Part 1: INTRODUCTION

 

1.1. Introduction

Pondering elementary concepts in quantum theory, I troubled with some intriguing questions. The first was about the Copenhagen interpretation of the double-slit experiment. According to the Copenhagen interpretation, a quantum wave collapses to a particle when its location is detected [1–5]. I was bothered by the question of what causes the particle to turn back into a wave. Does it become a wave again only after a certain time? Does some sort of collision or interaction cause it to start acting like a wave again? On the other hand, does an observer’s type of measurement determine if the quantum will be a particle or a wave? Clearly, the Copenhagen interpretation is insufficient in fully dealing with these types of questions.

Another question was about the description of the electron as a wave packet. This description essentially gives the inner construct for the electron and for other elementary particles [1–5]. Such a description does explain the basic wavelike behaviors of quanta. However, can it explain their quantified spins? No, it cannot. Can it explain the Pauli exclusion principle? No, it cannot. There are other elementary particle characteristics which this clearly insufficient construct for the electron cannot explain. In trying to resolve these questions and others, I eventually derived deeper quantum principles and a new structure for elementary particles, which I discuss in this article. (The Pauli exclusion principle states that no two identical particles that are fermions can reside in the same spot. When this is attempted in nature, they very strongly repel each other [1, 2, 4]).

In elementary quantum theory books, quantum waves have never been treated like disturbances in a medium and for a good reason. According to elementary quantum theory, an electron sometimes acts like a wave and sometimes like a particle. This is the previously discussed Copenhagen interpretation. Since traditional mediums in nature do not propagate waves that sometimes behave like particles, no medium for quanta was successful enough to make it into quantum books. However, in this article, I challenge the Copenhagen interpretation by replacing it with the wave source interpretation. Before I do this, I present abstract concepts which act as rules for wave behavior in a three-dimensional medium. These rules I extract from elementary particle behavior and from analysis of traditional mediums in nature. I present these rules in Table 1; they are essentially the characteristics of a three-dimensional quantum medium. Hence, they represent the abstract idea of a medium. These rules do not represent any kind of physical substance that propagates waves, such as air, water, or string. Since there are no physical constraints found in a traditional medium, the rules and their results can come out quite different and even strange compared to traditional waves. Nonetheless, I use these rules mostly to create standing waves, which are essentially wave sources within this work.

All mediums, whether they are one-, two-, or three-dimensional, possess wave fronts that move in a particular direction. These wave fronts are constructed out of an infinite number of point-wave sources. Furthermore, all waves in a medium can be constructed out of point-wave sources. The cosmic medium I present here is three-dimensional. Like all mediums, every disturbance within the medium is best understood in terms of its components. It was first noted by Christian Huygens, a Dutch physicist, that these components are point-wave sources [6]. I will show that in the medium I create, there are essentially two types of wave sources: indeed, one type paralleling fermions’ behavior and another type paralleling bosons’ behavior. (See Figure 1, which is on the menu in the upper left hand corner of the screen. They are placed in order, 1 through 12, in the menu.) In this article, I show that point-wave sources at a central origin where waves that are being emitted in all directions act like fermions, and point-wave sources that construct a wave front which moves in one direction act like bosons. There are other possible constructs. In my cosmic medium, waves can be bosons or fermions, or a mixture of both. (I contend that all waves within any medium are one of the two types of point-wave sources discussed in Figure 1, or a mixture of the two.) Also in this article, an even number integer spin is a boson spin, and an odd number integer spin is a fermion spin. Of course, I could divide them both by 2 and get an integer spin for bosons and a ½ odd number spin for fermions. In traditional physics, the spin for bosons and fermions is an integer spin and a ½ odd number spin, respectively [7, 8].

I make a crucial leap from my wave source interpretation of quantum theory. In Section 7 of my earlier article, “The Theory of Distance-Time”, I stated the following hypothesis: “Matter and antimatter mechanics can be derived from photon mechanics and vice versa.” [9]. This meant that if all the laws of photon mechanics and of matter mechanics were fully understood, then one could be derived out of the other [9]. (For a further delineation on this, see the discussion section in my theory of distance-time [9].) I further illustrate this hypothesis in the current article. By using the wave source interpretation of quantum theory and the hypothesis that matter mechanics can be derived out of a photon mechanics, I am led to a conclusion about the structure of elementary particles—that when a light wave is captured into a small three-dimensional region, it becomes a three-dimensional wave source. Since all quantum waves are transversal, this wave source is a three-dimensional transversal wave source. However, in nature there are three-dimensional longitudinal wave sources, and there are no three-dimensional transversal wave sources. Nonetheless, the rules I create for a cosmic quantum medium do allow for this kind of wave source to exist.

I now summarize the objectives of this work. Essentially I create rules that govern wave behavior in a three-dimensional quantum medium. Next I challenge the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum theory with the wave source interpretation. From these first two steps, I construct a structure for elementary particles, i.e., quarks, leptons, and hadrons. What I do is create a construct for fermions that parallels the fermion-quantified spin and predicts the Pauli exclusion principle. Also, in my theory, photons necessarily have a boson spin that is parallel to the direction of its velocity, which agrees with traditional theory [10]. In the light of this construct for fermions, it becomes obvious that something like the nuclear strong and weak forces ought to exist along with the force when two identical particles that are fermions interfere with and repel each other. This last force comes from the Pauli exclusion principle. I briefly discuss the relationship of these forces later in the article.

The prerequisites for understanding this article are elementary quantum theory, classical wave theory, and my theory of distance-time. This theory of distance-time is only required for Part 4. A rudimentary background in particle physics is not required but is helpful. This article is mostly a work dealing with elementary quantum principles. Nonetheless, in breaking through these most basic principles, I have surprisingly derived an inner structure for elementary particles.

In particle physics, particles do not have an inner structure in a traditional manner. What are traditional inner structures? Traditionally, a structure of an object in physics was a model where smaller bits of matter were the constituents of a larger object. These smaller bits of matter were placed in some sort of pattern that was the structure of the larger object. For an example, a crystal lattice is made up of a plethora of molecules in an array pattern. This is the structure of the crystal. The basic structure of the hydrogen atom had a proton at the nucleus, with an electron in an orbital. Both of those examples followed the traditional idea of a structure with smaller bits of matter in a pattern or a design making a larger object. I admit that in the traditional understanding there is no inner structure to these elementary particles, because there are no smaller bits of matter making up a bigger object. Instead, the inner structure of elementary particles is waves that mesh or interfere according to the pattern of the three-dimensional transversal wave source. Since this is a pattern or design of waves, I consider it an inner structure for elementary particles.