Cosmological implications of Heisenberg's principle

191 Pages·2015·4.386 MB·English

by  Julio A Gonzalo

Cosmological Implications of
Heisenberg’s Principle
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Cosmological Implications of
Heisenberg’s Principle
Julio A Gonzalo
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
World Scientific
NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TAIPEI • CHENNAI
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COSMOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF HEISENBERG’S PRINCIPLE
Copyright © 2015 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
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ISBN 978-981-4675-37-6
In-house Editor: Christopher Teo
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Printed in Singapore
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PREFACE

The implications of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle for the
study of the only universe amenable to physical observation
(unlike the infinite unobservable “multiverses” so fashionable
these days) are very substantial as I hope to show in this short
book.
The book begins in Chapter 1 with an invited lecture on
“Planck, Einstein, and Mach” “given at the Pontificium Ateneum
“Regina Apostolorum” in a Symposium to commemorate the fifth
anniversary of Professor Stanley L. Jaki death. In that lecture I
tried to put in a proper perspective the monumental contributions
of Max Planck and Albert Einstein to 20th century physics and to
show how both of them, early admirers of Ernst Mach, became
diametrically opposed to Mach’s positivist, materialist world
views.
In chapters 2 to 5, brief biographical sketches of the main
protagonists of Quantum Mechanics (Bohr, Sommerfeld, De
Broglie, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Jordan, Dirac, Born, Debye,
Compton, Pauli, Bose, Fermi and Wigner) are given. Half of them
are written by S.L. Jaki and by myself, and the rest are taken from
Nobel Lectures (Nobelprize.org) to whom credit must be given
here again. They were collected in “Pioneers of Quantum Physics”
(J.A. Gonzalo, S.L. Jaki, J.C. del Valle, eds) (Ciencia y Cultura:
Madrid, 2011).
Chapter 6, on “Indeterminacy vs Uncertainty”, is devoted to
show why Heisenberg’s Principle is on “uncertainty” in
knowledge, rather than on “indeterminacy” in reality itself.
Chapter 7 reviews briefly how Planck found (cid:61) the quantum of
action, and how he recognized as universal constants k
B
v
JULIO A. GONZALO
(Boltzmann’s constant) and c (velocity of light), introducing in 20th
century physics for the first time the all important concept of
universal constant.
In Chapter 8 are introduced in parallel with Planck’s “natural”
units (based upon a few universal constants), what may be called
Heisenberg-Lemaitre units, based upon Heisenberg’s principle and
M ≅1055g, the mass of the entire universe, with about 1011- 1012
u
galaxies, each encompassing about 1011- 1012 stars, each with an
average mass of the order of the Sun mass, M ≅ 2⋅1033.
s
Chapter 9 is devoted to discuss the decisive implications of a
finite universe.
In Chapter 10 it is shown that the zero-point energy of
electromagnetic radiation in the universe is enormous but finite,
and it is shown also that, after decoupling (atom formation), the
radiation energy density decreases as ρ (T) = ρ (T )(T T ),
γ γ dec C
while zero point energy density ρ (T) = ρ (T )(1−T T ),
zp zp dec C
insuring therefore that total energy density is conserved through
cosmic expansion.
In Chapter 11 recent work by Julio A. Gonzalo and Manuel
Alfonseca (2014) entitled “Comment of the 1% Concordance
Hubble Constant”, discusses quantitatively compact solutions of
Einstein’s cosmological equations for a flat, Lambda Cold Dark
Matter – (LCDM) universe and for an open (Friedman-Lemaitre)
universe, and shows that the latter can be reconciled in principle
with the observational evidence and that it has definite advantages
to justify the largest observable galactic redshifts (z ≅10.9).
Chapter 12 discusses “dark matter”, showing that it is not
correct to expect Keplerian velocities for stars circulating around
spiral galaxies, and the so called “dark energy” which could be
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COSMOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF HEISENBERG'S PRINCIPLE
attributed (in principle) to k< 0 (space-time curvature) as well as to
Λ
> 0 (non-zero cosmological constant) and, finally, cosmic
“accelerated expansion”.
To conclude, Chapter 13 discusses the philosophical meaning
of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and its positive usefulness to
gain qualitative and quantitative information on physical reality.
I would like to thank Fr. Stanley L. Jaki, OSB (r.i.p.), Fr.
Manuel M. Carreira SJ, Professor Manuel Alfonseca, and
Professor Antonio Alfonso-Fauss for many informative discussions
Madrid, 1 November 2014
Festivity of All Saints
JAG
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CONTENTS

Preface ............................................................................................ v
Prologue .......................................................................................... 1
1. Planck, Einstein and Mach .......................................................... 5
2. About the origins of Quantum Mechanics I.............................. 17
3. About the origins of Quantum Mechanics II ............................ 29
4. About the origins of Quantum Mechanics III ........................... 45
5. About the origins of Quantum Mechanics IV ........................... 64
6. Indeterminacy vs Uncertainty ................................................... 78
7. The universal constants ............................................................. 84
8. Planck’s units and Hesisenberg-Lemaitre units ........................ 91
9. Implications of a finite universe ............................................... 98
10. Cosmic zero-point energy .................................................... 106
11. Rigorous solutions of Einstein’s cosmological equation ...... 111
12. On the evidence for dark matter, dark energy &
accelerated expansion .......................................................... 121
13. On Physics and Philosophy................................................... 129
Appendix: From Scientific Cosmology to a Created
Universe ............................................................................... 137
Chronology ................................................................................. 154
Glossary ...................................................................................... 158
Authour Index ............................................................................. 173
Subject Index .............................................................................. 177
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