Transcript The Magical Play of Creation According to Modern Physics Dennis Blejer

The Magical Play of
Creation According
to Modern Physics
Dennis Blejer
School of Practical Philosophy
and Meditation, Boston
1
Abstract

The Creation is a magical play known as the Lila
(sport) of the Absolute. Modern physics is
consistent with this point of view. The revolution
in physics that took place during the 20th century
dramatically changed the view of a purely
mechanistic (machine-like) and deterministic
universe to one full of magic and potentiality.
This talk will present the magical mystery of
relativistic and quantum physics through
illustrative examples.
2
Outline
Newtonian Physics
 Relativistic Physics


Special Relativity
 General Relativity

Cosmology

Black Holes
 Big Bang
 Dark Matter & Energy
 The Anthropic Principle and Fine Tuning
3
Psalm 9
I will praise thee, O Lord,
with my whole heart;
I will shew forth all thy
marvelous works.
4
Outline
Newtonian Physics
 Relativistic Physics

 Special
Relativity
 General Relativity

Cosmology
 Black
Holes
 Big Bang
 Dark Matter & Energy
 The Anthropic Principle and Fine Tuning
5
Three-dimensional Space and
Z
Time
Y
X
“Absolute, true, and mathematical time, in and of
itself and of its own nature, without reference to
anything external, flows uniformly and by
another name is called duration.” (Newton)
6
St. Augustine on Time (~400 A.D.)
 “What
then is time? If no one asks
then I know what it is. If I wish to
explain it to him who asks me, I do
not know.”
7
Time
We don’t know what time is
(St. Augustine), but we do claim to know
how to tell time
 We tell time with the use of clocks
 What is a clock?


A clock is essentially a counter
 Einstein’s light clock – using light to tell time
8
Outline
Newtonian Physics
 Relativistic Physics


Special Relativity
 General Relativity

Cosmology
 Black
Holes
 Big Bang
 Dark Matter & Energy
 The Anthropic Principle and Fine Tuning
9
Minkoski, 1908

“The views of space and time which I wish to lay
before you have sprung from the soil of
experimental physics, and therein lies there
strength. They are radical. Henceforth space by
itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade
away into mere shadows, and only a kind of
union of the two will preserve an independent
reality.” (Spacetime continuum)
10
Addition of Velocities
• Why does a javelin thrower run before
throwing the javelin?
• Because velocities add: by running he
imparts a velocity to the javelin that
adds to the velocity he imparts when
releasing
• The speed of light, however, is
unaffected by the motion of the source
or receiver
11
Einstein 1905
Measurements on the speed of light show
that it is independent of the relative motion
of the observer and the source
 Einstein questions Newtonian
assumptions about space and time and
shows that space-time metrics depend on
the relative motion of the observers

12
Stationary Light Clock Observed by an
Observer at Rest, or a Moving Light Clock
Observed by a Moving Observer
A light beam bounces up and down between two mirrors
13
Light Clock Observed by a Moving
Observer, or a Moving Clock Observed
by a Stationary Observer (c is constant)
v
∆t′ = ∆t/√(1-v2/c2)
• Time Dilation: ∆t′ = ∆t/√(1-v2/c2)
• For v2/c2 = ¾ (v = 0.87c) , ∆t′ = 2∆t
14
Time Dilation, Einstein, 1911

"If we placed a living organism in a box ... one could
arrange that the organism, after any arbitrary lengthy
flight, could be returned to its original spot in a scarcely
altered condition, while corresponding organisms which
had remained in their original positions had already long
since given way to new generations. For the moving
organism the lengthy time of the journey was a mere
instant, provided the motion took place with
approximately the speed of light".
15
Time Dilation of Muons



The muon is an unstable elementary particle
with a half-life of 2.2 µs
Rossi and Hall (1941) compared the population
of cosmic-ray-produced muons at the top of a
mountain to that observed at sea level.
The muon sample at the base was only
moderately reduced. The muons were decaying
about 10 times slower than if they were at rest
with respect to the experimenters.
16
Lorentz Contraction
Relativity, Gravitation and Cosmology, Ta-Pei Cheng, 2010
A pole carrying runner runs through a barn
• A stationary observer sees the
time sequence of events as:
(1) AF, (2) BF, (3) AR, (3) BR
• The pole is shorter than the
barn
• The runner sees the time
sequence as:
(1) AF, (2) AR, (3) BF, (4) BR
• The pole is longer than the
barn
17
• Events are not simultaneous
Minkowski Spacetime Invariant
• In the Newtonian conception of space and time
measuring sticks and clocks are invariants
• In relativistic physics the invariant is Pythagorian
distance in 4-dimensional spacetime
s = √(∆R2 – c2∆t2)
s = square root of the distance between two spatial points
squared minus the distance light would have traveled squared
18
Outline
Newtonian Physics
 Relativistic Physics


Special Relativity
 General Relativity

Cosmology
 Black
Holes
 Big Bang
 Dark Matter & Energy
 The Anthropic Principle and Fine Tuning
19
Equivalence Principle
Introducing Stephen Hawking,
J. McEvoy and O. Zarate, 1999
20
Equivalence of Free Fall in a
Gravitational Field and an Inertial
Frame of Reference
Astronaut in free fall in a uniform
gravitational field
There is no experiment
the astronaut can perform
in empty space to determine
which situation he is in
Astronaut floating in space
21
Light Bends in a Gravitational Field
Gravity, J.B. Hartle, Addison Wesley
22
Bending of Light in a
Gravitational Field
• Light bends in a gravitational field
• Sir Arthur Eddington verifies in
1919 during an eclipse of the sun
• Headlines exclaim “Light caught
bending”
• Gravitational time dilation
• Clocks run more slowly in stronger
gravitational fields than weak ones
23
Cassini
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/18268
Bruno Bertotti of the University of Pavia
and colleagues in Rome and Bologna
measured how radio waves sent from
the Earth to the Cassini satellite and
back again were deflected by the Sun
(B Bertotti et al. 2003 Nature 425 374).
Their results, which are accurate to 20
parts in a million, agree with the
predictions of general relativity.
24
Einstein Ring:
A special case of
gravitational lensing caused by the exact
alignment of the source, lens, and observer
resulting in a ring-like structure (Wikipedia)
25
Outline
Newtonian Physics
 Relativistic Physics


Special Relativity
 General Relativity

Cosmology
 Black
Holes
 Big Bang
 Dark Matter & Energy
 The Anthropic Principle and Fine Tuning
26
Psalm 19
The heavens declare the glory of God; and
the firmament sheweth his handywork
20th Anniversary Image of the
Carina Nebula, HST, NASA
HST NASA
27
Outline
Newtonian Physics
 Relativistic Physics


Special Relativity
 General Relativity

Cosmology
 Black
Holes
 Big Bang
 Dark Matter & Energy
 The Anthropic Principle and Fine Tuning
28
Birth of Black Hole
www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blackhole
If the collapsed star is greater than about
three times the solar mass, then nothing
that we know of in nature can withstand
the force of its gravity, and it crumples
inexorably into a black hole. It's a
mysterious place where gravity has
become so powerful that the velocity
that an object would need to escape its
grip is greater than the 670,000,000-mileper-hour speed of light, which means that
not even light can escape. Hence its simple
but deeply evocative name, black hole.
29
Static Black Hole
The Schwarzschild radius is the
radius of a sphere that contains an
amount of mass so great that no
known force can stop gravitational
collapse to a point of infinite density,
i.e., a black hole
The Photon Sphere occurs at 3/2 the
Schwarzschild Radius. It's the only place where
light rays can have (very) unstable orbits around
the black hole. At the photon sphere the speed
you would have to go to stay in orbit is c, the
speed of light, some 3 x 108 meters per second.
http://www.gothosenterprises.com/black_holes/static_black_holes.html
30
Falling into a Non-rotating Black Hole
Introducing the Black Hole, R. Ruffini and J. Wheeler, Physics Today, 1971
31
Rotating Black Hole
• Two photon spheres
• Ergosphere
• Inner and outer event
horizons
• Ring singularity
Within the ergosphere, spacetime is
dragged along in the direction of the
rotation of the black hole at a speed
greater than the speed of light in
relation to the rest of the universe.
Wikipedia
http://www.gothosenterprises.com/black_holes/rotating_black_holes.html
32
Light Near a Rotating Black Hole
http://www.engr.mun.ca/~ggeorge/astron/lkjh.gif
Behavior of light near a Kerr black
hole. The hole is rotating anticlockwise. The rays drawn in red
just barely avoid capture by the
hole.
33
Rotating
Black Holes


10 January 2008 — A new study
using results from NASA’s Chandra
X-Ray Observatory provides one of
the best pieces of evidence yet that
many supermassive black holes are
spinning extremely rapidly. The whirling of these giant black holes drives
powerful jets that pump huge amounts of energy into their environment and
affects the growth of galaxies.
"We think these monster black holes are spinning close to the limit set by
Einstein's theory of relativity, which means that they can drag material
around them at close to the speed of light," said Rodrigo Nemmen da
Silva, lead author of a paper on the new results. "Conditions around a
stationary black hole are extreme, but around a rapidly spinning one
would be even worse," Nemmen said.
34
Supermassive Black Holes
This illustration shows the extreme
activity astronomers believe occurs
near a supermassive black hole.
Matter that is spiraling inward
forms a disk swirling around the
black hole, and high speed jets of
energetic particles are ejected
from the poles. The detail shows a
computer simulation of the inner
region where matter orbits just
outside the black hole. The rotation
of the disk surrounding the black
hole causes one side to brighten.
Credit:
MIT/NASA/JohnsHopkins/U.Illinois
35
The giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4261 is one of
the twelve brightest galaxies in the Virgo
cluster, located 45 million light-years away
• Visible light image shows
hundreds of billions of stars
• Radio image shows two jets
spanning 88,000 light years
• Hubble image shows giant
gas and dust disk that fuels
a possible black hole
36
Milky Way’s Black Hole
http://www.universetoday.com/guide-to-space/milky-way/the-milkyways-black-hole
37
The Motion of a Star Around the Central
Black Hole in the Milky Way
http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0226c/
Year
Infra Red Image
38
Stars orbiting Supermassive Black
Hole in the Center of the Milky Way
UCLA Galactic Center Group website
Caption: The orbits of stars within the
central 1.0 X 1.0 arcseconds of our Galaxy.
Estimates of orbital parameters are only
possible for the seven stars that have had
significant curvature detected. The annual
average positions for these seven stars are
plotted as colored dots, which have
increasing color saturation with time. Also
plotted are the best fitting simultaneous
orbital solutions. These orbits provide
the best evidence yet for a supermassive
black hole, which has a mass of 4.1
million times the mass of the Sun. 13
years worth of data.
39
Sombrero Galaxy: In the Virgo Cluster,
about 28 million light years away
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Chandra's X-ray image (in blue)
shows hot gas in the galaxy and
point sources that are a mixture
of objects within the galaxy and
quasars in the background.
Hubble's optical image (green)
reveals the bulge of starlight
partially blocked by a rim of
dust, which glows brightly in
Spitzer's infrared view. It may
have a black hole of
approximately 1 billion solar
masses at its core.
40
Chandra Reveals 1000s of
Black Holes (March 18, 2007)
NASA’s Chandra X-Ray observatory in
orbit is racking up quite a record of
groundbreaking discoveries this year.
After enabling the verification of
Dark Matter earlier this year,
Chandra discovered over 1000 Black
Holes in a patch of the sky about the
size of a paperback book held at
arm’s length.
Each of the colored dots in the field left
(taken in the constellation Bootes) is a
direct image of a black hole that lies at
the center of a remote galaxy (hence
the name “Active Galactic Nuclei”
[AGN]).
http://www.allthebestbits.net/
41
How do 2 Black Holes say hello?
- With a gravitational wave
42
Evidence for Gravitational
Waves
The figure (from Weisberg and Taylor (2004))
shows the cumulative shift of periastron time
for PSR 1913+16. This shows the decrease
of the orbital period as the two stars spiral
together. Although the measured shift is only
40 seconds over 30 years, it has been very
Accurately measured and agrees precisely with
the predictions from Einstein's theory of General
Relativity. The observation is regarded as
indirect proof of the existence of gravitational
waves. Indeed, the Hulse-Tayor pulsar is
deemed so significant that in 1993 its
discoverers were awarded the Nobel prize for
their work.
43
Einstein equations indicate possibility of
black hole formation at the LHC
April 5, 2010, Miranda Marquit
One of the concerns that has been
voiced about the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC), is that it could result
in the formation of black holes that
could destroy the world. While most
scientists dismiss claims that
anything produced in the LHC
would destroy the planet, there are
some that think that black formation
could be seen with LHC collisions
of sufficiently high energy..
44
Worm Holes
http://www.daviddarling.info/childrens_encyclopedia
/Build_a_Time_Machine_Chapter4.html
Worm Holes: In science fiction,
we often read that a worm hole will
connect two places in the
universe. The hero in the fiction
will go through the worm hole and
travel to a distant place in a short
time. To our best knowledge, worm
hole exists theoretically. However,
there are some big drawbacks as
a ``tunnel''. The two ends will
appear to be black holes to the
Do Schwarzschild wormholes really exist?
outsiders. After you travel through
When a realistic star collapses to a black hole,
the worm hole, you can see what
it does not produce a wormhole ; The complete
happens outside, but you cannot
Schwarzschild geometry includes a white hole,
which violates the second law of thermodynamics ; get out of the black hole at the
Even if a Schwarzschild wormhole were somehow other end before you are crushed
45
by the singularity.
formed, it would be unstable and fly apart .
Worm Holes
http://casa.colorado.edu/~ajsh/schww.html





The Schwarzschild metric admits negative square root as well as positive
square root solutions for the geometry.
The complete Schwarzschild geometry consists of a black hole, a white
hole, and two Universes connected at their horizons by a wormhole.
The negative square root solution inside the horizon represents a white
hole. A white hole is a black hole running backwards in time. Just as black
holes swallow things irretrievably, so also do white holes spit them out.
White holes cannot exist, since they violate the second law of
thermodynamics.
General Relativity is time symmetric. It does not know about the second law
of thermodynamics, and it does not know about which way cause and effect
go. But we do.
The negative square root solution outside the horizon represents another
Universe. The wormhole joining the two separate Universes is known as the
Einstein-Rosen bridge.
46
Outline
Newtonian Physics
 Relativistic Physics


Special Relativity
 General Relativity

Cosmology
 Black
Holes
 Big Bang
 Dark Matter & Energy
 The Anthropic Principle and Fine Tuning
47
Hubble Diagrams - Expansion
http://www.eso.org/~bleibund/papers/EPN/epn.html
• Distance vs. redshift for Type 1a
Supernovae
• The further away the faster the
supernovae are moving
• v = H*R, H ~ 7*10e-11/yr
• Implies 1/H years ago (14 billion)
the universe was a point!
• Big Bang – term used by Fred
Hoyle in derision for this notion
48
Expanding Space
Cosmic Jackpot, Paul Davies
Space is in the universe rather than the
universe being in space
 The Big Bang happened everywhere, not
at one point in space
 The Big Bang was the explosion of space,
not an explosion in space

49
The Evolution of the Universe
50
Outline
Newtonian Physics
 Relativistic Physics


Special Relativity
 General Relativity

Cosmology
 Black
Holes
 Big Bang
 Dark Matter & Energy
 The Anthropic Principle and Fine Tuning
51
The Composition of the Universe
If 72% of the energy density in the universe
is in the form of dark energy, which has a
gravitationally repulsive effect, it is just the
right amount to explain both the flatness of
the universe and the observed accelerated
expansion. Thus dark energy explains
many cosmological observations at once.
NASA
52
Galactic Rotation Curves
• Spiral galaxies rotate and the rotation rate is a function
of the distance from the center of the galaxy and the
mass distribution throughout the galaxy
• The observed mass is insufficient to account for the
observed rotation curve
~α/√R
53
Rotation Curve for the Milky Way
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/isolderadford/galacdm.html
54
Seeing Dark Matter in the
Andromeda Galaxy
Vera Rubin, Physics Today, Dec 2006
55
Three-Dimensional Mapping of Dark Matter
B. Schwarzschild, Physics Today, March 2007
56
Dark Energy and Hubble Expansion
B. Schwarzschild, Physics Today, Jan 2007
• Hubble’s Law: v = Hr
• Fig a: H vs. time
• Fig b: Cosmic expansion
rate (H/1+z)
deceleration
acceleration
z = 0.5 corresponds to 5 billion yrs ago
z = 1.3 corresponds to 9 billion yrs ago
57
Dark Energy and Hubble Expansion
B. Schwarzschild, Physics Today, Jan 2007
58
Outline
Newtonian Physics
 Relativistic Physics


Special Relativity
 General Relativity

Cosmology
 Black
Holes
 Big Bang
 Dark Matter & Energy
 The Anthropic Principle and Fine Tuning
59
What is Man That Thou Art
Mindful of Him? Psalm 8.4
60
The Anthropic Cosmological
Principle and Fine Tuning
The Anthropic Cosmological Principle, J. Barrow and F. Tipler


Weak anthropic principle (WAP) (Barrow and Tipler):
"The observed values of all physical and cosmological
quantities are not equally probable but they take on
values restricted by the requirement that there exist sites
where carbon-based life can evolve and by the
requirements that the Universe be old enough for it to
have already done so."
Strong anthropic principle (SAP) (Barrow and Tipler):
"The Universe must have those properties which allow
life to develop within it at some stage in its history."
61
The Anthropic Cosmological
Principle

Nobel laureate, high energy physicist, Professor
Steven Weinberg, in the journal Scientific
American, reflects on "how surprising it is that
the laws of nature and the initial conditions of the
universe should allow for the existence of beings
who could observe it. Life as we know it would
be impossible if any one of several physical
quantities had slightly different values."
62
Anthropic Principle – Hawkings
Wikipedia

As Stephen Hawking has noted, "The laws of science, as we know
them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of
the electric charge of the electron and the ratio of the masses of the
proton and the electron. … The remarkable fact is that the values of
these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make
possible the development of life."
If, for example, the strong nuclear force were 2% stronger than it is
(i.e., if the coupling constant representing its strength were 2%
larger), while the other constants were left unchanged, diprotons
would be stable and hydrogen would fuse into them instead of
deuterium and helium. This would drastically alter the physics of
stars, and presumably preclude the existence of life similar to what
we observe on Earth.
63
The Anthropic Cosmological
Principle
http://www.2001principle.net/2005.htm
Dr. David D. Deutsch, Institute of Mathematics,
Oxford University: "If we nudge one of these
constants just a few percent in one direction,
stars burn out within a million years of their
formation, and there is no time for evolution. If
we nudge it a few percent in the other
direction, then no elements heavier than
helium form. No carbon, no life. Not even any
chemistry. No complexity at all."
64
The Anthropic Cosmological
Principle
In his best-selling book, A Brief History of Time, Stephen
Hawking (perhaps the world's most famous cosmologist)
refers to the phenomenon as "remarkable." "The
remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers (i.e. the
constants of physics) seem to have been very finely
adjusted to make possible the development of life" (p. 125).
65
The Antropic Cosmological
Principle

"For example," Hawking writes, "if the electric charge of
the electron had been only slightly different, stars would
have been unable to burn hydrogen and helium, or else
they would not have exploded... It seems clear that there
are relatively few ranges of values for the numbers (for
the constants) that would allow for development of any
form of intelligent life. Most sets of values would give rise
to universes that, although they might be very beautiful,
would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty."
Hawking then goes on to say that he can appreciate
taking this as possible evidence of "a divine purpose in
Creation and the choice of the laws of science (by God)"
66
(ibid. p. 125).
The Anthropic Cosmological
Principle – John Wheeler

"To my mind, there must be at the bottom
of it all, not an utterly simple equation, but
an utterly simple IDEA. And to me that
idea, when we finally discover it, will be so
compelling, and so inevitable, so beautiful,
we will all say to each other, 'How could it
have ever been otherwise?'"
67
Eugene Wigner

“It is not at all natural that laws of nature
exist, much less that man is able to
discover them.”

1963 Nobel Laureate in Physics for his
contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus
and the elementary particles, particularly
through the discovery and application of
fundamental symmetry principles.
68
Einstein
• The most incomprehensible thing about
the universe is that it is comprehensible.
69
Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad

“He transformed Himself in accordance
with each form: That form of His was for
the sake of making Him known.” (2.3.19)
70
Backup Slides
71
Einstein Field Equation of
General Relativity
Distribution of mass causes curvature of
spacetime
72
Newton, Optics, 1704



… it seems probable to me, that God in the beginning formed matter in solid, massy,
hard, impenetrable, moveable particles, …
It seems to me farther, … that they are moved by certain active principles, … such as
would be the causes of gravity, and of magnetic and electric attractions, and of
fermentations, if we should suppose that these forces or actions arose from qualities
unknown to us, and incapable of being discovered and made manifest. Such occult
qualities put a stop to the improvement of natural philosophy, and therefore of late
years have been rejected. To tell us that every species of things is endowed with an
occult specific quality by which it acts and produces manifest effects, is to tell us
nothing: But to derive two or three general principles of motion from phenomena, and
afterwards to tell us how the properties and actions of all corporeal things follow from
those manifest principles, would be a very great step in philosophy, though the
causes of those principles were not yet discovered.
Now by the help of these principles… variously associated in the first creation by the
counsel of an intelligent agent. For it became him who created them to set them in
order. And if he did so, it's unphilosophical to seek for any other origin of the world, or
to pretend that it might arise out of a chaos by the mere laws of nature; though being
once formed, it may continue by those laws for many ages
73
Trajectory of Table Tennis Ball
Initial velocity Vx = 50 ft/sec
r 
S
ˆg
r 2 CD rˆ  CL rˆ  

2m 
74
Relativistic Clock Effects on GPS
Wikipedia




Special Relativity predicts that the frequency of the atomic clocks
moving at GPS orbital speeds will tick more slowly than stationary
ground clocks by approximately 7 μs/day, where the orbital velocity
is v = 4 km/s.
General Relativity predicts that a clock closer to a massive object
will be slower than a clock farther away. Applied to the GPS system,
the GPS clocks are faster by about 45.9 μs/day compared to clocks
on the Earth.
When combining the time dilation and gravitational frequency shift,
the discrepancy is about 38 microseconds per day. Without
correction, errors in position determination of roughly
10 km/day would accumulate.
GPS observation processing must also compensate for the rotation
of the earth. Ignoring this effect will produce an east-west error on
the order of hundreds of nanoseconds, or tens of meters in position.75
Radar Echo from Venus
Principles of Cosmology and Gravitation, M. Berry, 1976
76
LaPlace on Determinism

"We may regard the present state of the universe as the
effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect
which at any given moment knew all of the forces that
animate nature and the mutual positions of the beings
that compose it, if this intellect were vast enough to
submit the data to analysis, could condense into a single
formula the movement of the greatest bodies of the
universe and that of the lightest atom; for such an
intellect nothing could be uncertain and the future just
like the past would be present before its eyes." —
Marquis Pierre Simon de Laplace
77