Physics
" Our present picture of physical reality, particularly in relation to the nature of time,
is due for a grand shake-up–even greater, perhaps, than that which has already been provided
by present-day relativity and quantum mechanics. "
—Roger Penrose
INTRODUCTION
The Olympic swimming facility built for the 2008 Peking Olympics appears from the outside to
be formed from giant bubbles. Its design was inspired by foam, which provides the most
efficient way to partition space into cells of equal volume with the least surface area.
On its largest scale, the cosmos shows a cellular structure that is unexpectedly similar
to the elegant design of the Peking swimming facility (Alfvén, 1981). Various vacuum bubbles
form a clearly defined, compartmentalized, foamy, sponge-like structure (Weygaert, 2007;
Cantalupo et al., 2014) called the cosmic web. These endless formations of visible galaxies
enclose us in a sphere with a radius of 13.8 billion light years, but that could be just a
tiny sliver of an unexplainably uniform cosmos.
During the twentieth century, physics grew to rely on abstract mathematical modeling to
uncover the deep structure of the material world and our cosmic origins. The result has
been a spectacular success. However, the mathematics has become so difficult that special
considerations are required, which often leaves them a merely formal significance
(Dieks & Lubberdink, 2011). In addition, a hundred years on, inconvenient singularities
have left general relativity, quantum theory, and string theory irreconcilable, leaving
us with a number of inexplicable phenomena, such as the matter-to-antimatter ratio, the
existence of extra matter (dark matter), extra energy (dark energy), and quantum entanglement.
Gravity, a mysteriously weak force, still awaits an accepted theory and the presumed
initial low entropy of the universe (i.e., the cosmos) cannot sufficiently explain the
low entropy found today, the thermodynamic arrow, or the arrow of time. Although the
behavior and qualities of space and time show vast and important differences, general
relativity considers time a minor, fourth dimension to space. But unlike space, time is
irreversible even within Euclidean regions and differs in accelerated versus nonaccelerated
time frames. It is impossible to move in space without also changing temporal coordinates,
whereas time continues even in the absence of motion. The marriage of space and time,
officiated by Hermann Minkowski a hundred years ago, is ripe for a divorce.
Occasionally, science arrives at a junction where it is necessary to start from a clean
slate. In what follows, I present a new hypothesis accompanied by some new vocabulary and
substantiated with several examples. I consider temporal and spatial energies interlaced
like horizontal and vertical threads on a cosmological loom, weaving the fabric of the
universe. String theory (Veneziano, 1968), quantum mechanics, and the
theory of general relativity are all manifestations of these orthogonal fields permeating
all of space. Through their interactions, elementary forces emerge naturally.
THE HEURISTIC FOUNDATION OF HYPOTHESIS
According to general relativity, clocks and time can only be properly defined in the presence
of matter. In other words, interaction is an essential ingredient of time. Without interaction,
time stands still. Here we take this even further and propose that interaction (decoherence)
generates time. That time is a function of entanglement has gained serious support by the
work of Moreva and her colleagues, who showed that change is the privilege of inside
participants (2013). The mechanism of „static” time views entanglement as a clock system
that allows one to perceive the evolution of the rest of the universe. Deprived of such
clock system, outside observers find the universe static and unchanging. Accordingly,
interactions acting through entanglement would necessarily evolve toward polar singularities.
The existence of poles, called white and black holes, also appears as the consequence of
some solutions of Einstein’s field equations. Black holes have been identified indirectly
by observing their gravitational effects, but white holes remain hypothetical. However,
the nature of white holes has been speculated as negative-curving, bulging fields, which
deflect incoming energy, even light. Thus they are the source of illusionary light rays;
a fact reflected in their name and which would pose a great challenge to their discovery.
In the following discussion the existence of both white and black
holes is assumed.
String theory models particles as vibrating strings that arise out of microdimensions,
called the Calabi-Yau space (Veneziano, 1968). Dividing a universe by a causal
information-blocking horizon (manifold) into micro- and macrodimensional subsystems
would permit only the formation of discrete frequencies. Entanglement acting through
mirror symmetries and dualities of smooth horizon surfaces would always produce
energy-conserving, symmetric spatial topology (Duncan et al., 2015). As a consequence,
the state of the horizon or its energy level is determined by interaction. The close
link between information and thermodynamics is expressed by the Landauer’s principle,
which recognizes that energy and information are convertible quantities. For the first
time ever, converting information into free energy has been demonstrated (Toyabe et al., 2010)
and the exact amount of heat released when one bit of information was erased has been measured
by Bérut and colleagues (2012).
The possible energy states of the system, to be called the manifold energy, can be considered
a dynamic variable, which can transform into information and back again through interaction.
Seen this way, manifold energy is potential energy. In addition, discrete particle frequencies
would free or absorb energy in quanta. Therefore, standing waves can be considered quantum
energy and their increasing frequencies are recorded as quantum information (information),
thus manifold energy and quantum frequencies are inversely proportional. Quantum energy
increase is recorded as information accumulation of the manifold and, inversely, decreasing
quantum frequencies generate manifold energy, while releasing heat. This way, quantum energy
is proportional to microdimensional volume (time), whereas manifold energy is proportional
to the macrodimensional volume (space). The above idea successfully and irrevocably takes
apart spacetime by recognizing that time and space occupies different dimensions, which leads
to their fundamentally separate qualities and behavior.
Accumulating information of the microdimensions is the source of time, whereas macrodimensions formulate
space. Energy-information exchange between space and time is the exclusive quality of interaction, when
wave-function collapse forms singularities and shifts the quantum frequencies in sync with the field
curvature. Thus, the energy level of the microdimensions (horizon) and the field curvature change in
concert. In string theory the importance of the horizon is recognized by the holographic principle,
which states that the information of a volume of space is contained on the boundary (Susskind, 1994).
This is particularly true for the information-saturated horizons of black holes. Taken together, the
holographic principle and Landauer’s principle mean that information accumulation of particles by the
incessant standing-wave tick tock of the universe eventually uses up horizon energy (and macrodimensional
volume), and turns those particles into black holes. As a consequence, the information-saturated black
holes should be devoid of energy! This is congruent with recent investigation of entanglement near the
horizon of black holes, which found that black holes are not more than their impenetrable horizons
(Almheiri et al., 2015).