A French team of scientists, led by Physicists Yves Couder and Emmanuel Fort, investigated alternative possibilities in the wave-particle duality interpretation of the double slit experiment by observing bouncing droplets in a vibrating oil bath. The remarkable results have caught the attention of the public eye as this approach may resolve some of the weirdest behaviors of particles at the quantum scale. Couder and Fort demonstrate in a simple experiment that fluid dynamics may be the classical underlying mechanism of quantum particles apparent strange behaviors without resorting to the need for a mysterious and seemingly magical interpretation of modern quantum theory.
I no longer regard this [statistical] interpretation as a finally satisfactory one, even if it proves useful in practice. To me it seems to mean a renunciation, much too fundamental in principle, of all attempt to understand the individual process. Erwin Schrödinger
Enter quantum weirdness: wave-particle duality, nonlocality, quantum tunneling, multiple worlds, retrocausality, quantum teleportation, entanglement, indeterminism, and observer-dependent results. It’s no wonder physicists have been driven half-insane over the last 70 years, since the development of the Copenhagen Interpretation – by Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg – in an attempt to describe the results of the Thomas Young double-slit experiment. While today this model is certainly the consensus paradigm, Albert Einstein strongly contested this interpretation of quantum mechanics. However, in a famous debate in 1929 it was largely perceived that Bohr bested Einstein in his ability to explain the phenomena being observed in quantum experimentations with the Copenhagen Interpretation. In hindsight, it is apparent that Einstein was not bested, just too far ahead of his time – for there were several significant discoveries that would not be made for another 20 – 30 years that would have offered Einstein and his theoretical position strong empirical support, such as:
1933 Persistent Current in Superconducting Ring 1933 Expulsion of Magnetic Field by Superconductor 1954 Maser 1960 Atomic Laser 1961 Quantized Flux in Superconducting Ring 1962 Semiconductor Laser 1964 Superconducting Quantum Interference Device 1980 Integer Quantum Hall Effect 1981 Fractional Quantum Hall Effect 1996 Bose–Einstein Condensate 2001 Macroscopic Entanglement
Each of these discoveries has made a profound difference in the way we view the physical world. Each represents a coherent, collective state of matter. Each embodies a fundamental quantum principle, which is exhibited on a macroscopic scale. Each has been investigated exclusively by electromagnetic means. There have been, however, alternative explanations for quantum phenomena, which unlike the Copenhagen Interpretation, maintain determinism and realism where events at the quantum scale are not inherently stochastic, or probabilistic, and are not entirely contingent on the act of observation – the observer only influences experiments by virtue of themselves being a macroscopic quantum assembly. One such explanation, with strong theoretical and empirical support, is the Pilot Wave Theory, developed by Louis de Broglie in 1927, and later developed into the De Broglie-Bohm causal interpretation of quantum mechanics. The pilot-wave theory contains the normal wavefunction associated with quantum mechanics (a probability amplitude that describes all possible configurations over space, which is seen as purely a mathematical abstraction) but an actual wavefunction configuration in space as well, that exists independently of whether or not it is being observed, i.e. it’s real.
To understand this, we look further than what is directly obvious, we go beyond the surface area of what is seen, and into the depths below to obtain the insights into how nonlocality may be working in a hydrodynamic system. While it is true that on the surface, as the silicon droplet bounce along producing waves, we do not see any obvious connection between the vortices and eddies that are created, if we could look below the surface we may see something quite surprising. In fluid dynamics, it has been observed that two vortices, or eddies, when produced simultaneously (such as in entanglement experiments) actually remain connected below the surface via a vortexing tunnel – like a wormhole! This vortexing tunnel beneath the surface, would allow for a seemingly hidden connection between the “particles-waves”, and allow for them to be correlated even over time and space. Such wormholes were described by Einstein and Rosenberg (ER bridges) and later John Wheeler as a logical consequence of geometrodynamics – the topological description of spacetime. Could they now be used to describe the quantum realm as well? In his latest paper, acclaimed physicist Leonard Susskind, contributor to the holographic principle, demonstrated that the entanglement between particles may be due to wormhole networks in the structure of spacetime. From all of this, a completely new picture of the quantum world is now developing where particle to particle interactions and behavior that were previously in the realm of the magical quantum weirdness are now being found to be grounded in very clear mechanisms of the structure of spacetime itself. As we continue to investigate our physical universe in ever more clever ways, we may begin to come back to a sense of unification – leaving the quantum and relativistic dichotomous worldview behind – and finding more and more that there is a great coherence, resonance, and oneness to our reality.
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