At Least They Didn't Call It A Hairball

One of the great scientific mysteries that fascinated me throughout childhood and early adulthood was the endless attempts to determine what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. It was utterly fascinating and I followed the efforts and the new theories eagerly. Today I find the problem with black holes almost as fascinating. If you press an astrophysicist on the subject, he will admit that any time we start talking about infinities such as infinitely dense, infinitely hot, infinitely small it's an admission we don't know what we're talking about and that physics has broken down. (Note: this also applies to the big bang theory.)

Here's the new theory (new to me anyway) which solves a great many of the black hole problems, and it's based on string theory! Which in my book, makes it a double winner.
W
I am really stuck, though, on this issue of; if Alice reaches the black hole her strings are reproduced. I don't get it.

https://www.wired.com/2015/06/fuzzball-fix-black-hole-paradox/

A La Carte

Been a busy couple of days, So I'm lumping together some of my Facebook responses to make a single post here.

In response to a left-wing group posting the video snippet that declared that Sean Hannity had raged about those Republicans who refuse to support Trump, I responded:

Point 1: that's the calmest rage I've ever heard. Foolish exaggeration is the Republicans' territory. Democrats please don't wander into that room or I will be compelled to start jumping on you with both feet just like I do on the Republicans.

Point 2: Sean Hannity is not upset that people refuse to blindly follow Trump. Sean Hannity is upset because he just learned that if you pander you must go along with whatever the crowd commands. You don't get to lead. Panderer and leader are mutually exclusive concepts. Sean Hannity is upset that Sean Hannity can't issue orders and be obeyed. He thought he was making public opinion. He just realized that he's been caught in a riptide.

He don't like that.

XXXXXXXXXX

in response to a post taking apart the arguments of gun worshiper John R. Lott, Jr.
(author of More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws), I posted:

A careful analysis of the easily falsifiable claims of one of the leading gun advocates in this nation. Everyone should read it. Conservatives and Republicans won't. This is because this is a set of facts which contradict their emotionally satisfying superstitious belief system. Those who advocate thoughtful gun control should read it because then they will know how to answer those who refuse to let facts interfere with their emotionally satisfying superstitious belief system.

XXXXXXXXXX

In support of my friend, Charles in his dialogue with a conservative extremist after that individual condemned him for joining Alice in Wonderland, I posted:

I find it a delightful irony that those most divorced from reality and most insistent upon living in an alternate universe are those who most often accuse realists of being deluded.
Ask any UFO nut. He will decry your incredible stupidity and foolishness for not realizing that the aliens have been running the earth for centuries perhaps even millennia.
Hollow earth? Bigfoots? (Bigfeets? Bigfeet?). Hillary Clinton as super villain mass murderer par excellence?
What a fool you are, if you ignore the obvious facts!
I repeat an earlier post I made today:

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
Charles Bukowski

XXXXXXXXXX

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3768070/The-equation-transform-physics-Researchers-say-ER-EPR-quantum-mechanics-fits-theory-general-relativity.html

Two points: First, from what I read here there does seem to be a difference between a wormhole and quantum entanglement. Both ignore or at least dispense with the space part of the continuum. OK. But quantum entanglement does not permit one particle to change instantaneously in the future or in the past in response to a change made to its partner particle in the present (unless that explains the spooky action at a distance). Wormholes are time machines as much as they are transportation machines. That would seem to be a profound difference between a wormhole and quantum entanglement.

Second, I'm not sure why The author included the video "explanation" of the theory by the theorist. Undoubtedly it makes things crystal-clear to those who understand advanced mathematics. Since I have trouble with high school level geometry and algebra, he might as well have been speaking Mandarin or perhaps even Sanskrit. I expect anyone who viewed the article would be unlikely to be familiar with such advanced mathematics and so I wonder why it was included.

Which brings me to my own question regarding spooky action at a distance. Bobby, I assume you will be seeking a position at a University now that you have your PhD. I also assume you will make friends with everyone in sight as you usually do. If one of those people deals with quantum theory maybe you could ask him a question that's been bothering me. If we have multiple dimensions in excess of the four currently known and which are curled up into a very tiny state, is it not possible that the information which seemingly travels faster than light in a quantum entanglement situation is in fact traveling through one or more of those dimensions? Information traveling at the speed of light across such a tiny dimension would seem instantaneously transmitted

I assume this will result in an amused chuckle from said quantum physicist. That's OK. I don't deny my ignorance of quantum physics. I would just like to know why I'm wrong.

Big Bang Theory Meets String Theory

I just finished watching the most recent Big Bang theory episode. The central theme is that Sheldon decides to give up his search for proof of the superstring Theory of Everything because it is unprovable. While this criticism has been steadily leveled against the theory, I have always noted that just because a theory cannot be tested now does not mean that it cannot be tested sometime in the future as technology develops. For example, there was a time when atomic theory could not be proven. That time passed.

Naturally, this does not mean that if a theory cannot be tested now it will inevitably be proven in the future. The theory of the luminiferous ether, when it finally could be tested, was proven to be false.

In fact, Sheldon surely would have been aware that there have been recent developments in a number of areas which offer hope that string theory can in fact be tested. This would end the primary objection which has been raised by conservative physicists.

I did note with some amusement that loop quantum gravity came up again. Naturally, as a former string theorist, Sheldon could not possibly accept that as an alternative. See my earlier post: http://el-naranjal-del-desierto.blogspot.com/2012/04/big-bang-theory.html.

Back to possible proofs. A very quick look at the Internet revealed the following:

Yet inspired by Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton, Towson University scientists say that precise measurements of the positions of solar-system bodies could reveal very slight discrepancies in what is predicted by the theory of general relativity and the equivalence principle, or establish new upper limits for measuring the effects of string theory.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-01-scientists-theory.html#jCp

“If experiments prove that our predictions about quantum entanglement are correct, this will demonstrate that string theory ‘works’ to predict the behavior of entangled quantum systems,” said Professor Mike Duff, lead author of the study.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/72531/scientists-say-they-can-now-test-string-theory/#ixzz2yhjy4Ubq

Actually, we may already have our first evidence that can lead us toward confirming supersymmetry, with the potential discovery of the Higgs boson.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/physics/2012/09/can-string-theory-be-tested/

(Supersymmetry is an essential part of string theory. It is possible to conceive of supersymmetry without string theory being confirmed. However, it is not possible to conceive of string theory without supersymmetry being confirmed.)

Big Bang Theory

I was just watching my recording of the latest Big Bang Theory.  I couldn't help being amused by the ongoing conflict between Sheldon and Leslie Winkle.  As demonstrated in an earlier program, the key source of contention is loop quantum gravity versus string theory as a method of reconciling quantum physics with Einsteinian physics.  The reason this is so amusing is because in reality there is exactly such a sharp and often bitter conflict between the two groups. 

It actually is not unusual for scientists who hold conflicting opinions to get emotional over the issues involved.  This particular area, however, is especially hot. The reason is that for very long time those adhering to string theory got all the attention and all the research grants (that's money to us nonscientists) and were  insistent that loop quantum gravity believers were inherently wrong, largely because they insisted on there being 11 spatial dimensions in our universe. Obviously, insisted the string theory believers, there were only 10!  Okay, I admit this sounds pretty abstruse and uninteresting, but to those involved in the argument it wasn't just important; it was personal.

In more graphic terms, string theory was and is sexy.  Loop quantum gravity is your grandmother kissing you goodnight. When string theorists attacked loop quantum gravity theorists over the correct number of dimensions, it was like the first string football team teasing the chess club.

And then things got really fun.  After years of this ongoing series of Sheldon versus Leslie Winkle style confrontations between highly intelligent and superbly educated scientists, an announcement was made. It seems that there had been a problem with string theory--there were too many string theories. Depending on how you did the math, a variety of different outcomes were possible, each contradicting the others. They all seemed appealing, but when it comes mathematics you don't want a long line of competing outcomes. You want an answer. You want the answer.  

It seemed that string theory was hopelessly mired in a mass of uncertainty. But then a string theorist had a brilliant insight! He discovered that all these apparently contradictory results were actually different facets of one bigger result which brought everything together, resolved the conflicts, and saved string theory.  All you had to do to make everything work, he said, was to add an 11th dimension!

At this point you must remember that the string theorists had spent years and years sneering at the loop quantum gravity theorists because they insisted on 11 dimensions when there were obviously, absolutely, and totally undeniably only 10.

Loop quantum gravity theorists were not amused.

The resentments on both sides continue to this day.