On the Edge of Physics
By Jean Staune
Technical progress in
recent years has permitted scientists to conduct fascinating new experiments in
quantum physics. They have confirmed the various theories developed by pioneers
in the field earlier in this century, as well as some of the ground-breaking
practical work done at the beginning of the 1980s. These experiments have given
us an image of the world that is vastly at odds with the views of preceding
generations, and with the understanding of reality that still prevails in our
civilization. Quantum physics in fact provides a new, scientific basis to the
possible existence of a level of reality beyond the classical understanding of
the material world a level that escapes our ordinary understanding of time,
space, energy and matter.
Determining the
Indeterminate
Einstein was famously
dissatisfied with quantum physics picture of an indeterminate reality. In a
1935 paper, he and two collaborators, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, set out
to demolish the quantum worldview by exposing its absurdity. They devised a
paradox demonstrating the existence of a link between two particles emitted
from the same atom, despite the distance between them; in fact, a measurement
of the properties of one particle had instantaneous repercussions on the other
particle. To Einstein, this contradicted the physical law that nothing in the
universe can move faster than the speed of light. He called this apparent
connection spooky action-at-a-distance, which according to the law of
relativity could not exist in reality.
To others, however,
Einstein’s theoretical experiment had inadvertently helped confirm the concept
of nonlocality. Over the next several decades, theoretical work by John Bell
and Bernard d’Espagnat further confirmed the existence of action-at-distance or
instantaneous influence. This was followed by Alain Aspect’s 1982 laboratory
experiments which confirmed the concept in practice. These results, among many
others, have forced us to renounce the classical vision of the correlation
between particles.
Bell used the homely
example of Dr. Bertlmann and his socks to give a more down-to-earth picture of
the concept. Dr. Bertlmann likes to wear red and green socks every day. His
choice of colour for either foot on a given day is unpredictable, but if you
notice that the first sock through the door is red, you can be sure the second
will be green, even if you haven’t seen it.
This is straightforward enough. However, to have a correct image of quantum non-locality, you have to imagine a sock fabric with very peculiar properties: in the dark, it would be red and green at the same time; when exposed to light, it would turn either red or green. But once the first foot is set in the room and that first sock has become (by chance) red, we can be sure without looking that the second sock has turned green. In the dark, therefore, the objects are in two contradictory states simultaneously: they might be red and green, or they might be green and red. We call this a superposition of possible states. Once we observe one of them, that sock choose a particular color at random, and this choice influences the other, instantaneously, regardless of the distance between them.
Thus, as predicted by
Bell, certain particular correlations are inexplicable locally. That is, they
cannot be explained without action taking place at a distance however spooky
this action might be. But it is vital to note that we cannot exploit this
information in any way, to send messages faster than the speed of light, for
example. The randomness involved prevents us from forcing the first sock to
turn red, so we can’t force the distant sock to turn green either. We can only
acknowledge the phenomenon of nonlocality, not use it or control it. General
Relativity is therefore not violated.
Nonetheless, these
findings transform our vision of the world. Either we must admit the existence
of these instantaneous interactions over distance, which are beyond the
relativistic laws of our universe (since they involve neither matter nor
energy), or else declare that the very notion of distance between two particles
no longer has any real meaning (d’Espagnat’s notion of “non-separability”) or
else we must modify our conception of time and admit that the measurements done
on one particle generate a signal that goes back in time and somehow informs
the second particle, before the separation, of what will later be done to the
first. Either way, these findings oblige us to question our familiar notions of
space and time, and our conception of reality itself.
Shaking the
Foundations
Aspect’s experiments
demonstrated instantaneous interaction between particles 12 meters apart: a
communication time of less than a billionth of a second, or 20 times faster
than the supposedly unbreakable speed of light. This was followed in 1997 by
Nicolas Gisin, who worked with distances of 10 kilometres and showed in this
instance the speed of the observed phenomenon was 10,000 times faster than the
speed of light. These first experimental evidences of ‘ghost links’ over such
distances have been used by others, such as Gilles Brassard and his team, to
demonstrate the principle of quantum teleportation. When the first twin of the
two linked particles meets a third particle, the second twin will receive via
teleportation through the ‘ghost link’ the properties of the new particle,
although it has not come in contact with it.
In these and other
experiments, the operations of quantum mechanics have been confirmed, while the
foundations of classical physics have crumbled. It is true that quantum
phenomena involve only microscopic objects; on the macroscopic level, the
methods of classical physics still retain much of their descriptive and
predictive power. This is because the multiple interactions involved in
macroscopic systems lead to the almost immediate collapse of quantum superposition
to a largely fixed state, which can then be dealt with by classical physics.
Nonetheless, quantum phenomena prove the existence of another level of reality
and one which must be situated outside space and time, since nonlocality is its
principal characteristic.
Materialistic
thinkers, however, often relegate the findings of quantum physics to the ‘God
of the gap’ category. Oh yes, they say, these are very bizarre phenomena, but
we will understand them by and by, and everything will be back in order, neat
and tidy and classical again ! But a close observation of the research in these
fields show that exactly the opposite is taking place. We have a very extensive
knowledge of some characteristics of quantum phenomena, and it is this
scientific knowledge and not the absence of knowledge, as with the ‘God of the
gap’ and which enables us to demonstrate there is a level of reality that
escapes time, space, energy, and matter, and yet still has, as experiments have
shown, a causal effect on our material level of reality.
A Rational Vision of
Spirituality
Of course, quantum
physics’ confirmation of another level reality does not provide us with any
proofs for the existence of God. It could very well be that Chaos is the master
of this other realm. But on the metaphysical level, quantum physics gives us
(to borrow a mathematical term) a necessary if not sufficient condition for
speaking of God.
The central idea of
all monotheistic religions is that the world in which we live, the world of
time, space, energy and matter, is not ontologically sufficient and it cannot
be its own cause ñ because it has been created by a transcendent principle:
God. If science had been able to demonstrate that the world is in fact
ontologically sufficient (and it seemed very close to doing so in the 19th
century), the necessary condition for considering the existence of God would
not have been fulfilled. However, science has not only failed in this
demonstration and it has actually demonstrated the opposite. Through quantum
physics, science itself has proven that it alone cannot provide a complete
picture of reality.
Therefore, we now have
the necessary conditions for a credible concept of the existence of God, since
the world no longer limits itself to our level of reality. And even though
quantum physics does not give us sufficient proof for this existence to be
demonstrated, it is nonetheless a giant step forward to go from a situation of
scientific materialism and where it seemed the necessary conditions could not
be fulfilled, to one where they have been achieved, and on a scientific basis.
A belief in
materialism is still possible under quantum physics, of course but only if it
is transformed into a kind of science fiction materialism, somehow able to
integrate the de-materialization of matter. For new experiments have shown that
matter itself can no longer be considered to have a strictly material reality.
One of the best proofs
of this is offered by Raymond Chiao, whose experiments have confirmed the
tunnel effect. When a particle meets a wall, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
says there is a slight chance it will find itself on the other side of the
wall, because there is an inherent uncertainty in its position. In some cases,
the particle really does pass through the wall, for we can pick it up on the
other side. How is this possible?
Chiao used two beams
of photons which move at the speed of light, both covering identical distances
from Point A to Point B. The electrons which leave together from A thus arrive
at the same time at B. If we put a wall in the pathway of one of these beams,
most of those photons are stopped, but a small number, through the tunnel
effect, do make it through to Point B. Chiao has shown that these photons
actually arrive before those which left at the same time in the beam without a
wall ñ even though both beams travel at the speed of light and both their
trajectories are identical in length. How can light go faster than ... light ?
The only possible conclusion is that the particle does not actually go through
the wall and its molecules, but materializes itself directly on the other side.
This dematerialization could explain why the blocked photons seem to arrive
earlier, having effectively skipped the space of the wall. In fact, the
experiment shows that the thicker the wall, the earlier the particles arrive.
Since this experiment
can be done with any fundamental components of matter (protons, electrons,
etc.), it proves that we must definitely renounce the idea that these
components are somehow little pieces of ultimately indivisible matter, like
infinitely small grains of sand. Again, this doesn’t prove the validity of a
spiritual vision of the world, but it does give such a vision a rational
validity, while making a purely materialist vision of life more difficult. And
the fact that these results have been reached strictly through science, and can
thus be verified by all researchers, is one of the most significant
developments of this century.
Creative Coherence and
Intelligent Design
In conclusion, I’d
like to pursue a more speculative thought. The fact that a certain coherence
exists in our universe is not surprising in itself. As noted by proponents of
the weak anthropic principle, life could not have developed in an incoherent
universe, where the fundamental laws were constantly changing. Even if the
universe was born from pure chance, it is still necessary for it to be
relatively coherent; otherwise, we wouldn’t be here to observe it. But nothing
obliges such a universe to prevent a civilization from sending information
faster than the speed of light in order to travel through time, or creating
inconsistencies like the ones we see in science fiction films, where a
character can go back in time and murder his own parents, for example.
We now have proof that
something can go faster than light from various areas of research: non-locality,
the tunnel effect, quantum teleportation and others. Yet as we noted before, it
is as if we can only acknowledge the existence of faster-than-light phenomena ñ
a fundamental law of nature prevents us from using them in any way. It is
therefore logical to assume that an intelligent designer one concerned with
preventing total chaos and establishing the necessary conditions for life would
create a universe where time travel or other such inconsistencies are
impossible. For there is no reason that a universe born out of pure chance
would forbid such activities.
These are tantalizing
and inspiring thoughts. However, we still need to know much more about the
workings of nature before we can say these developments in quantum physics can
be used as a base for further considerations about the design or the designer
of the universe.
NB some typographic mistakes in the original I tried to correct but not all
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