Physics

Dec. 6, Spinning the Interaction Story: Spin 1 (1 of 3)Snarky puzzle Figure out how to represent any quaternion using 3D rotations and one complex number. BackgroundComplex numbers are critical in quantum mechanics. Quaternions are the union of three complex numbers that share the same real. I find it fun to play with different interpretations of quaternions. And that is all it is at this point, play.AnswerStart with a randomly chosen quaternion:That has a norm of:Pick a different quaternion that has 2 properties. First it is complex number and second it has a norm equal to the quaternion:…

...and people who like sausages, should not ask how they are made. As a member of two large scientific collaborations (CDF and CMS), I enjoy the benefit of seeing lots of scientific publications that carry my name as an author being produced at weekly rates. This is however also a burden, since I at the very least must try to ensure that I like the way the results are produced. I.e., that I agree with the details of how these scientific measurements are made. Yes, we are talking about statistics. All the results of collider physics experiments require a certain amount of manipulation before…

As discussed in Part 1, analyzing “precognition” discredits everything but the in the eyes of pseudo-skeptic scientism worst: The influence of belief on the quantum probability of finding oneself inside a future world. Pseudo-skeptics warn that the mere mentioning of such lends support to all kinds of nonsense like prayer healing. Well, if you want to ensure that nobody can misquote you in support of nonsense, have fun never saying anything anymore ever. I hold that we should not leave some issues entirely to the kooks.   2) Belief and Experimenter Effect In psi studies as well as in…

I was going to talk about neutrinos today, as the results of MiniBoone looking at how muon neutrinos mix into electron neutrinos had just been published earlier this week, and wanted to write about CP violation and a possible 1-2eV right handed neutrino mixing or decaying with/into the left handed neutrinos that the weak nuclear can turn electrons into. However, I think for most readers the faster than light results from CERN in September would be more interesting. When travelling over the 730 kilometers from the large hadron collider to OPERA neutrino detector, neutrinos where observed…

Elsevier is spamming my mailbox. You would not expect that from a large publishing company who makes money from publishing scientific papers, but that's what happens. I think I am not alone in receiving automated emails with your name on the subject (a typical sign that the message is junk by the way): Dr. Dorigo, your work has been cited.Dear Dr. T. Dorigo, It is our pleasure to inform you that your publication has been cited in a journal published by Elsevier. Through this unique service we hope we can offer you valuable information, and make you aware of publications in your research…

in part disparate, and in part overlapping, or in exchange, I work on a model for fundamental physics and reality.  The model presents a tiered ternary of perspective and perspective exchange; thus, the perception ternary of the observation, the observed, and the reference/context is formed by its constituent parts, which are temselves ternaries, tiered to the former, to abstract a fundamental model/metaphor of autopoeisis and self-proving totality, established by a ternary of reciprocal cause and mutual definition--that which cannot not be.That is, a ternary of observation such that…

Solitons, also called solitary waves, are an intriguing topic. They are waves which behave much like particles, yet not in the sense of the quantum physical particle-wave-duality, but in a purely classical sense: They travel much like particles, meaning they do not change their shape for example, and they even bump against each other and can annihilate with their anti-solitons. On the oceans, solitons can appear as rogue waves (not bore, which is a different phenomenon), and many an ocean faring vessel has succumbed to them. They do not just lift the ship like usual waves. They smash it –…

Start the year off with a new toy model for gravity. It is a toy, so let's just play with it and see what we learn. Feel free in the comments section to vote if I should keep this toy or return it for a refund. At a minimum, the toy must do three things. First, it must explain why I weigh a little over 150 pounds here on Earth. Second, it must explain why light bends in both time and space when flying by the edge of the Sun. Third, it needs to explain why I don't weigh over 300 pounds here on Earth, feeling only half the effects that light apparently does.[Point of clarification: this is also…

Edwin Hubble's observation about the spectral redshift from nearby ``nebulae'' (galaxy 10 Mpc), published in 1929 got interpreted in terms of an ``Expanding Universe'' and eventually the ``Big Bang Model''. This interpretation however relied on the assumption that those redshifts were due to recession of the nebulae, and z=v/c In principle, redshifts could be of non kinemetical  origin, and due to some tired light effect. Many ``tired light effect'' origin of cosmological redshifts have been proposed by noted physicists such as Max Born and Luis de Broglie; http://adsabs.harvard.edu//…

The universe expands. The galaxies, as they depart ever further from one another, are classically and even in Einstein’s special theory of relativity, described as dust particles: The universe as a cloud of dust expanding through space. However, in Einstein’s general theory of relativity, this same expansion is described as the universe itself expanding. There is no locally observable difference between these descriptions whatsoever – at least as far as we know. Classical expansion through space and Einstein’s general relativity describing expansion of space both fit together seamlessly.…