Matter-Wave Mechanics
The easy part of this investigation has now come to an end with the simple conclusion that traditional quantum theory, as a descriptor of reality, is incomplete. The more onerous responsibility that flows from this is to indicate the direction in which an
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Matter-Wave Mechanics
The easy part of this investigation has now come to an end with the simple conclusion that traditional quantum theory, as a descriptor of reality, is incomplete. The more onerous responsibility that flows from this is to indicate the direction in which an alternative approach should develop in order to produce a theory of matter, consistent with the empirical observations of chemistry and atomic physics. The most difficult part is to get away from the mechanical worldview, pioneered by Newton and systematically refined through successive phases from classical mechanics (CM), through quantum mechanics (QM), quantum electrodynamics (QED), quantum field theory (QFT) and culminating in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The observational data of QCD, collected at the business end of an atom smasher, resemble the foam left on the beach by a breaking wave, more than anything else. The interpretation is as complex as unscrambling an egg. It could be more rewarding to examine the wave before it breaks. The essential argument has remained the same for more than three hundred years: Matter consists of elementary point particles held together by mechanical interaction. Identity of the ultimate building blocks came to be recognized at progressively deeper levels of atom, nucleon, meson, electron and quark, but the essence has remained the same. The mode of interaction may have changed, but the mechanics stayed the same as reflected in units of energy. To defuse the notion of action-at-a-distance, which Newton considered an ‘absurdity’, he declared [1] that : : : it is inconceivable, that brute Matter should, without the Mediation of something else, which is not material, operate upon, and affect other Matter without mutual contact.
This notion has survived as either graviton, electron, virtual photon or gluon as mediators of the various forces of Nature. Only the electron, as mediator of covalent chemical interaction, has been successfully associated with a physically observable ‘particle’, albeit as a hybrid wave. In order to discount this worldview at all levels it is necessary to dispose of the concepts of point particle and of virtual boson, in all its forms. Towards this end © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 J.C.A. Boeyens, The Quantum Gamble, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41621-2_9
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9 Matter-Wave Mechanics
it is necessary to reconsider the concept of mechanical motion in four-dimensional context and the way it gives rise to the emergence of matter. The most primitive form of matter, the neutrino, is considered the most suitable example to elucidate the relationship between elementary and ponderable forms of matter as a general introduction to matter-wave mechanics. A holistically structured universe will be accepted axiomatically as the seminal assumption that underpins all of natural philosophy, and as the logical starting point for this discussion. By this argument the origin of matter and energy can only be found in the vacuum; the ultimate bedrock of physical reality. As a gu
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