Zenith Grant Awardee
Julian Barbour
Oxford University
Co-Investigators
Project Title
The Nature of Time and the Structure of Space
Project Summary
My research project addresses the most fundamental questions in dynamics: What is space? What is time? What is motion? They were hotly debated by Newton and Leibniz three centuries ago and still have central importance because they have to be reconsidered with each new advance in our understanding of nature. They are critical for the greatest outstanding problem in physics: the unification of Einstein's general theory of relativity with quantum mechanics in order to create a quantum theory of the universe. Such a theory is needed to explain why the universe exists in the form it does, why it seems to have been created in a big bang, and why “never resting time'' seems always to flow forward from past to future through an elusive present. For many years, I have studied the foundations of dynamics and have shown that Einstein's theory of relativity answers the questions as to the nature of space, time, and motion in a manner that has not hitherto been fully appreciated. My project has two aims: to bring this study to its conclusion and to summarize all this work in a book written to help the creation of the quantum theory of the universe.
Technical Abstract
My application is for two mutually reinforcing projects. The first is to show that the structure of space essentially determines the dynamics of space, which in turn determines the physcial properties of time. This will be done by completing my program for the relational derivation of classical dynamics from the fewest possible axioms. In particular, only scale-invariant (angle-determining) structure of space is presupposed. Much of the structure of spacetime usually taken as fundamental is thereby shown to be emergent. This is likely to be important in quantum gravity, in which emergent structure of the classical theory should play no fundamental role. My second project is to write a monograph presenting a unifying vision of the relational foundations of physics. I am confident that I do now have a clear overview of relationalism in classical dynamics. The part played by scale invariance – the relativity of size and its relation to time – was the last piece of the picture to fall into place. A monograph that presents this picture will have value in itself and be a resource for researchers wishing to apply the insights of relational dynamics in quantum gravity.
QSpace Latest
PressRelease: Shining a light on the roots of plant “intelligence”
All living organisms emit a low level of light radiation, but the origin and function of these ‘biophotons’ are not yet fully understood. An international team of physicists, funded by the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, has proposed a new approach for investigating this phenomenon based on statistical analyses of this emission. Their aim is to test whether biophotons can play a role in the transport of information within and between living organisms, and whether monitoring biophotons could contribute to the development of medical techniques for the early diagnosis of various diseases. Their analyses of the measurements of the faint glow emitted by lentil seeds support models for the emergence of a kind of plant ‘intelligence,’ in which the biophotonic emission carries information and may thus be used by plants as a means to communicate. The team reported this and reviewed the history of biophotons in an article in the journal Applied Sciences in June 2024.