Quantum Physics in the Light of Adviata Vedanta

 

The nature of cause and effect was scientifically explained by Sir Isaac Newton during late seventeenth century. It was a classical mechanistic view. These ideas went through some changes with the evolution of quantum mechanics during twentieth century. Isaac Newton (1642-1727), an English Physicist and Mathematician developed the foundations of ‘Principles of Mechanics’, popularly known as ‘Newtonian Mechanics’, which became the backbone of scientific thought in ‘Physical Sciences’ for the next two centuries. Newton discussed the nature of cause and effect in his deliberations of the principles known as ‘Newton’s Laws of Motion,’ talking about the nature of forces acting between two bodies. If there is a cause, there will be an effect exactly proportional to it. This was a statement based on linearity and determinism. This statement was perfectly fine on the macroscopic level and worked extremely well on the grosser plane. The principles of ‘Newtonian Mechanics’ helped in the development of ‘Engineering Sciences,’ which immensely benefited society in improving the quality of life of people at large. 

300 years before Quantum Mechanics, Sir Isaac Newton came up with Classical Mechanics which describes very basic action and reaction. Newton’s entire work in Physics and Calculus was taken wholesale from the Vedas and Kerala book of Calculus. It was simply taken from the Vedas where it was originally used for calculating rates of change in Astronomy and Astrology for many thousands of years before Newton. The Kerala School of mathematics, founded by Madhava in Southern India, produced many great works in the area of trigonometry during the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries. This paper focuses on Madhava's derivation of the power series for sine and cosine, as well as a series similar to the well-known Taylor Series. The derivations use many calculi related concepts such as summation, rate of change, and interpolation, which suggests that Indian mathematicians had a solid understanding of the basics of calculus long before it was developed in Europe. Other evidence from Indian mathematics up to this point such as interest in infinite series and the use of a base ten decimal system also suggest that it was possible for calculus to have developed in India almost 300 years before its recognized birth in Europe.

 Anyway, coming to the current topic; The development of quantum mechanics in the first decades of the twentieth century came as a shock to many physicists. Today, despite the great successes of quantum mechanics, arguments continue about its meaning, and its future. Still the theory of quantum physics is unable to answer some questions. 

A few of them are; The Schrodinger wave function represents the ‘wave’ aspect of the wave/particle duality as postulated by de Broglie. A prerequisite for the Schrodinger wave function is that it must be a standing wave. To be a standing wave, it must be enclosed within some type of ‘wall.’ We saw, the electron wave function operates within an atom, but the atom is also a wave, so where are ‘walls’ for the atom – you might say the molecule. But then the molecule is also a wave function, so where are the ‘walls’ for the molecule. As you keep moving from micro to macro, you can keep asking the same question for every macro-object in this universe. Where is the ‘wall’ for the standing waves of the objects in this world ?

Secondly, besides the ‘wall,’ there are many other questions one can ask about the wave function like, what are the waves made of? Nobody has seen a wave, but it must be made of something, it cannot be made of nothing. Only the Schrödinger’s

wave equation represents the wave function.

Some physicists say that there are no ‘waves.’ The waves need some sort of medium to propagate. What is this underlying medium? At one time, scientist speculated that there is some sort of ‘ether’ in which the light waves travelled. Experiments have proven that there is no ‘ether’ underlying this universe. So, what is the medium through which waves travel? Where do the waves reside? ‘Out there’ or ‘in here’? One thing is clear: it cannot be within the particle object, because the particle objects only show up when the wave function collapses in the presence of the observing system. The wave comes first and then the particle; therefore, the wave cannot exist within the particle.

Another question is, quantum physics provides very little understanding of the observing system. In the double slit experiment, it is suggested that the photographic plate is the observing system. The photographic plate interacts with the incoming light wave and this wave function collapses at the photographic plate. Science assumes that the photographic plate is the observing system. If you examine this closely, does a man-made photographic plate have the capacity to collapse a wave

function to become a particle? What unique quality of the photographic plate allows the wave function to collapse? Another question to ask is - what is the exact meaning of the statement “collapsing wave function?”

 If you take the broader viewpoint, you will realize that the photographic plate itself is matter and therefore, it also has a wave function. So, what observing system collapses the wave function of the photographic plate? The logical answer would be your eyes but the eye is also matter and therefore, it also has a wave function. So, what observing system collapses the wave function of the eye? The answer would be your brain. Then brain is also matter and therefore it also has a wave function. So, what observing system collapses the wave function of the brain? I think that at

this point, science has come to the end of the road; it cannot explain what, or which observing system collapses the wave function of the brain.

 In a 1926 letter to Born, Einstein complained “Quantum mechanics is very impressive, but an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory produces a good deal but hardly brings us closer to the secret of the Old One. I am at all events convinced that He does not play dice.” As late as 1964, in his Messenger lectures at Cornell, Richard Feynman lamented, “I think I can safely say that no one understands quantum mechanics.” With quantum mechanics, the break with the past was so sharp that all earlier physical theories became known as “classical.” “There is no science of man,” wrote Nobel Laureate Alexis Carrel in his celebrated book ‘Man, the Unknown’ . Newer discoveries in physics showed that matter and energy are the two sides of the same coin — a duality. (Hans Peter Durr). One should read his article ‘Matter is not made out of matter,’ in lay man terms to get a better idea. The human body is but the human mind in an illusory solid shape. As the famous Johns Hopkins physicist, Richard Conn Henry, put it in 2005, “This world is immaterial — mental and spiritual.” Atoms are made out of invisible energy; not tangible matter. Physicists have failed to inform the general people of the purely mental nature of the universe (man included) and biologists and physicians are yet to understand quantum physics. But we will understand quantum physics and mystery of cause and effect through the eyes of Advaita Vedanta in our next blog.

 

Continued……