Some Thoughts on Quantum Entanglement
Introduction
There is a phenomenon known as entanglement that occurs between two simultaneously created photons. They have a link to each other that seems to defy the law that nothing, not even information transfer, can exceed the speed of light. I have some thoughts on how this may be happening without actually violating the light speed law. It involves several aspects of space/time, gravity, multiple dimensions, and possibly multiple universes. I will start out by defining what entanglement is and then
will go into aspects of the other disciplines before giving my thoughts on how entanglement could possibly work without there being a violation of the light speed limit.
What is entanglement?
Entanglement is a phenomenon that occurs between two photons when they are created as a pair from the same event. They will have opposite characteristics such as spin. Here is where it gets strange, Einstein knew about entanglement and called it “spooky action at a distance”. It seems that if you do something to one photon to change that characteristic the other will change its characteristic instantly even if there is a large separation between the two photons. And that seems to defy the
accepted speed limit of the speed of light since NOTHING is supposed to be able to go faster than light, not even information.
Gravity, the universal reference point
The ancients claimed that there must be an aether, that we could not see or sense in any way, which all material things and forces moved through. A substance, if you will, that permeated all of space. It has been pretty well proven that no such aether exists, but gravity comes as close as anything to taking its place. Of the four known fundamental forces only gravity acts over a large enough distance to be a candidate for an aether like force. The strong and weak nuclear forces only have
effect at atomic and subatomic distances. While electro and natural magnetism can be extremely strong over short distances it fades out rapidly. An electromagnet such as one used to lift tons at a time of scrap metal will not even attract the metal over distances of just a few yards.
But gravity is another story altogether. Just one simple example of the far reaching power of gravity is Haley’s Comet. It only shows up once in about 75 years. It has to travel for 37 1/2 years from its closest approach to the sun before it reaches the farthest point in its orbit and starts the return portion of its trip. Yet it is still under the influence of the sun’s gravity or it would never return. Another even more extreme example of the reach of gravity, if it is true, is the comet or
asteroid that is supposed to visit the solar system only once in every 3600 years. That means that it can travel for 1800 years on the outward half of its orbit and still be under the influence of the suns gravity. Another aspect of gravity that you will see is important later is that it is “anchored” to the mass generating it. In our solar system that would be the sun. While the planets also have gravity fields that add to the overall effect they are very small in comparison to the gravity of
the sun. It is, so far as I know at this time, the only thing that can qualify for the role as the reference point for the time dilation effect when something travels through it at relativistic speeds. There just might be some other force in one of the other dimensions that can cause the same effect but so far there is no empirical proof that the extra dimensions even exist.
Gravity is also closely linked to the relativistic time dilation effect. Two extremely accurate atomic clocks that are separated vertically by even fairly small altitudes will run at different speeds. The one that is higher, therefore in a weaker gravity field, will run faster. Also, if one atomic clock is held stationary while the other is transported at high speed in a jet airplane the one moving will keep time at a different rate than the stationary one. Experimental results have also
shown that the same clock will vary by a different amount depending on whether it is traveling east to west or west to east. That shows that the effect of gravity is the cause since the jet airplane measures its speed as airspeed but since the earth rotates under the airplane the relative motion through the gravity field would be different in different directions but at the same airspeed. I had to ask myself just what is the frame of reference for the motion of the clocks and their reported time
differences. The only factor I could come up with is proximity to mass and the resultant gravity field generated by that mass.
Extra dimensions and/or alternate universes
The current most widely accepted theory states that there are three spatial dimensions and the “dimension” of time that we are physically aware of and as many as 6 or more that we cannot sense directly. This will be very important to my final conclusions at the end of this article. Some aspects of the extra dimensions are”¦
1. One or more of them may be so small as to be almost nonexistent. Even possibly sub atomic in size.
2. Others may be just single dimensional or strings with only two axes, length and time.
3. Yet others may be so different from what we can comprehend as to be unexplainable in ordinary terms.
For my purposes in this article I am only concerned with the first two possibilities.
Time, the universal dimension
As far as we know now time can only travel in one direction; into the future. While the relevant equations seem to say that it is at least possible for time to travel backwards; so far there is no known instance of it doing so in our real world experience. This most likely makes time the universal and unidirectional reference point for all the dimensions. Looking back at the section on gravity and its role in the time dilation effect also indicates that time is the one important variable in
all dimensions. This also will play a very important part in my final conclusions.
And finally, my theory”¦
If the other dimensions really do exist; then at least one, and maybe more, of them could be responsible for the apparent violation of the light speed limit without that limit actually being violated. What if the entangled photons have at least part of their existence tied to one of the extra dimensions where it would be impossible for them to become spatially separated? That could mean that even though they are very far apart in our perceived world they never left each others sides in one or
more of the alternate dimensions. They would only be capable of traveling in time in the other dimension(s) and thus would maintain close proximity to each other. It is then possible that they could influence each other instantaneously in another dimension and that influence would seem to occur in violation of the speed of light limit in our world.
Proposed experiments to provide proof of my theory”¦
If I am right and time is the universal and unidirectional vector in all dimensions then it can be used to find a proof of my theory. I am going to propose two different ways to use the same effect to either prove, or leave in limbo, the extra dimensional aspects of entanglement.
The first, and simplest, method is to use the effect of weaker gravity at higher altitude. It would require trapping both of the entangled photons in separate containment systems. Then you leave one at sea level and raise the other one to as high an altitude as is conveniently possible. This would allow the higher altitude photon to travel through time at a faster rate. If this happens and the photons are forced into a quantum change they should be separated in time by a mathematically
provable amount of time. And this time difference should show up as a lag in the entanglement effect equivalent to the time shift between the photons.
The second experiment uses the relativistic effect of high speed travel through a gravity field. Again, the photons are captured in separate containment systems. But now one is kept stationary while the other one is transported at a high rate of speed relative to the stationary one. This should be able to produce the same separation in time in the other dimension(s) but do so at a higher and easier to measure rate.
Extra material…
Here is a link to an article that I found on the internet that shows a piece of lab equipment that can demonstrate entanglement over relatively short distances.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/observations/index.cfm?author=109
This is a fairly cheap ($28,000) piece of equipment that is set up as a bench top experiment to show the effects of entanglement in a measurable way. Based on this piece of equipment I would like to propose a third way to test my theory. It would involve setting the equipment up on a spinning disc in such a way as to be able to be shifted across the face of the disc. The range of movement would be from having both photons an equal distance from the center of the disc to having one at the
rotational axis and the other at the rim. Having them at equal distances would provide the control portion of the experiment to show that there is no change when both photons are acted on equally. Then by shifting one of the photons out to the rim and the other to the axis it would be possible, if my theory is valid, to see the same time lag effect as would be expected in my two earlier proposed experiments due to the higher rotational speed of the photon at the rim.
Some further thoughts on extra dimensionality”¦
One of the least understood aspects of photons is the wave particle duality. This is illustrated in the experiment where a light source is first projected through a single fine slit onto a screen on the other side and then through two slits onto the same screen. When one slit is open a simple dispersion pattern, as would be expected with particles, is seen on the screen. But when the second slit is opened an interference pattern, as would be expected with waves, shows on the screen. This
happens even if only one photon at a time is sent through only one of the open slits. Seemingly the only requirement for the interference pattern to show is that a second slit be open.
What if the extra dimensional aspect theorized earlier in this article were to be the cause? What if the photons really do exist as waves and particles at the same time but just not in the same dimension? Then what if the double slit part of the experiment allows us, just by having then second slit open, to see the extra dimensionality and wave /particle duality, of the photons in the experiment? I know, that’s a lot of what ifs. But just think; what if some or all of them are true????
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