Paradigms Afoot

AKA To Kuhn the Universe

Yes this is old news, but it's a big deal so it can't be ignored. The first article is like the basis of teleportation, where we make molecules dance from a million miles away, but instantly. The second article is about how the paradigm that's scripted science fo the past 300 hundred years or so (gravity and classical physics) is collapsing... "Shifting" if you prefer your revolutions to sound less hyperbolic. 

Physicists 'entangle' individual molecules for the first time, hastening possibilities for quantum computing

Dec 2023, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2023-12-physicists-entangle-individual-molecules-hastening.html

They first picked a molecular species that is both polar and can be cooled with lasers. Individual molecules were then picked up with optical tweezers. Next, they encoded a qubit into a non-rotating and rotating state of the molecule. Then they used microwave pulses to make individual molecules interact with one another. Then they implement a two-qubit gate that entangled two molecules.

via Princeton: Connor M. Holland et al, On-demand entanglement of molecules in a reconfigurable optical tweezer array, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adf4272.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adf4272

Also: Yicheng Bao et al, Dipolar spin-exchange and entanglement between molecules in an optical tweezer array, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adf8999.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adf8999

Also: Augusto Smerzi et al, Entanglement with tweezed molecules, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adl4179.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.adl4179

Image credit: 69 megajoules in the Joint European Torus tokamak - United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and EUROfusion - Oct 2023

 

Scientists closer to finding quantum gravity theory after measuring gravity on microscopic level

Feb 2024, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2024-02-scientists-closer-quantum-gravity-theory.html

Scientists  have successfully detected a weak gravitational pull on a tiny particle using superconducting traps and levitating magnets to detect a weak gravitational pull of 30aN, on a tiny particle measuring 0.43mg, and at a hundredth of a degree above absolute zero.

via University of Southampton and Leiden University in the Netherlands: Tim Fuchs et al, Measuring gravity with milligram levitated masses, Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adk2949. 

https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adk2949

New research suggests that our universe has no dark matter

Mar 2024, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-universe-dark.html

Rajendra Gupta, a physics professor at the Faculty of Science, used a combination of the covarying coupling constants (CCC) and "tired light" (TL) theories (the CCC+TL model) to reach this conclusion.

This model combines two ideas—about how the forces of nature decrease over cosmic time and about light losing energy when it travels a long distance. It's been tested and has been shown to match up with several observations, such as about how galaxies are spread out and how light from the early universe has evolved.

This discovery challenges the prevailing understanding of the universe, which suggests that roughly 27% of it is composed of dark matter and less than 5% of ordinary matter, remaining being the dark energy.

"In standard cosmology, the accelerated expansion of the universe is said to be caused by dark energy but is in fact due to the weakening forces of nature as it expands, not due to dark energy."

via University of Ottawa: Rajendra P. Gupta, Testing CCC+TL Cosmology with Observed Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Features, The Astrophysical Journal (2024). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad1bc6

https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad1bc6

Collapsing the Quantum Paradigm

Does relativity lie at the source of quantum exoticism?

Apr 2020, phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2020-04-relativity-source-quantum-exoticism.html

No way; this paper, from a theoretical physicist at University of Warsaw (and who Wired is calling a rebel physicist), makes a claim that I'm finding hard to believe. It's not the claim that's hard to digest, it's the fact that it's so simple. 

They're telling us that if we just accept the fact that Einstein is wrong, and that there are things in the universe that travel faster than the speed of light, then quantum mechanics and relativistic physics can all get along just fine. 

"Einstein considered the second postulate (constant velocity of light) to be crucial. In reality, what is crucial is the principle of relativity."

-phys.org

Things move at three speeds -- at subluminal velocities, at the velocity of light, and at superluminal velocities.

Today, we say that the third option is magical thinking; not a part of reality. 

But listen -- 

If in one system at point A there is generation of a superluminal particle, even completely predictable, emitted towards point B, where there is simply no information about the reasons for the emission, then from the point of view of the observer in the second system events run from point B to point A, so they start from a completely unpredictable event. 

"We noticed, incidentally, the possibility of an interesting interpretation of the role of individual dimensions. In the system that looks superluminal to the observer some space-time dimensions seem to change their physical roles. Only one dimension of superluminal light has a spatial character —- the one along which the particle moves. The other three dimensions appear to be time dimensions," says Dr. Dragan.

A characteristic feature of spatial dimensions is that a particle can move in any direction or remain at rest, while in a time dimension it always propagates in one direction (what we call aging in everyday language). So, three time dimensions of the superluminal system with one spatial dimension (1+3) would thus mean that particles inevitably age in three times simultaneously. The ageing process of a particle in a superluminal system (1+3), observed from a subluminal system (3+1), would look as if the particle was moving like a spherical wave, leading to the famous Huygens principle (every point on a wavefront can be treated itself as a source of a new spherical wave) and corpuscular-wave dualism.

"All the strangeness that appears when considering solutions relating to a system that looks superluminal turns out to be no stranger than what commonly accepted and experimentally verified quantum theory has long been saying. On the contrary, taking into account a superluminal system, it is possible -— at least theoretically —- to derive some of the postulates of quantum mechanics from the special theory of relativity, which were usually accepted as not resulting from other, more fundamental reasons," Dr. Dragan concludes.

via Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Warsaw; Centre for Quantum Technologies, National University of Singapore; Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford: Andrzej Dragan and Artur Ekert, Quantum principle of relativity, New Journal of Physics (2020). DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/ab76f7

http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab76f7

Just get over it -- things move faster than light, and you'll never be able to see them (not until you trade-in your meatbag body-capsule for an unencumbered and fully liberated constellation of semi-sentient, self-swarming photon clouds).

Image credit: Kilanova Afterglow, NASA CXC MWeiss, 2022