X-Message-Number: 11592
From: 
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 1999 14:11:50 EDT
Subject: Phonons, Hidden Variables, Sandwiches

I had noted that Deutsch's book nowhere mentioned waves nor gave any 
explanation for interference between particles. Mike Perry replied:

>Certainly more details could be supplied but are omitted from this
>non-technical book. The basic way photons "nudge" one another is by linear
>superposition of the complex-valued probability amplitudes. It isn't easy,
>beyond a certain point, to say what this means physically, 

It appears to mean that they act like waves, which was exactly my point. If 
particles are "really" waves, or have waves associated with them, then why do 
we need many-worlds?  

It is suggestive to recall that "phonons" are the quanta of sound energy in 
media such as air or water. The phonons are thought of as relating to 
vibrations in the medium in the same way that photons relate to vibrations of 
the electromagnetic field. 

The sound waves are real and mathematically useful; but they are emergent, 
underlain by more elemental entities, the molecules of the medium. So if we 
choose to talk about phonons, here we have a quantum mechanical system with 
hidden variables that are classical. (At the same time, of course, next level 
down, according to current thought, the classical entities are emergent to 
more elemental entities, the Schroedinger waves.) The analogy isn't perfect, 
but it seems a striking one to me. Is reality a pile of sandwiches, 
alternating classical and quantum?

Although I haven't done the details yet, does it not seem possible that one 
could work out the "decoherence" phenomenon by analogy with phonons and sound 
waves? 

Yes, I realize there are problems with speed of light and action at a 
distance etc.; and doubtless there are problems with strings or membranes and 
extra dimensions, which I have barely begun to investigate, and which I 
probably won't live long enough to understand until I'm thawed out and 
retrofitted. But it is undeniable that classical systems can give rise to 
waves, which in turn can yield quantum phenomena, and I submit this 
strengthens the case for possible classical hidden variables underlying known 
quantum phenomena. This in turn would obviate any need for many-worlds. 

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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