.

Lynne McTaggart, in her book The Field, defines this field as the 'Zero Point Field" in which everything is connected at the most fundamental of levels.

For a very nice visual representation of Quantum Entanglement, visit: Quantum Entanglement Illustrated