If you are aware of an interesting new academic paper (that has been published in a peer-reviewed journal or has appeared on the arXiv), a conference talk (at an official professional scientific meeting), an external blog post (by a professional scientist) or a news item (in the mainstream news media), which you think might make an interesting topic for an FQXi blog post, then please contact us at forums@fqxi.org with a link to the original source and a sentence about why you think that the work is worthy of discussion. Please note that we receive many such suggestions and while we endeavour to respond to them, we may not be able to reply to all suggestions.
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Please also note that we do not accept unsolicited posts and we cannot review, or open new threads for, unsolicited articles or papers. Requests to review or post such materials will not be answered. If you have your own novel physics theory or model, which you would like to post for further discussion among then FQXi community, then please add them directly to the "Alternative Models of Reality" thread, or to the "Alternative Models of Cosmology" thread. Thank you.
Contests Home
Current Essay Contest
Contest Partners: Nanotronics Imaging, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation
Media Partner: Scientific American
Previous Contests
Undecidability, Uncomputability, and Unpredictability Essay Contest
December 24, 2019 - April 24, 2020
Contest Partners: Fetzer Franklin Fund, and The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
What Is “Fundamental”
October 28, 2017 to January 22, 2018
Sponsored by the Fetzer Franklin Fund and The Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
Wandering Towards a Goal
How can mindless mathematical laws give rise to aims and intention?
December 2, 2016 to March 3, 2017
Contest Partner: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Fund.
read/discuss • winners
Trick or Truth: The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics
Contest Partners: Nanotronics Imaging, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation
Media Partner: Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
How Should Humanity Steer the Future?
January 9, 2014 - August 31, 2014
Contest Partners: Jaan Tallinn, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, The John Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
It From Bit or Bit From It
March 25 - June 28, 2013
Contest Partners: The Gruber Foundation, J. Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Questioning the Foundations
Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?
May 24 - August 31, 2012
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Is Reality Digital or Analog?
November 2010 - February 2011
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics?
May - October 2009
Contest Partners: Astrid and Bruce McWilliams
read/discuss • winners
The Nature of Time
August - December 2008
read/discuss • winners
Current Essay Contest
Contest Partners: Nanotronics Imaging, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation
Media Partner: Scientific American
Previous Contests
Undecidability, Uncomputability, and Unpredictability Essay Contest
December 24, 2019 - April 24, 2020
Contest Partners: Fetzer Franklin Fund, and The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
What Is “Fundamental”
October 28, 2017 to January 22, 2018
Sponsored by the Fetzer Franklin Fund and The Peter & Patricia Gruber Foundation
read/discuss • winners
Wandering Towards a Goal
How can mindless mathematical laws give rise to aims and intention?
December 2, 2016 to March 3, 2017
Contest Partner: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Fund.
read/discuss • winners
Trick or Truth: The Mysterious Connection Between Physics and Mathematics
Contest Partners: Nanotronics Imaging, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation
Media Partner: Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
How Should Humanity Steer the Future?
January 9, 2014 - August 31, 2014
Contest Partners: Jaan Tallinn, The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, The John Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
It From Bit or Bit From It
March 25 - June 28, 2013
Contest Partners: The Gruber Foundation, J. Templeton Foundation, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Questioning the Foundations
Which of Our Basic Physical Assumptions Are Wrong?
May 24 - August 31, 2012
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, SubMeta, and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
Is Reality Digital or Analog?
November 2010 - February 2011
Contest Partners: The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation and Scientific American
read/discuss • winners
What's Ultimately Possible in Physics?
May - October 2009
Contest Partners: Astrid and Bruce McWilliams
read/discuss • winners
The Nature of Time
August - December 2008
read/discuss • winners
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RECENT POSTS IN THIS TOPIC
Joe Fisher: on 4/7/15 at 15:30pm UTC, wrote Dear Carsten, I think Newton was wrong about abstract gravity; Einstein...
Jacek Safuta: on 3/11/15 at 15:52pm UTC, wrote Hi Carsten, As a student of physics you are supposed to be very open...
Thierry PERIAT: on 3/6/15 at 16:31pm UTC, wrote Sir, Thanks so much for your essay. I did appreciate the presentation and...
Edwin Klingman: on 3/4/15 at 22:47pm UTC, wrote Dear Carsten, Your essay is magnificent, and most of your conclusions are...
Carsten Spanheimer: on 3/4/15 at 17:23pm UTC, wrote Essay Abstract I propose to ask mathematics itself for the possible...
RECENT FORUM POSTS
Josh Hoffman: "Frontiers of Fundamental Physics The world's most important and..." in Frontiers of Fundamental...
Steve Dufourny: "Dear Jonathan, this fifth force possessing the main codes if it exists is..." in 16th Marcel Grossmann...
Steve Dufourny: "I try now to correlate my equation about the mass energy equivalence of the..." in 16th Marcel Grossmann...
Steve Dufourny: "Hi , the problem is complex considering this consciousness. There are..." in The Quantum Music Makers
jim h: ""One approach is to recognize that [...] a conscious experience depends on..." in The Quantum Music Makers
Jim Snowdon: "For us, time seems real, enforced by the relentless, constant rotational..." in The Nature of Time
John Cox: "Our human sense of a flow of time only suggests that there are some..." in Can Time Be Saved From...
PhysicsPfan: "The phrase above "...argued that time does not exist at all" shows how..." in Can Time Be Saved From...
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
Quanthoven's Fifth
A quantum computer composes chart-topping music, programmed by physicists striving to understand consciousness.
The Math of Consciousness: Q&A with Kobi Kremnitzer
A meditating mathematician is developing a theory of conscious experience to help understand the boundary between the quantum and classical world.
Can We Feel What It’s Like to Be Quantum?
Underground experiments in the heart of the Italian mountains are testing the links between consciousness and collapse theories of quantum physics.
The Thermodynamic Limits of Intelligence: Q&A with David Wolpert
Calculating the energy needed to acquire and compute information could help explain the (in)efficiency of human brains and guide the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
Gambling Against the Second Law
Using precision thermometry to make mini heat engines, that might, momentarily, bust through the thermodynamic limit.
Joe Fisher: on 4/7/15 at 15:30pm UTC, wrote Dear Carsten, I think Newton was wrong about abstract gravity; Einstein...
Jacek Safuta: on 3/11/15 at 15:52pm UTC, wrote Hi Carsten, As a student of physics you are supposed to be very open...
Thierry PERIAT: on 3/6/15 at 16:31pm UTC, wrote Sir, Thanks so much for your essay. I did appreciate the presentation and...
Edwin Klingman: on 3/4/15 at 22:47pm UTC, wrote Dear Carsten, Your essay is magnificent, and most of your conclusions are...
Carsten Spanheimer: on 3/4/15 at 17:23pm UTC, wrote Essay Abstract I propose to ask mathematics itself for the possible...
RECENT FORUM POSTS
Josh Hoffman: "Frontiers of Fundamental Physics The world's most important and..." in Frontiers of Fundamental...
Steve Dufourny: "Dear Jonathan, this fifth force possessing the main codes if it exists is..." in 16th Marcel Grossmann...
Steve Dufourny: "I try now to correlate my equation about the mass energy equivalence of the..." in 16th Marcel Grossmann...
Steve Dufourny: "Hi , the problem is complex considering this consciousness. There are..." in The Quantum Music Makers
jim h: ""One approach is to recognize that [...] a conscious experience depends on..." in The Quantum Music Makers
Jim Snowdon: "For us, time seems real, enforced by the relentless, constant rotational..." in The Nature of Time
John Cox: "Our human sense of a flow of time only suggests that there are some..." in Can Time Be Saved From...
PhysicsPfan: "The phrase above "...argued that time does not exist at all" shows how..." in Can Time Be Saved From...
RECENT ARTICLES
click titles to read articles
Quanthoven's Fifth
A quantum computer composes chart-topping music, programmed by physicists striving to understand consciousness.
The Math of Consciousness: Q&A with Kobi Kremnitzer
A meditating mathematician is developing a theory of conscious experience to help understand the boundary between the quantum and classical world.
Can We Feel What It’s Like to Be Quantum?
Underground experiments in the heart of the Italian mountains are testing the links between consciousness and collapse theories of quantum physics.
The Thermodynamic Limits of Intelligence: Q&A with David Wolpert
Calculating the energy needed to acquire and compute information could help explain the (in)efficiency of human brains and guide the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.
Gambling Against the Second Law
Using precision thermometry to make mini heat engines, that might, momentarily, bust through the thermodynamic limit.
FQXi FORUM
August 19, 2022
CATEGORY:
Trick or Truth Essay Contest (2015)
[back]
TOPIC: A Mathematical Approach to Physical Realism by Carsten S.P. Spanheimer [refresh]
TOPIC: A Mathematical Approach to Physical Realism by Carsten S.P. Spanheimer [refresh]
Essay Abstract
I propose to ask mathematics itself for the possible behaviour of nature, with the focus on starting with a most simple realistic model, employing a philosophy of investigation rather than invention when looking for a unified theory of physics. Doing a 'mathematical experiment' of putting a least set of conditions on a general time-dependent manifold results in mathematics itself inducing a not too complex 4-dimensional object similar to our physical spacetime, with candidates for gravitational and electromagnetic fields emerging on the tangent bundle. This suggests that the same physics might govern spacetime not only on a macroscopic scale, but also on the microscopic scale of elementary particles, with possible junctions to quantum mechanics.
Author Bio
The author, born in 1964, having a background of electronics, software engineering and general problem solving, is currently a student of physics at the University of Tübingen, Germany.
Download Essay PDF File
I propose to ask mathematics itself for the possible behaviour of nature, with the focus on starting with a most simple realistic model, employing a philosophy of investigation rather than invention when looking for a unified theory of physics. Doing a 'mathematical experiment' of putting a least set of conditions on a general time-dependent manifold results in mathematics itself inducing a not too complex 4-dimensional object similar to our physical spacetime, with candidates for gravitational and electromagnetic fields emerging on the tangent bundle. This suggests that the same physics might govern spacetime not only on a macroscopic scale, but also on the microscopic scale of elementary particles, with possible junctions to quantum mechanics.
Author Bio
The author, born in 1964, having a background of electronics, software engineering and general problem solving, is currently a student of physics at the University of Tübingen, Germany.
Download Essay PDF File
Dear Carsten,
Your essay is magnificent, and most of your conclusions are probably true. You began with math as our language to describe logical behavior. I believe that logic is a key feature of physical reality and that physical reality supports AND and NOT logic at every level of structure, and thus math applies at every level.
Your approach based on two axioms and the...
view entire post
Your essay is magnificent, and most of your conclusions are probably true. You began with math as our language to describe logical behavior. I believe that logic is a key feature of physical reality and that physical reality supports AND and NOT logic at every level of structure, and thus math applies at every level.
Your approach based on two axioms and the...
view entire post
Sir,
Thanks so much for your essay. I did appreciate the presentation and at a deeper level the paragraph concerning the quaternions.
I agree with the idea that quaternions (and probably octonions) play a central role in the "fabrication" of a given geometry because they can be directly related to the gravitational term appearing in the Lorentz-Einstein law.
Perhaps my own approach (which is only one made by an amateur) can be helpfull for your own research:
The Differential of the Triad and the Extended Lie Products
Like you, I have presented an essay here.
Thierry PERIAT
report post as inappropriate
Thanks so much for your essay. I did appreciate the presentation and at a deeper level the paragraph concerning the quaternions.
I agree with the idea that quaternions (and probably octonions) play a central role in the "fabrication" of a given geometry because they can be directly related to the gravitational term appearing in the Lorentz-Einstein law.
Perhaps my own approach (which is only one made by an amateur) can be helpfull for your own research:
The Differential of the Triad and the Extended Lie Products
Like you, I have presented an essay here.
Thierry PERIAT
Hi Carsten,
As a student of physics you are supposed to be very open minded. You ask questions and you are not attached to the existing paradigms. You propose: “…we know in advance that this will effectively come out as a (3+1) spacetime.” You are looking for axioms in physics. There were many attempts to formulate axioms in physics (D. Hilbert, J. von Neumann, L. Nordheim, H. Weyl, E. Schrödinger, P. Dirac, E. P. Wigner and others). All these efforts failed . That is a pity however a deductive system can consist of axioms or other, already established theorems. As far theorems were reserved exclusively for mathematics. That means that we can use theorems only if we accept that the reality is isomorphic to mathematical structures. (Not necessarily vice versa). I think you agree to that point.
My proposal is to use the geometrization conjecture, proved by Perelman (so it is a theorem). We have the set of 8 Thurston geometries. We can treat them as a space-like, totally geodesic submanifolds of a 3+1 dimensional spacetime… and get all interactions and matter.
If you are interested you can find details in my essay
http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/2452
I would appreciate your fresh view and comments. Thank you.
Jacek
report post as inappropriate
As a student of physics you are supposed to be very open minded. You ask questions and you are not attached to the existing paradigms. You propose: “…we know in advance that this will effectively come out as a (3+1) spacetime.” You are looking for axioms in physics. There were many attempts to formulate axioms in physics (D. Hilbert, J. von Neumann, L. Nordheim, H. Weyl, E. Schrödinger, P. Dirac, E. P. Wigner and others). All these efforts failed . That is a pity however a deductive system can consist of axioms or other, already established theorems. As far theorems were reserved exclusively for mathematics. That means that we can use theorems only if we accept that the reality is isomorphic to mathematical structures. (Not necessarily vice versa). I think you agree to that point.
My proposal is to use the geometrization conjecture, proved by Perelman (so it is a theorem). We have the set of 8 Thurston geometries. We can treat them as a space-like, totally geodesic submanifolds of a 3+1 dimensional spacetime… and get all interactions and matter.
If you are interested you can find details in my essay
http://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/2452
I would appreciate your fresh view and comments. Thank you.
Jacek
Dear Carsten,
I think Newton was wrong about abstract gravity; Einstein was wrong about abstract space/time, and Hawking was wrong about the explosive capability of NOTHING.
All I ask is that you give my essay WHY THE REAL UNIVERSE IS NOT MATHEMATICAL a fair reading and that you allow me to answer any objections you may leave in my comment box about it.
Joe Fisher
report post as inappropriate
I think Newton was wrong about abstract gravity; Einstein was wrong about abstract space/time, and Hawking was wrong about the explosive capability of NOTHING.
All I ask is that you give my essay WHY THE REAL UNIVERSE IS NOT MATHEMATICAL a fair reading and that you allow me to answer any objections you may leave in my comment box about it.
Joe Fisher
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