About

I have a BA in physics from Harvard, <i>summa cum laude</i> and a masters in physics from Princeton.  I’m currently working on a <a href=”www.timeandquantummechanics.com”>physics dissertation, Quantum Time,</a> on how to quantize time using the same rules as we use for space.  Curiously enough, this line of attack doesn’t appear to have been tried before.  I use Techniques and Applications of Path Integration (Dover Books on Physics)
but add paths that vary in time to the usual paths varying in space.  Doesn’t seem to break anything & is testable so I am hoping to persuade some experimentalists to have a go, once the dissertation is in final form (next few weeks).
I’ve put this blog up to make the papers available, talk about what I’ve found interesting/helpful in the area of time & quantum mechanics, and get some feedback.
By day, I’m an independent computer consultant working out of the Philadelphia area, specializing in databases (any kind really, but Informix, MySQL, SQL Server seem to head the list) & their applications.  My company is <a href=”www.ashmeadsoftware.com”>Ashmead Software & Consulting, Inc.</a>.  My (informal) company slogan is “cleaning up after the elephant”, as I seem to specialize in fixing legacy databases that have gotten a bit, how shall we say, out of control.

I have a BA in physics from Harvard, summa cum laude and a masters in physics from Princeton.  I’ve just finished a long paper on how to quantize time using the same rules as we use for space.

In quantum mechanics the time dimension is treated as a parameter, while the three space dimensions are treated as observables. This assumption is both untested and inconsistent with relativity. From dimensional analysis, we expect quantum effects along the time axis to be of order an attosecond. Such effects are not ruled out by current experiments. But they are large enough to be detected with current technology, if sufficiently specific predictions can be made. To supply such we use path integrals. The only change required is to generalize the usual three dimensional paths to four. We predict a large variety of testable effects. The principal effects are additional dispersion in time and full equivalence of the time/energy uncertainty principle to the space/momentum one. Additional effects include interference, diffraction, and entanglement in time. The usual ultraviolet divergences do not appear: they are suppressed by a combination of dispersion in time and entanglement in time. The approach here has no free parameters; it is therefore falsifiable. As it treats time and space with complete symmetry and does not suffer from the ultraviolet divergences, it may provide a useful starting point for attacks on quantum gravity.

I presented a talk based on this paper at the 2018 IARD (International Assocation for Relativistic Dynamics) conference in Yucatan.   I’ve incorporated the feedback from the conference into the paper and submitted a revised version to the IOP Conference Proceedings.  That’s in A4, I have one in US Letter here.

1 Comment

  • By ashewyntr, February 9, 2018 @ 1:57 pm

    Study suggesting time perception is non-linear.

    This had slipped my mind until it just popped in. After this presentation at Philcon we were chatting outside the room afterward.
    We had briefly discussed a show (“You’re Bleeped-Up Brain) I had seen that showed an experiment showing subjects calm imagery punctuated with random extreme imagery, measuring their emotional responses. The study suggested they were reacting a brief instant BEFORE they saw the imagery.
    I promised to look it up and see if I could find the study for you.
    Voila:
    https://www.scientificexploration.org/docs/11/jse_11_2_radin.pdf

    I look forward to your thoughts.

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