Platform: What physical attributes separate EM waves, of the enormous band of radio to visible to x-ray, from the high energy narrow band of gamma-ray? From radio to visible to x-ray, telescopes are designed based upon the optical imaging theory; which is an extension of the Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral. Do we understand the physical properties of gamma rays that defy us to manipulate them similarly? One demonstrated unique property of gamma rays is that they can be converted to elementary particles (electron and positron pair); or a particle-antiparticle pair can be converted into gamma rays. Thus, EM waves and elementary particles, being inter-convertible; we cannot expect to understand the deeper nature of light without succeeding to find structural inter-relationship between photons and particles. This topic is directly relevant to develop a deeper understanding of the nature of light; which will, in turn, help our engineers to invent better optical instruments.
It is argued that, unlike material particles, electromagnetic quanta are devoid of individual identities. Their birth and death are dictated by the conservation principles involving the interacting partners resulting in the emission or absorption. During their entire life, they restlessly propagate unnoticed by the media they pass through. An encounter with an interacting partner results in their demise. A photon lives and propagates as a phoenix with a successive photon arising from the ashes of its predecessor.
While particle physicists around the world rejoice the announcement of discovery of Higgs particle as a momentous event, it is also an opportune moment to assess the physicists' conception of nature. Particle theorists, in their ingenious efforts to unravel mysteries of the physical universe at a very fundamental level, resort to macroscopic many body theoretical methods of solid state physicists. Their efforts render the universe a superconductor of correlated quasi-particle pairs. Experimentalists, devoted to ascertain the elementary constituents and symmetries, depend heavily on numerical simulations based on those models and conform to theoretical slang in planning and interpretation of measurements . It is to the extent that the boundaries between theory/modeling and experiment are blurred. Is it possible that they are meandering in Dante's Inferno?
Physics as an experimental science has two facets. It plays an essential and indisputable role in the
development of modern technologies, providing quantitative bases in the form of operational definitions of
interactions and interactants. Physics also attempts to provide a coherent and concise description of the
dynamics of physical universe at macroscopic and microscopic scales. While its accomplishments for
technological enterprises is a source of envy for other disciplines, physics has much less to celebrate in
conceptual clarity as it attempts to describe the physical universe. As physicists intensely engage in their
pursuits of fundamental discoveries in experiment and to propound all-encompassing theories/models, the
boundaries between experiment and theory become blurred. In modern times, theoretical assumptions are
very much part of the preparation of experiments and interpretation of results of measurements. One must
question the very meaning of test of an experiment against theoretical predictions. In this paper, we reason
this with illustrative examples from foundations of physics, cosmology and particle physics.
Compilation of extended abstracts from the participants of the panel discussion: Is indivisible single photon really essential for quantum communications, computing and encryption?
The basic concepts of space and time have undergone radical changes in the course of history, which render the
Newtonian notions of elementary particles obsolete. This was inherent in the formulations of quantum mechanics, as
the zitterbewegung of quantum-mechanical free particles are not the same as that of classical ones. The quantum field
theories do not fare any better as particles and the corresponding fields are inseparable concepts. As physical concepts
are becoming fuzzy, the definition of what constitutes an experimental "discovery" of an elementary particle is being
revised. In these attempts, the quasi-particles, which are simple mathematical conveniences, tend to be reclassified as
physical entities. The current model depictions of physical vacuum as superconducting medium do not accommodate a
picture of elementary particles as individual entities. It is a situation where interactions and interactants become
entangled and description of either one independent of the other is unattainable.
The nature of physical objects cannot be clarified independent of our concepts of space and time. We present arguments to show that neither the classical 3D space - 1D time nor 4D space-time of special relativity provide a satisfactory theoretical framework to this end, as we encounter non-classical objects. The general relativity is perhaps able to accomplish this task. But, it does so only at the expense of rendering the empty physical space neither isotropic nor homogeneous. Waves are not candidates to represent fundamental objects. We use the celebrated example of Compton scattering to argue that the full description of the experiment makes use of both wave-like and particle-like behavior in the early quantum-mechanical formulations. The later quantum field theoretical descriptions of the same phenomenon abandon causality. We present model arguments from modern particle physics experiments that the photon may be a hadron, at least part of the time.
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