Instantaneous Action at a Distance in a Holistic Universe

Abstract

The early work of Lorentz, Abraham and others, evolved through the work of Fokker, Dirac and others to ultimately culminate in the Feynman- Wheeler direct action at a distance theory. However this theory has encountered certain conceptual difficulties like non-locality in time, self force of the electron, pre acceleration and the perfect absorption condition of Feynman and Wheeler, that is the instantaneous action of the remaining charges in the universe on the charge in question. More recently, Hoyle and Narlikar have resurrected this theory, but within the context of a Steady State or Quasi Steady State cosmology. They argue that the theory infact has a better standing than the generally accepted quantum theoretic description. In this article we consider a quantum theoretic description and a cosmology which parallels the Hoyle-Narlikar approach. This leads to a synthesis and justification of the Dirac and Feynman-Wheeler approaches, clarifying the conceptual problems in the process. We deduce a scenario with quantized space-time and a holistic cosmology, consistent with physical and astrophysical data. The non-locality is now seen to be meaningful within the minimum space-time intervals, as also the perfect absorption within the holistic description. Local realism, and the usual causal field theory are seen to have an underpinning of direct action. For example this is brought out by the virtual photons which mediate interactions in Quantum Electro Dynamics, and the emergence of the inverse square law in the above approach from a background Zero Point Field.