Oddities in the Theories of Physics

Most laypeople admire physics for the insights that famous individuals such as Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and Albert Einstein have provided. Physics has also gained great recognition among philosophers of science, whose approach has often been recommended to other scientific disciplines for imitation. On closer inspection, however, the state of knowledge in physics is not so good.

While chemistry is essentially based on a unified theoretical foundation, namely the chemical bonding between the atoms of the various elements of the periodic table, this is not the case in physics. The theories of physics stand side by side like solitary blocks. Relativity and quantum mechanics are so different in their basic conceptual assumptions and mathematical formulations that a quantum theory of gravity has not been, and probably never will be, established. Other theories run into contradictions - for example, when you try to calculate the rotational energy associated with the spin of an elementary particle using the formulas of classical mechanics, or when you try to determine the intrinsic energy of an electrically charged particle in its own field. You hear about these problems when you study physics, but you are strongly warned not to delve into them, as it leads nowhere and only detracts from productive engagement with solvable questions.

When quantum theory and relativity theory emerged in the early 20th century, their interpretation was hotly debated because they challenged our intuitive understanding of space, time, matter, and causality. However, the success of these theories in explaining previously misunderstood phenomena such as atomic spectra and predicting new effects such as the deflection of light by the sun meant that subsequent generations of physicists became accustomed to the oddities and accepted the mathematically sophisticated theories as extremely useful tools. Anyone who still had doubts was advised to "shut up and calculate!"

Over time, physicists have gotten out of the habit of questioning their now widely accepted theories and testing alternative explanatory models. Here is a telling example: Since the 1930s, it has been observed that stars in the outer regions of galaxies are moving faster than they should due to the gravitational pull of the stars inside the galaxy. It is therefore thought that large amounts of invisible "dark matter" exist in the halo of galaxies, although this has not yet been directly observed and would have to consist of as yet unknown particles. Thus, the existence of "dark matter" is by no means certain, as is commonly believed, but a mere ad hoc assumption that should always be suspect to an observer trained in the philosophy of science and should motivate the search for alternative explanations. Not so in contemporary astrophysics. Instead of a broad search for different explanatory approaches and a critical evaluation of their respective advantages and disadvantages, there is only one alternative explanatory approach - a modification of Newtonian mechanics, which is also ad hoc and is only supported by a handful of scientists who are treated as eccentrics by the scientific mainstream.

If one examines physical knowledge with a knowledgeable but unbiased eye, one comes across a wealth of peculiarities and oddities. Since it has often been the case in the history of knowledge that inexplicable findings and logical contradictions have become the starting point for new considerations, we are convinced that an examination of the peculiarities and contradictions in today's physical knowledge can lead to new explanatory approaches.

We have already taken a closer look at some of these oddities and suggested unconventional solutions:

• Principal of the smallest effect Why can the laws of motion in all areas of physics be derived from this fundamental principle?
• Elektrical charge of Elementary particles: The standard model of elementary particles recognizes 48 fermions, divided into three generations, each with two quarks and two leptons, whose electrical charges follow a regular pattern. Do these regularities suggest an underlying inner connection?
• Rotational energy of spins: In classical mechanics, each angular momentum is associated with rotational energy. Can it really be that the quantum mechanical intrinsic angular momentum of elementary particles (spin) does not require rotational energy?
• Rotational period of 720° of the spins of Fermions: Fermions, which are the elementary particles that form the material building blocks of the universe, have the extremely bizarre property of being identical to themselves only after two complete rotations of 720°. How can this be reconciled with our human experience that the world appears identical to us after only one 360° rotation?

However, the list of peculiarities and oddities is much longer. Here are a few additional suggestions for you to think about:

• Why does our universe contain almost exclusively matter and hardly any antimatter?
• Why do W bosons only interact with left-handed particles and right-handed antiparticles?
• Why does the photon have no mass at rest, while the related Z boson has a large mass at rest?
• When the Z boson decays, why are the unobservable decays into pairs of neutrinos and antineutrinos twice as frequent as the observable decays into other particle-antiparticle pairs?
• Are the values of the constants of nature such as h, c, G, or e purely random?
• What is driving the expansion of the universe?
• What constitutes the NOW?

Reading recommendations:

• Pavel Kroupka, Marcel Pawlowski und Moritz Haslbauer: Blog zu Dunkler Materie und der alternativen Erklärung über eine Modifizierung der Newtonschen Dynamik (MOND-Theorie)
• Willi Kafitz: Wahrheit und Realität - Gedanken zu mathematischen und physikalischen Grundsatzfragen, Oberhessische Naturwissenschaftliche Zeitschrift, Gießen 2024.
• Ilja Bohnet und Thomas Naumann: Das rätselhafte Universum, Kosmos Stuttgart 2022.
• Alexander Unzicker: Auf dem Holzweg durchs Universum – warum sich die Physik verlaufen hat, Hanser München 2012.