# Expanding on the procedure of expanding: Where is the procedure to do that?

Update on 18th June 2017:

See the update to the last post; I have added three more diagrams depicting the mathematical abstraction of the problem, and also added a sub-question by way of clarifying the problem a bit. Hopefully, the problem is clearer and also its connection to QM a bit more apparent, now.

Here I partly expand on the problem mentioned in my last post [^]. … Believe me, it will take more than one more post to properly expand on it.

The expansion of an expanding function refers to and therefore requires simultaneous expansions of the expansions in both the space and frequency domains.

The said expansions may be infinite [in procedure].

In the application of the calculus of variations to such a problem [i.e. like the one mentioned in the last post], the most important consideration is the very first part:

Among all the kinematically admissible configurations…

[You fill in the rest, please!]

A Song I Like:

[I shall expand on this bit a bit later on. Done, right today, within an hour.]

(Hindi) “goonji see hai, saari feezaa, jaise bajatee ho…”
Music: Shankar Ahasaan Loy
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar

# An interesting problem from the classical mechanics of vibrations

Update on 18 June 2017:
Added three diagrams depicting the mathematical abstraction of the problem; see near the end of the post. Also added one more consideration by way of an additional question.

TL;DR: A very brief version of this post is now posted at iMechanica; see here [^].

How I happened to come to formulate this problem:

As mentioned in my last post, I had started writing down my answers to the conceptual questions from Eisberg and Resnick’s QM text. However, as soon as I began doing that (typing out my answer to the first question from the first chapter), almost predictably, something else happened.

Since it anyway was QM that I was engaged with, somehow, another issue from QM—one which I had thought about a bit some time ago—happened to now just surface up in my mind. And it was an interesting issue. Back then, I had not thought of reaching an answer, and even now, I realized, I had not very satisfactory answer to it, not even in just conceptual terms. Naturally, my mind remained engaged in thinking about this second QM problem for a while.

In trying to come to terms with this QM problem (of my own making, not E&R’s), I now tried to think of some simple model problem from classical mechanics that might capture at least some aspects of this QM issue. Thinking a bit about it, I realized that I had not read anything about this classical mechanics problem during my [very] limited studies of the classical mechanics.

But since it appeared simple enough—heck, it was just classical mechanics—I now tried to reason through it. I thought I “got” it. But then, right the next day, I began doubting my own answer—with very good reasons.

… By now, I had no option but to keep aside the more scholarly task of writing down answers to the E&R questions. The classical problem of my own making had begun becoming all interesting by itself. Naturally, even though I was not procrastinating, I still got away from E&R—I got diverted.

I made some false starts even in the classical version of the problem, but finally, today, I could find some way through it—one which I think is satisfactory. In this post, I am going to share this classical problem. See if it interests you.

Background:

Consider an idealized string tautly held between two fixed end supports that are a distance $L$ apart; see the figure below. The string can be put into a state of vibrations by plucking it. There is a third support exactly at the middle; it can be removed at will.

Assume all the ideal conditions. For instance, assume perfectly rigid and unyielding supports, and a string that is massive (i.e., one which has a lineal mass density; for simplicity, assume this density to be constant over the entire string length) but having zero thickness. The string also is perfectly elastic and having zero internal friction of any sort. Assume that the string is surrounded by the vacuum (so that the vibrational energy of the string does not leak outside the system). Assume the absence of any other forces such as gravitational, electrical, etc. Also assume that the middle support, when it remains touching the string, does not allow any leakage of the vibrational energy from one part of the string to the other. Feel free to make further suitable assumptions as necessary.

The overall system here consists of the string (sans the supports, whose only role is to provide the necessary boundary conditions).

Initially, the string is stationary. Then, with the middle support touching the string, the left-half of the string is made to undergo oscillations by plucking it somewhere in the left-half only, and immediately releasing it. Denote the instant of the release as, say $t_R$. After the lapse of a sufficiently long time period, assume that the left-half of the system settles down into a steady-state standing wave pattern. Given our assumptions, the right-half of the system continues to remain perfectly stationary.

The internal energy of the system at $t_0$ is $0$. Energy is put into the system only once, at $t_R$, and never again. Thus, for all times $t > t_R$, the system behaves as a thermodynamically isolated system.

For simplicity, assume that the standing waves in the left-half form the fundamental mode for that portion (i.e. for the length $L/2$). Denote the frequency of this fundamental mode as $\nu_H$, and its max. amplitude (measured from the central line) as $A_H$.

Next, at some instant of time $t = t_1$, suppose that the support in the middle is suddenly removed, taking care not to disturb the string in any way in the process. That is to say, we  neither put in any more energy in the system nor take out of it, in the process of removing the middle support.

Once the support is thus removed, the waves from the left-half can now travel to the right-half, get reflected from the right end-support, travel all the way to the left end-support, get reflected there, etc. Thus, they will travel back and forth, in both the directions.

Modeled as a two-point BV/IC problem, assume that the system settles down into a steadily repeating pattern of some kind of standing waves.

The question now is:

What would be the pattern of the standing waves formed in the system at a time $t_F \gg t_1$?

The theory suggests that there is no unique answer!:

Since the support in the middle was exactly at the midpoint, removing it has the effect of suddenly doubling the length for the string.

Now, simple maths of the normal modes tells you that the string can vibrate in the fundamental mode for the entire length, which means: the system should show standing waves of the frequency $\nu_F = \nu_H/2$.

However, there also are other, theoretically conceivable, answers.

For instance, it is also possible that the system gets settled into the first higher-harmonic mode. In the very first higher-harmonic mode, it will maintain the same frequency as earlier, i.e., $\nu_F = \nu_H$, but being an isolated system, it has to conserve its energy, and so, in this higher harmonic mode, it must vibrate with a lower max. amplitude $A_F < A_H$. Thermodynamically speaking, since the energy is conserved also in such a mode, it also should certainly be possible.

In fact, you can take the argument further, and say that any one or all of the higher harmonics (potentially an infinity of them) would be possible. After all, the system does not have to maintain a constant frequency or a constant max. amplitude; it only has to maintain the same energy.

OK. That was the idealized model and its maths. Now let’s turn to reality.

Relevant empirical observations show that only a certain answer gets selected:

What do you actually observe in reality for systems that come close enough to the above mentioned idealized description? Let’s take a range of examples to get an idea of what kind of a show the real world puts up….

Consider, say, a violinist’s performance. He can continuously alter the length of the vibrations with his finger, and thereby produce a continuous spectrum of frequencies. However, at any instant, for any given length for the vibrating part, the most dominant of all such frequencies is, actually, only the fundamental mode for that length.

A real violin does not come very close to our idealized example above. A flute is better, because its spectrum happens to be the purest among all musical instruments. What do we mean by a “pure” tone here? It means this: When a flutist plays a certain tone, say the middle “saa” (i.e. the middle “C”), the sound actually produced by the instrument does not significantly carry any higher harmonics. That is to say, when a flutist plays the middle  “saa,” unlike the other musical instruments, the flute does not inadvertently go on to produce also the “saa”s from any of the higher octaves. Its energy remains very strongly concentrated in only a single tone, here, the middle “saa”. Thus, it is said to be a “pure” tone; it is not “contaminated” by any of the higher harmonics. (As to the lower harmonics for a given length, well, they are ruled out because of the basic physics and maths.)

Now, if you take a flute of a variable length (something like a trumpet) and try very suddenly doubling the length of the vibrating air column, you will find that instead of producing a fainter sound of the same middle “saa”, the flute instead produces the next lower “saa”. (If you want, you can try it out more systematically in the laboratory by taking a telescopic assembly of cylinders and a tuning fork.)

Of course, really speaking, despite its pure tones, even the flute does not come close enough to our idealized description above. For instance, notice that in our idealized description, energy is put into the system only once, at $t_R$, and never again. On the other hand, in playing a violin or a flute we are continuously pumping in some energy; the system is also continuously dissipating its energy to its environment via the sound waves produced in the air. A flute, thus, is an open system; it is not an isolated system. Yet, despite the additional complexity introduced because of an open system, and therefore, perhaps, a greater chance of being drawn into higher harmonic(s), in reality, a variable length flute is always observed to “select” only the fundamental harmonic for a given length.

How about an actual guitar? Same thing. In fact, the guitar comes closest to our idealized description. And if you try out plucking the string once and then, after a while, suddenly removing the finger from a fret, you will find that the guitar too “prefers” to immediately settle down rather in the fundamental harmonic for the new length. (Take an electric guitar so that even as the sound turns fainter and still fainter due to damping, you could still easily make out the change in the dominant tone.)

OK. Enough of empirical observations. Back to the connection of these observations with the theory of physics (and maths).

The question:

Thermodynamically, an infinity of tones are perfectly possible. Maths tells you that these infinity of tones are nothing but the set of the higher harmonics (and nothing else). Yet, in reality, only one tone gets selected. What gives?

What is the missing physics which makes the system get settled into one and only one option—indeed an extreme option—out of an infinity of them of which are, energetically speaking, equally possible?

Update on 18 June 2017:

Here is a statement of the problem in certain essential mathematical terms. See the three figures below:

The initial state of the string is what the following figure (Case 1) depicts. The max. amplitude is 1.0. Though the quiescent part looks longer than half the length, it’s just an illusion of perception.:

Case 1: Fundamental tone for the half length, extended over a half-length

The following figure (Case 2) is the mathematical idealization of the state in which an actual guitar string tends to settle in. Note that the max. amplitude is greater (it’s $\sqrt{2}$) so  as to have the energy of this state the same as that of Case 1.

Case 2: Fundamental tone for the full length, extended over the full length

The following figure (Case 3) depicts what mathematically is also possible for the final system state. However, it’s not observed with actual guitars. Note, here, the frequency is half of that in the Case 1, and the wavelength is doubled. The max. amplitude for this state is less than 1.0 (it’s $\dfrac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$) so as to have this state too carry exactly the same energy as in Case 1.

Case 3: The first overtone for the full length, extended over the full length

Thus, the problem, in short is:

The transition observed in reality is: $T1:$ Case 1 $\rightarrow$ Case 2.

However, the transition $T2:$ Case 1 $\rightarrow$ Case 3 also is possible by the mathematics of standing waves and thermodynamics (or more basically, by that bedrock on which all modern physics rests, viz., the calculus of variations). Yet, it is not observed.

Why does only $T1$ occur? why not $T2$? or even a linear combination of both? That’s the problem, in essence.

While attempting to answer it, also consider this : Can an isolated system like the one depicted in the Case 1 at all undergo a transition of modes?

Enjoy!

Update on 18th June 2017 is over.

That was the classical mechanics problem I said I happened to think of, recently. (And it was the one which took me away from the program of answering the E&R questions.)

Find it interesting? Want to give it a try?

If you do give it a try and if you reach an answer that seems satisfactory to you, then please do drop me a line. We can then cross-check our notes.

And of course, if you find this problem (or something similar) already solved somewhere, then my request to you would be stronger: do let me know about the reference!

In the meanwhile, I will try to go back to (or at least towards) completing the task of answering the E&R questions. [I do, however, also plan to post a slightly edited version of this post at iMechanica.]

Update History:

07 June 2017: Published on this blog

8 June 2017, 12:25 PM, IST: Added the figure and the section headings.

8 June 2017, 15:30 hrs, IST: Added the link to the brief version posted at iMechanica.

18 June 2017, 12:10 hrs, IST: Added the diagrams depicting the mathematical abstraction of the problem.

A Song I Like:

(Marathi) “olyaa saanj veli…”
Music: Avinash-Vishwajeet
Singers: Swapnil Bandodkar, Bela Shende
Lyrics: Ashwini Shende

# I’ve been slacking, so bye for now, and see you later!

Recently, as I was putting finishing touches in my mind as to how to present the topic of the product states vs. the entangled states in QM, I came to realize that while my answer to that aspect has now come to a stage of being satisfactory [to me], there are any number of other issues on which I am not as immediately clear as I should be—or even used to be! That was frightening!! … Allow me to explain.

QM is hard. QM is challenging. And QM also is vast. Very vast.

In trying to write about my position paper on the foundations of QM, I have been focusing mostly on the axiomatic part of it. In offering illustrative examples, I found, that I have been taking only the simplest possible examples. However, precisely in this process, I have also gone away, and then further away, from the more concrete physics of it. … Let me give you one example.

Why must the imaginary root of the unity i.e. the $i$ appear in the Schrodinger equation? … Recently, I painfully came to realize that I had no real good explanation ready in mind.

It just so happened that I was idly browsing through Eisberg and Resnick’s text “Quantum Physics (of Atoms, Molecules…).” In my random browsing, I happened to glance over section 5.3, p. 134, and was blown over by the argument to this question, presented in there. I must have browsed through this section, years ago, but by now, I had completely forgotten anything about it. … How could I be so dumb as to even forget the fact that here is a great argument about this issue? … Usually, I am able to recall at least the book and the section where an answer to a certain question is given. At least that’s what happens for any of the engineering courses I am teaching. I am easily able to rattle off, for any question posed from any angle, a couple (if not more) books that deal with that particular aspect best. For instance, in teaching FEM: the best treatment on how to generate interpolation polynomials? Heubner (and also Rajasekaran), and only then Zienkiwicz. In teaching CFD: the most concise flux-primary description? Murthy’s notes (at Purdue), and only then followed by Versteeg and Mallasekara. Etc.

… But QM is vast—a bit too vast for me to recall even that much about answers, let alone have also the answers ready in my mind.

Also, around the same time, I ran into these two online resources  on UG QM:
1. The course notes at Reed (I suppose by Griffiths himself): [^] and [^]
2. The notes and solved problems here at “Physics pages” [^]. A very neat (and laudable) an effort!

It was the second resource, in particular, which now set me thinking. … Yes, I was aware of it, and might have referred to it earlier on my blog, too. But it was only now that this site set me into thinking…

As a result of that thinking, I’ve decided to do something similar.

I am going to start writing answers at least to questions (and not problems) given in the first 12 or 14 chapters of Eisberg and Resnick’s abovementioned text. I am going to do that before coming to systematically writing my new position paper.

And I am going to undertake this exercise in place of blogging. … It’s important that I do it.

Accordingly, I am ceasing blogging for now.

I am first going to take a rapid first cut at answering at least the (conceptual) questions if not also the (quantitative) problems from Eisberg and Resnick’s book. I would be noting down my answers in an off-line LaTeX document. Tentatively speaking, I have decided to try to get through at least the first 6 chapters of this book, before resuming blogging. In the second phase, it would be chapters 7 through 11 or so, and the rest, in the third phase.

Once I finish the first phase, I may begin sharing my answers here on this blog.

Believe me, this exercise is necessary for me to do.

There certainly are some drawbacks to this procedure. Heisenberg’s formulation (which, historically, occurred before Schrodinger’s) would not receive a good representation. However, that does not mean that I should not be “finishing” this (E&R’s) book either. May be I will have to do a similar exercise (of answering the more conceptual or theoretical questions or drawing notes from) a similar book but on Heisenberg’s approach, too; e.g., “Quantum Mechanics in Simple Matrix Form” by Thomas Jordan [^]. … For the time being, though, I am putting it off to some later time. (Just a hint: As it so happens, my new position is closer—if at all it is that—to the Schrodinger’s “picture” as compared to Heisenberg’s.)

In the meanwhile, if you feel like reading something interesting on QM, do visit the above-mentioned resources. Very highly recommended.

In the meanwhile, take care, and bye for now.

And, oh, just one more thing…

…Just to remind you. Yes, regardless of it all, as mentioned earlier on this blog, even though I won’t be blogging for a while (say a month or more, till I finish the first phase) I would remain completely open to disclosing and discussing my new ideas about QM to any interested PhD physicist, or even an interested and serious PhD student. … If you are one, just drop me a line and let’s see how and when—and assuredly not if—we can meet.

Which Song Do You Like?

Check out your city’s version of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” song. Also check out a few other cities’. Which one do you like more? Think about it (though I won’t ask you the reasons for your choices!)

OK. Take care, and bye (really) for now…

# The goals are clear, now

This one blog post is actually a combo-pack of some 3 different posts, addressed to three different audiences: (i) to my general readers, (ii) to the engineering academics esp. in India, and (iii) to the QM experts. Let me cover it all in that order.

(I) To the general reader of this blog:

I have a couple of neat developments to report about.

I.1. First, and of immediate importance: I have received, and accepted, a job offer. Of course, the college is from a different university, not SPPU (Savitribai Phule Pune University). Just before attending this interview (in which I accepted the offer), I had also had discussions with the top management of another college, from yet another university (in another city). They too have, since then, confirmed that they are going to invite me once the dates for the upcoming UGC interviews at their college are finalized. I guess I will attend this second interview only if my approvals (the university and the AICTE approvals) for the job I have already accepted and will be joining soon, don’t go through, for whatever reason.

If you ask me, my own gut feel is that the approvals at both these universities should go through. Historically, neither of these two universities have ever had any issue with a mixed metallurgy-and-mechanical background, and especially after the new (mid-2014) GR by the Maharashtra State government (by now 2.5+ years old), the approval at these universities should be more or less only a formality, not a cause for excessive worry as such.

I told you, SPPU is the worst university in Maharashtra. And, Pune has become a real filthy, obnoxious place, speaking of its academic-intellectual atmosphere. I don’t know why the outside world still insists on calling both (the university and the city) great. I can only guess. And my guess is that brand values of institutions tend to have a long shelf life—and it would be an unrealistically longer shelf life, when the economy is mixed, not completely free. That is the broad reason. There is another, more immediate and practical reason to it, too—I mean, regarding how it all actually has come to work.

Most every engineer who graduates from SPPU these days goes into the IT field. They have been doing so for almost two decades by now. Now, in the IT field, the engineering knowledge as acquired at the college/university is hardly of any direct relevance. Hence, none cares for what academically goes on during those four years of the UG engineering—not in India, I mean—not even in IITs, speaking in comparison to what used to be the case some 3 decades ago. (For PG engineering, in most cases, the best of them go abroad or to IITs anyway.) By “none” I mean: first and foremost, the parents of the students; then the students themselves; and then, also the recruiting companies (by which, I mostly mean those from the IT field).

Now, once in the IT industry and thus making a lot of money, these people of course find it necessary to keep the brand value of “Pune University” intact. … Notice that the graduates of IITs and of COEP/VJTI etc. specifically mention their college on their LinkedIn profiles. But none from the other colleges in SPPU do. They always mention only “University of Pune”. The reason is, their colleges didn’t have as much of a brand value as did the university, when all this IT industry trend began. Now, if these SPPU-graduated engineers themselves begin to say that the university they attended was in fact bad (or had gone bad at least when they attended it), it will affect their own career growth, salaries and promotions. So, they never find it convenient to spell out the truth—who would do that? Now, the Pune education barons (not to mention the SPPU authorities) certainly are smart enough to simply latch on to this artificially inflated brand-value. The system works, even though the quality of engineering education as such has very definitely gone down. (In some respects, due to expansion of the engineering education market, the quality has actually gone up—even though my IIT/COEP classmates often find this part difficult to believe. But yes, there have been improvements too. The improvements pertain to such things as syllabii and systems (in the “ISO” sense of the term). But not to the actual delivery—not to the actually imparted education. And that‘s my point.)

When parents and recruiting companies themselves don’t care for the quality of education imparted within the four years of UG engineering, it is futile to expect that mere academicians, as a group, would do much to help the matters.

That’s why, though SPPU has become so bad, it still manages to keep its high reputation of the past—and all its current whimsies (e.g. such stupid issues as the Metallurgy-vs-Mechanical branch jumping, etc.)—completely intact.

Anyway, I am too small to fight the entire system. In any case, I was beyond the end of all my resources.

All in all, yes, I have accepted the job offer.

But despite the complaining/irritating tone that has slipped in the above write-up, I would be lying to you if I said that I was not enthusiastic about my new job. I am.

I.2. Second, and from the long-term viewpoint, the much more important development I have to report (to my general readers) is this.

I now realize that I have come to develop a conceptually consistent physical viewpoint for the maths of quantum mechanics.

(I won’t call it an “interpretation,” let alone a “philosophical interpretation.” I would call it a physics theory or a physical viewpoint.)

This work was in progress for almost a year and a half or more—since October 2015, if I go by my scribblings in the margins of my copy of Griffiths’ text-book. I still have to look-up the scribblings I made in the small pocket notebooks I maintain (more than 10 of them, I’ve finished already for QM alone). I also have yet to systematically gather and order all those other scribblings on the paper napkins I made in the restaurants. Yes, in may case, notings on the napkins is not just a metaphor; I have often actually done such notings, simply because sometimes I do forget to carry my pocket notebooks. At such times, these napkins (or those rough papers from the waiter’s order-pad), do come in handy. I have been storing them in a plastic bag, and a drawer. Once I look up all such notings systematically, I will be able to sequence the progression of my thoughts better. But yes, as a rough and ready estimate, thinking along this new line has been going on for some 1.5 years or more by now.

But it’s only recently, in December 2016 or January 2017, that I slowly grew fully confident that my new viewpoint is correct. I took about a month to verify the same, checking it from different angles, and this process still continues. … But, what the heck, let me be candid about it: the more I think about it, all that it does is to add more conceptual integrations to it. But the basic conceptual scheme, or framework, or the basic line of thought, stays the same. So, it’s it and that’s that.

Of course, detailed write-ups, (at least rough) calculations, and some (rough) simulations still have to be worked out, but I am working on them.

I have already written more than 30 pages in the main article (which I should now be converting into a multi-chapter book), and more than 50 pages in the auxiliary material (which I plan to insert in the main text, eventually).

Yes, I have implemented a source control system (SVN), and have been taking regular backups too, though I need to now implement a system of backups to two different external hard-disks.

But all this on-going process of writing will now get interrupted due to my move to the new job, in another city. My blogging too would get interrupted. So, please stay away from this blog for a while. I will try to resume both ASAP, but as of today, can’t tell when—may be a month or so.

I have changed my stance regarding publications. All along thus far, I had maintained that I will not publish anything in one of those “new” journals in which most every Indian engineering professor publishes these days.

However, I now realize that one of the points in the approvals (by universities, AICTE, UGC, NAAC, NBA, etc.) concerns journal papers. I have only one journal paper on my CV. Keeping the potential IPR issues in mind, all my other papers were written in only schematic way (the only exception is the diffusion paper), and for that reason, they were published only in the conference proceedings. (I had explicitly discussed this matter not just with my guide, but also with my entire PhD committee.) Of course, I made sure that all these were international conferences, pretty reputed ones, of pretty low acceptance rates (though these days the acceptance rates at these same conferences have gone significantly up (which, incidentally, should be a “good” piece of news to my new students)). But still, as a result, all but one of my papers have been only conference papers, not journal papers.

After suffering through UGC panel interviews at three different colleges (all in SPPU) I now realize that it’s futile to plead your case in front of them. They are insufferable in every sense; they stick to their guns. You can’t beat their sense of “quality,” as it were.

So, I have decided to follow their (I mean my UGC panel interviewers’) lead, and thus have now decided to publish at least three papers in such journals, right over the upcoming couple of months or so.

Forgive me if I report the same old things (which I had reported in those international conferences about a decade ago). I have been assured that conference papers are worthless and that no one reads them. Reporting the same things in journal papers should enhance, I guess, their readability. So, the investigations I report on will be the same, but now they will appear in the Microsoft Word format, and in international journals.

That’s another reason why my blogging will be sparser in the upcoming months.

That way, in the world of science and research, it has always been quite a generally accepted practice, all over the world, to first report your findings in conferences, seek your peers’ opinions on your work or your ideas, and then expand on (or correct on) the material/study, and then send it to journals. There is nothing wrong in it. Even the topmost physicists have followed precisely the same policy. … Why, come to think of it, the very first paper that ushered humanity into the quantum era itself was only a conference talk. In fact it was just a local conference, albeit in an advanced country. I mean Planck’s very first announcement regarding quantization. … So, it’s a perfectly acceptable practice.

The difference this time (I mean, in my, present, case) will be: I will contract on (and hopefully also dumb down) the contents of my conference papers, so as to match the level of the journals in which my UGC panel interviewers themselves publish.

No, the above was not a piece of sarcasm—at least I didn’t mean it, when I wrote it. I merely meant to highlight an objective fact. Given the typical length, font size, gaps in sections, and the overall treatment of the contents of these journals, I will have to both contract on and dumb down on my write-ups. … I will of course also add some new sentences here and there to escape the no-previous-publication clause, but believe me, in my case, that is a very minor worry. The important thing would be to match the level of the treatment, to use the Microsoft Word’s equation editor, and to cut down on the length. Those are my worries.

Another one of my worries is how to publish two journal papers—one good, and one bad—based on the same idea. I mean, suppose I want to publish something on the nature of the $\delta$ of the calculus of variations, in one of these journals. … Incidentally, I do think that what I wrote on this idea right here on this blog a little ago, is worth publishing even in a good journal, say in Am. J. Phys., or at least in the Indian journal “Resonance.” So, I would like to eventually publish it one of these two journals, too. But for immediately enhancing the number of journal papers on my CV, I should immediately publish a shorter version of the same in one of these new international journals too, on an urgent basis. Now the question is: what all aspects I should withhold for now. That is my worry. That’s why, the way my current thinking goes, instead of publishing any new material (say on the $\delta$ of CoV), I should instead simply recycle the already conference-published material.

One final point. Actually, I never did think that it was immoral to publish in such journals (I mean the ones in which my interviewers from SPPU publish). These journals do have ISSN, and they always are indexed in the Google Scholar (which is an acceptable indexing service even to NBA), and sometimes even in Scopus/PubMed etc. Personally, I had refrained from publishing in them not because I thought that it was immoral to do so, but rather because I thought it was plain stupid. I have been treating the invitations from such journals with a sense of humour all along.

But then, the way our system works, it does have the ways and the means to dumb down one and all. Including me. When my very career is at the stake, I will very easily and smoothly go along, toss away my sense of quality and propriety, and join the crowd. (But at least I will be open and forth-right about it—admitting it publicly, the way I have already done, here.)

So, that’s another reason why my blogging would be sparser over the upcoming few months, esp. this month and the next. I will be publishing in (those) journals, on a high priority.

(III) To the QM experts:

Now, a bit to QM experts. By “experts,” I mean those who have studied QM through university courses (or text-books, as in my case) to PG or PhD level. I mean, the QM as it is taught at the UG level, i.e., the non-relativistic version of it.

If you are curious about the exact nature of my ideas, well, you will have to be patient. Months, perhaps even a year, it’s going to take, before I come to write about it on my blog(s). It will take time. I have been engaged in writing about it for about a month by now, and I speak from this experience. And further, the matter of having to immediately publish journal papers in engineering will also interfere the task of writing.

However, if you are an academic in India (say a professor or even just a serious and curious PhD student of physics/chemistry/engg physics program, say at an IIT/IISc/IISER/similar) and are curious to know about my ideas… Well, just give me a call and let’s decide on a mutually convenient time to meet in person. Ditto, for academics/serious students of physics from abroad visiting India.

No, I don’t at all expect any academics in (or visiting) India to be that curious about my work. But still, theoretically speaking, assuming that someone is interested: just send me an email or call me to fix an appointment, and we will discuss my ideas, in person. We will work out at the black-board (better than working on paper, in my experience).

I am not at all hung up about maintaining secrecy until publication. It’s just that writing takes time.

One part of it is that when you write, people also expect a higher level of precision from you, and ensuring that takes time. Making general but precise statements or claims, on a most fundamental topic of physics—it’s QM itself—is difficult, very difficult. Talking to experts is, in contrast, easy—provided you know what you are talking about.

In a direct personal talk, there is a lot of room for going back and forth, jumping around the topics, hand-waving, which is not available in the mode of writing-by-one-then-reading-by-another. And, talking with experts would be easier for me because they already know the context. That’s why I specified PhD physicists/professors at this stage, and not, say, students of engineering or CS folks merely enthusiastic about QM. (Coming to humanity folks, say philosophers, I think that via this work, I have nothing—or next to nothing—to offer to their specialty.)

Personally, I am not comfortable with video-conferencing, though if the person in question is a serious academic or a reputed corporate/national lab researcher, I would sure give it a thought to it. For instance, if some professor from US/UK that I had already interacted with (say at iMechanica, or at his blog, or via emails) wants to now know about my new ideas and wants a discussion via Skype, I could perhaps go in for it—even though I would not be quite comfortable with the video-conferencing mode as such. The direct, in person talk, working together at the black-board, works best for me. I don’t find Skype comfortable enough even with my own class-mates or close personal relations. It just doesn’t work by me. So, try to keep it out.

For the same reason—the planning and the precision required in writing—I would mostly not be able to even blog about my new ideas. Interactions on blogs tends to introduce too many bifurcations in the discussion, and therefore, even though the different PoV could be valuable, such interactions should be introduced only after the first cut in the writing is already over. That’s why, the most I would be able to manage on this blog would be some isolated aspects—granted that some inconsistencies or contradictions could still easily slip in. I am not sure, but I will try to cover at least some isolated aspects from time to time.

Here’s an instance. (Let me remind you: I am addressing this part to those who have already studied QM through text-books, esp. to PhD physicists. I am not only referring to equations, but more importantly, I am assuming the context of a direct knowledge of how topics like the one below are generally treated in various books and references.)

Did you ever notice just how radical was de Broglie’s idea? I mean, for the electron, the equations de Broglie used were:

$E = \hbar \nu$ and $p = \hbar k$.

Routine stuff, do you say? But notice, in the special relativity, i.e. in the classical electrodynamics, the equation for the energy of a massive particle is:
$E^2 = (pc)^2 + (m_0 c^2)^2$

In arriving at the relation $p = \hbar k$, Einstein had dropped the second term ($m_0^2 c^4$) from the expression for energy because radiation has no mass, and so, his hypothetical particles also would carry no mass.

When de Broglie assumed that this same expression holds also for the electron—its matter waves—what he basically was doing was: to take an expression derived for a massless particle (Einstein’s quantum of light) as is, and to assume that it would apply also for the massive particle (i.e. the electron).

In effect, what de Broglie had ended up asserting was that the matter-waves of the electron had a massless nature.

Got it? See how radical—and how subtly (indirectly, implicitly) slipped in—is that suggestion? Have you seen this aspect highlighted or discussed this way in a good university course or a text-book on modern physics or QM? …

…QM is subtle, very subtle. That’s why working out a conceptually consistent scheme for it is (and has been) such a fun.

The above observation was one of my clues in working out my new scheme. The other was the presence of the classical features in QM. Not only the pop-science books but also text-books on modern physics (and QM) had led me to believe that what the QM represented was completely radical break from the classical physic. Uh-oh. Not quite.

QM, actually, is hybrid. It does have a lot of classical elements built into it, right in its postulates. I had come to notice this part and was uncomfortable with it—I didn’t have the confidence in my own observation; I used to think that when I study more of QM, I would be shown how these classical features fall away. That part never happened, not even as my further studies of QM progressed, and so, I slowly became more confident about it. QM is hybrid, full stop. It does have classical features built right in its postulates, even in its maths. It does not represent a complete break from the classical physics—not as complete a break as physicists lead you to believe. That was my major clue.

Other clues came as my grasp of the nature of the QM maths became better and firmer, which occurred over a period of time. I mean the nature of the maths of: the Fourier theory, the variational calculus, the operator theory, and the higher-dimensional spaces.

I had come to understand the Fourier theory via my research on diffusion, and the variational calculus, via my studies (and teaching!) of FEM. The operator theory, I had come to suspect (simply comparing the way people used to write in the early days of QM, and the way they now write) was not essential to the physics of the QM theory. So I had begun mentally substituting the operators acting on the wavefunction by just a modified wavefunction itself. … Hell, do you express a classical problem—say a Poisson equation problem or a Navier-Stokes problem—via operators? These days people do, but, thankfully, the trend has not yet made it to the UG text-books to a significant extent. The whole idea of the operator theory is irrelevant to physics—its only use and relevance is in maths. … Soon enough, I then realized that the wavefunction itself is a curious construct. It’s pointless debating whether the wavefunction is ontic or epistemic, primarily because the damn thing is dimensionless. Physicists always take care to highlight the fact that its evolution is unitary, but what they never tell you, never ever highlight, is the fact that the damn thing has no dimensions. Qua a dimensionless quantity, it is merely a way of organizing some other quantities that do have a physical existence. As to its unitary evolution, well, all that this idea says is that it is merely a weighting function, so to speak. But it was while teaching thermodynamics (in Mumbai in 2014 and in Pune in 2015) that I finally connected the variational principles with the operator theory, the thermodynamic system with the quantum system, and this way then got my breakthroughs (or at least my clues).

Yet another clue was the appreciation of the fact that the world is remarkably stable. When you throw a ball, it goes through the space as a single object. The part of the huge Hilbert space of the entire universe which represents the ball—all the quantum particles in it—somehow does not come to occupy a bigger part of that space. Their relations to each other somehow stay stable. That was another clue.

As to the higher-dimensional function spaces, again, my climb was slow but steady. I had begun writing my series of posts on the idea of space. It helped. Then I worked through higher-dimensional space. A rough-and-ready version of my understanding was done right on this blog. It was then that my inchoate suspicions about the nature of the Hilbert space finally began to fall in place. There is an entrenched view, viz., that the wavefunction is a “vector” that “lives” only in a higher-dimensional abstract space, and that the existence of the tensor product over the higher-dimensional space makes it in principle impossible to visualize the wavefunction for a multi-particle quantum system, which means, any quantum system which is more complex than the hydrogen atom (i.e. a single electron). Schrodinger didn’t introduce this idea, but when Lorentz pointed out that a higher-dimensional space was implied by Schrodinger’s procedure, Schrodinger first felt frustrated, and later on, in any case, he was unable to overcome this objection. And so, this part got entrenched—and became a part of the mathematicians’ myths of QM. As my own grasp of this part of the maths became better (and it was engineers’ writings on linear algebra that helped me improve my grasp, not physicists’ or mathematicians’ (which I did attempt valiantly, and which didn’t help at all)) I got my further clues. For a clue, see my post on the CoV; I do mention, first, the Cartesian product, and then, a tensor product, in it.

Another clue was a better understanding of the nonlinear vs. linear distinction in maths. It too happened slowly.

As to others’ writings, the most helpful clue came from the “anti-photon” paper by (the Nobel laureate) W. E. Lamb. Among the bloggers, I found some of the write-ups by Lubos Motl to be really helpful; also a few by Schlafly. Discussions on Scott Aaronson’s blog were useful to check out the different perspectives on the quantum problems.

The most stubborn problem for me perhaps was the measurement problem, i.e. the collapse postulate. But to say anything more about it right away would be premature—it would too premature, in fact. I want to do it right—even though I will surely follow the adage that a completed document is better than a perfect document. Perfection may get achieved only on collapse, but I happily don’t carry the notion that a good treatment on the collapse postulate has to be preceded by a collapse.

Though the conceptual framework I now have in mind is new, once it is published, it would not be found, I think, to be very radically new—not by the working physicists or the QM experts themselves anyway. …

.. I mean, personally speaking, when I for the first time thought of this new way of thinking about the QM maths, it was radically new (and radically clarifying) to me. (As I said, it happened slowly, over a period of time, starting, may be, from second half of 2015 or so if not earlier).

But since then, through my regular searches on the ‘net, I have found that other people have been suggesting somewhat similar ideas for quite some time, though they have been, IMO, not as fully consistent as they could have been. For example, see Philip Wallace[^]’s work (which I came across only recently, right this month). Or, see Martin Ligare[^]’s papers (which I ran into just last month, on the evening of 25th January, to be precise). … Very close to my ideas, but not quite the same. And, not as conceptually comprehensive, if that’s the right word to use for it.

My tentative plan as of now is to first finish writing the document (already 30+ pages, as I mentioned above in the first section). This document is in the nature of a conceptual road-map, or a position/research-program paper. Call it a white-paper sort of a document, say. I want to finish it first. Simultaneously, I will also try to do some simulations or so, and only then go for writing papers for (good) journals. … Sharing of ideas on this blog wouldn’t have to wait until the papers though; it could begin much earlier than that, in fact as soon as the position paper is done, which should be after a few months—say by June-July at the earliest. I will try to keep this position paper as brief as possible, say under 100 pages.

Let’s see how it all goes. I will keep you updated. But yes, the goals are clear now.

I wrote this lengthy a post (almost 5000 words) because I did want to get all these things from my mind and on to the blog. But since in the immediate future I would be busy in organizing for the move (right from hunting for a house/flat to rent, to deciding on what all stuff to leave in Pune for the time being and what all to take with me), to the actual move (the actual packing, moving, and unpacking etc.), I wouldn’t get the time to blog over the next 2–3 weeks, may be until it’s March already. Realizing it, I decided to just gather all this material, which is worth 3 posts, and to dump it all together in this single post. So, there.

Bye for now.

[As usual, a minor revision or two may be done later.]

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