Making Sense of Light and the Quantum by an Experiment on an Isolated Emergent Fractal Blair D. Macdonald [email protected] Blair D. Macdonald ã 2020 Abstract Making sense of the nearly 100-hundred-year-old quantum nature of light and matter, with its — to name a few — wave-particle duality, measurement problem, and entanglement ‘spooky action at the distance’ — remains the greatest questions to physics. Since the 1980s, fractal geometry, a new and exciting field of mathematics — that the fathers of quantum mechanics did not have and has not been tested for quantum properties — has developed. Can the isolated fractal explain the quantum? An experiment was conducted on a simple — but isolated — fractal testing whether the geometry of fractals corresponds to quantum enigmas. It was found the isolated fractal emerges by a duality of propagation — of an oscillating sinusoidal wave — of ‘bits’ — of information — iterating in a superposition of time, scale, and symmetry, with a possible constant speed, demonstrating all the hypothesised. The quantum ‘measurement problem’ was addressed as being a problem of isolated scale-invariant fractals — or fractal landscapes — where position is only ‘known’ when additional (fractal) information is added — which ‘equally’ gives rise to a (quantum-like) ‘uncertainty’ problem. Also, quantum entanglement and other quantum features were explained by the fractal model. Consequences of the model were discussed, notably to its relevance to the nature of light (the speed of it etc.), the behaviour of the atom, time, knowledge and our reality, and the model’s direct inextricable connection with cosmological observations and conjectures. Finally, it was concluded that the model is preliminary but fundamental. Keywords: Foundational Quantum Mechanics, Fractal, Light, EMS, Measurement Problem, Entanglement Quantum Fractal 200831.docx Making Sense of Light and the Quantum by an Experiment on an Isolated Emergent Fractal Blair D. Macdonald Preface The idea of running an experiment on a fractal and testing it for quantum relevance has its roots long before I knew anything much about cosmology or the quantum: both were very daunting to me at the time I was first thinking about fractals. I had for a long time been interested in the natural sciences and also deeply interested in fractal geometry. It started with my day job where I teach economics at the secondary school level; I was teaching the common ‘supply-demand’ model I noticed that it seemed to behave as a fractal where it is produced and consumed and grows and develops, and it seems to have a shared equilibrium; and so, I questioned this, is this a coincidence? The more I thought about the fractal the stranger – even weirder – it became to me, especially an isolated one — it was very strange. It occurred to me that in an ‘infinite’ fractal there is no location and it appears to be no scale; and so, the question was begging, where are you on it exactly? I would go out looking for fractal landscapes and would think about the implications of this ‘non-location’ to our reality. Once, when I talked about my problem to my (interested) class, one of my student’s said: ‘that sounds like quantum mechanics’, I said: ‘Yes, I think so too.’ But at the time I was afraid to investigate – ‘no one understands quantum mechanics’ – right?! When my mind turned to thinking about what ‘an observer’ — there is no better word or term for it — would experience if they were within a fractal and looking back in time I immediately released my thinking had relevance to cosmology; especially when I found the observer would experience acceleration. I am no mathematician, or even scientist, and I have trouble with writing (that is not an appeal for empathy); but, with the encourage of other colleagues and friends and family I have come this far. One of them— a PhD in physics — said: ‘Blair! No one is thinking like this!’ ‘What do you have here!’ he said to me. ‘Write it down!’ In 2013 I made a start and wrote up this fractal cosmology experiment and then went onto write up my economics (supply- demand) fractal experiment. I am now satisfied and confident the geometry of the fractal offers a solution the great physics problem of our time: to make sense of the ‘small scale quantum world’ and unify it with the large. Having finished this work, I think I offer a new and sufficiently different contribution to quantum foundations — a new insight. My aim now is to gain some support and funding so as to publish my work in a reputable journal. ii Making Sense of Light and the Quantum by an Experiment on an Isolated Emergent Fractal Blair D. Macdonald Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 1 2 METHODS 4 2.1 Testing for Light Properties 4 2.1.1 Iteration Beat-Speed 4 2.1.2 Testing for the EMS 5 2.1.3 Frequency and Wavelength 5 2.1.4 Speed 5 2.2 Testing for ‘Quantum’ Properties 5 2.2.1 Fractal Configurations for Analysis 5 2.2.2 Superposition 6 2.2.3 Supersymmetry 6 2.2.4 Wave and Particle Duality and Spin 6 2.2.5 Observation, Measurement, and Position 7 3 RESULTS 7 3.1 Light Properties 8 3.1.1 Spiral Propagation 8 3.1.2 The Koch Snowflake Spiral 8 3.1.3 Bit Rotation through 360 Degrees 9 3.1.4 Sinusoidal Wave 9 3.1.5 Logarithmic Sinusoidal 9 3.1.6 The Wave Period 9 3.1.7 Changing Frequency (f) 9 3.1.8 Changing Wavelength (λ) 10 3.1.9 Wave Speed 10 3.1.10 Constant Speed 10 3.1.10.1 Constant Speed via fractal production 10 3.1.10.2 Constant Speed via iteration beat 10 3.1.10.3 Moving at the Speed of the iteration bit 10 iii Making Sense of Light and the Quantum by an Experiment on an Isolated Emergent Fractal Blair D. Macdonald 3.2 Quantum Properties 10 3.2.1 Superposition 11 3.2.1.1 Supersymmetry and Super-topography 11 3.2.2 Wave Propagation. 11 3.2.3 Demonstrating ‘Discrete Particle’ 11 3.2.4 Demonstrating Wave and Particle Duality 12 3.2.5 Observation — measurement 12 4 DISCUSSIONS 12 4.1 Fractal Demonstrating Light Properties 13 4.1.1 Changing Frequency (f) 13 4.1.2 Changing Wavelength (λ) 13 4.1.3 Constant Speed 13 4.1.3.1 Constant Speed via fractal production 14 4.1.3.2 Constant Speed via iteration beat 14 4.1.3.3 Constant, Unrelenting Propagation to an Observer at the Frontier 14 4.1.4 Moving at the Speed of the Iteration 14 4.2 Fractal Demonstrating Quantum Properties 15 4.2.1 Superposition 15 4.2.2 Super-symmetry and Quantum Spin 15 4.2.3 Quantum Wave Propagation and Behaviour. 16 4.2.4 Demonstrating the de Broglie wavefunction and the Fast Fourier Transform 16 4.2.4.1 Fast Fourier Transform 16 4.2.5 Observation, Measurement, Decoherence 16 4.2.6 Demonstrating Discrete ‘Particle’ 17 Demonstrating Wave and Particle Duality 17 4.2.7 Uncertainty Principle 17 4.2.7.1 The law of complementarity. 18 4.2.8 Quantum Entanglement 18 4.2.8.1 The Non-local Fractal 19 4.2.8.2 ‘Classical’ — Local — Change 19 4.2.9 Kochen-Specter theoem 20 4.2.10 Contrary ‘Spin up’ and ‘spin down’ 20 4.2.10.1 Contrary and Reality 20 4.2.10.2 Antimatter 21 4.2.11 Addressing ‘the Measurement Problem’: Fractal Landscapes and Reference Points 21 4.2.11.1 Fractal Landscapes 22 4.2.11.2 Super-scale Superposition 24 iv Making Sense of Light and the Quantum by an Experiment on an Isolated Emergent Fractal Blair D. Macdonald 4.2.11.3 Reference Points — ‘Measurement’ 24 4.2.11.4 Relative and Absolute Reference Points 26 4.2.11.5 Quantum-Classical Transition 26 4.2.11.6 Measurement and Consciousness 26 4.2.12 Solving the ‘Unification of the Quantum Mechanics with Cosmology’ 27 4.2.12.1 Fractal Field, Gravity and Spacetime 28 4.2.12.2 Research Proposal to Test Inflation Epoch for Fractal Properties 28 4.2.12.3 The Vacuum Catastrophe 28 4.3 Raised Questions and Limitations 29 4.3.1 What is the Fractal? 29 4.3.1.1 My Thoughts on the Fractal 29 4.3.2 If this science, where is your Prediction? 30 4.3.3 Where is the Particle? Where is the Wave? – in Reality? 30 4.3.4 Pi (p) 31 4.3.4.1 Unifying Exponentials with Cycles 31 4.3.4.2 Experiment to Test of Pi in the Fractal 32 4.3.4.3 The Economics Demand Function the Wave Function of Our Reality. 32 4.3.4.4 The Fractal Derived Demand Curve the de Broglie Wave Function? 32 4.3.5 Duality — Complementarity 33 4.3.6 Insights into Time 33 4.3.6.1 Time and Measurement of Reference Points 33 4.3.6.2 Iteration Beats 34 4.3.6.3 Absolute vs Relative Time: 34 4.3.6.4 Iteration-Time and the Genetic Clock 34 4.3.6.5 Time and Uniformity 34 4.3.6.6 The Fractality of Time 35 4.3.6.7 The Paradox of Our Perception of Time 35 4.3.7 Addressing the Emptiness and Symmetry of the Atom 35 4.3.7.1 Atomic Symmetry 36 4.3.8 Fractal Decay and a Wave Package 36 4.3.8.1 Atomic Half-life 37 4.3.9 Demonstrating Evolution 37 4.3.10 Insights into Knowledge 37 4.3.11 Determinism and Freewill 37 4.3.12 On Quantum Interpretations 38 4.3.12.1 Many worlds 38 5 CONCLUSIONS 39 v Making Sense of Light and the Quantum by an Experiment on an Isolated Emergent Fractal Blair D.