arXiv subjects

Daniel Shanahan

Publications and source records attributed to Daniel Shanahan.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

Reality and the Probability Wave

Effects associated in quantum mechanics with a divisible probability wave are explained as physically real consequences of the equal but opposite reaction of the apparatus as a particle is measured. Taking as illustration a Mach-Zehnder interferometer operating by refraction, it is shown that this reaction must comprise a fluctuation in the reradiation field of complementary effect to the changes occurring in the photon as it is projected into one or other path. The evolution of this fluctuation through the experiment will explain the alternative states of the particle discerned in self interference, while the maintenance of equilibrium in the face of such fluctuations becomes the source of the Born probabilities. In this scheme, the probability wave is a mathematical artifact, epistemic rather than ontic, and akin in this respect to the simplifying constructions of geometrical optics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2015

The de Broglie Wave as Evidence of a Deeper Wave Structure

It is argued that the de Broglie wave is not the wave usually supposed, but the relativistically induced modulation of an underlying carrier wave that moves with the velocity of the particle. In the rest frame of the particle this underlying structure has the form of a standing wave. De Broglie also assumed the existence of this antecedent standing wave, but it would appear that he failed to notice its survival as a carrier wave in the Lorentz transformed wave structure. Identified as a modulation, the de Broglie wave acquires a physically reasonable ontology, evidencing a more natural unity between matter and radiation than might otherwise be contemplated, and avoiding the necessity of recovering the particle velocity from a superposition of such waves. Because the Schrödinger and other wave equations for massive particles were conceived as equations for the de Broglie wave, this interpretation of the wave is also relevant to such issues in quantum mechanics as the meaning of the wave function, the nature of wave-particle duality, and the possibility of well-defined particle trajectories.

physics.hist-ph↗

arXiv2015

A Case for Lorentzian Relativity

The Lorentz transformation (LT) is explained by changes occurring in the wave characteristics of matter as it changes inertial frame. This explanation is akin to that favoured by Lorentz, but informed by later insights, due primarily to de Broglie, regarding the underlying unity of matter and radiation. To show the nature of these changes, a massive particle is modelled as a standing wave in three dimensions. As the particle moves, the standing wave becomes a travelling wave having two factors. One is a carrier wave displaying the dilated frequency and contracted ellipsoidal form described by the LT, while the other (identified as the de Broglie wave) is a modulation defining the dephasing of the carrier wave (and thus the failure of simultaneity) in the direction of travel. The superluminality of the de Broglie wave is thus explained, as are several other mysterious features of the optical behaviour of matter, including the physical meaning of the Schrödinger Eqn. and the relevance to scattering processes of the de Broglie wave number. Consideration is given to what this Lorentzian approach to relativity might mean for the possible existence of a preferred frame and the origin of the observed Minkowski metric.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2014

A Criticism of "Gas Mode" Reinterpretations of the Michelson-Morley and Similar Experiments

It has been argued by R. T. Cahill and others that a Michelson interferometer in "gas mode" - in which the light paths are through an included gaseous medium - are able to detect and have detected an absolute frame of reference. It is shown here that this argument supposes incorrectly that the reduced velocity of light in gas is an observer-independent invariant. This velocity is not invariant, but given in a frame with respect to which the interferometer moves with velocity v by the usual relativistic formula for the addition of velocities, these being in this case the velocity v and the reduced velocity of light in the inertial frame of the interferometer. It is suggested nonetheless that though the absolute frame urged by Cahill may be undetectable, there are persuasive grounds for considering the alternative Lorentzian Relativity that did suppose the existence of such a frame.

physics.class-ph↗