We have become accustomed to thinking of observation and measurement as typically human activities. A theory of elementary particles as autonomous agents, on the other hand, must be a theory that describes how elementary particles acquire information and adjust their behavior accordingly. Observation must therefore be transferred to the level of elementary particles.
Physics needs to return to the mindset of Einstein, who from an early age was preoccupied with the question of what the world looks like from the perspective of a ray of light. Similarly, we should ask what the world looks like from the perspective of an elementary particle and what information it needs to behave according to the known laws of physics.
The wave function used to describe each particle in quantum mechanics is a good place to start. According to the widely accepted interpretation of quantum mechanics, the complex-valued wave function itself has no empirical meaning, but only the absolute value of the square of the wave function gives a probability density distribution for finding the particle in a given place at a given time. The fact that the square appears here has given us the idea that this is a mapping of the wave function onto itself. According to this interpretation, quantum physics describes objects that observe themselves and generate a probability density distribution over the entire space of the universe during this self-observation. The self-observation takes place within a very short time span, which results from the de Broglie relation τ = h / E, in the entire space, i.e. the associated information transfer is quasi instantaneous and not subject to the speed limit of special relativity. This leads to the Einstein-Podolski-Rosen paradox, which states that in the case of coupled quantum states, a determination of the quantum state of one of the two coupled quanta implies an instantaneous determination of the state of the other quantum at a distance.
We suspect that this self-observation of the elementary particles is also accompanied by gravitational attraction. The elementary particles thus observe their own distribution in space in relation to the distribution of all other elementary particles in space, which leads to a change in their own spatial distribution. Gravity would therefore not be mediated by a separate field or an interacting particle ("graviton"), but would be the direct result of the permanent self-observation of all elementary particles in relation to all other particles.
The basic elementary particles probably do not observe other properties directly, but only indirectly through some special interaction particles that appear as bosons in the Standard Model. For example, a particle does not know its own electric charge; only the interaction particle has this information. Incidentally, this also resolves the contradiction of the infinite intrinsic energy of an electrically charged particle in a simple way: An electron cannot measure its own electric field and therefore has no interaction energy with itself.
Since photons are the interacting particles of electromagnetism, there must be different subtypes of photons. Today, only the distinction between levorotatory and dextrorotatory photons is known. On the one hand, photons as interacting particles of electromagnetism must know whether they come from a positive or a negative charge. This information could be encoded in the direction of rotation of the photons. On the other hand, the photons must also know the size of the interacting charges, which, as we know, can be 1/3, 2/3, or 3/3 of the charge of the electron. Consequently, there should be not only two, but two times three or six different subtypes of photons. Furthermore, these subtypes must not be able to spontaneously transform into each other, otherwise the information relevant for the mediation of the electromagnetic interaction would be lost.
For stable structures to exist in the universe, the principle of minimal interaction must be fulfilled. This is only possible if spatially distant objects are decoupled from each other. While the self-observation of elementary particles is quasi-instantaneous and produces localization in space, the observations of interacting particles over spatial distances must not be possible at any speed. Consequently, there must be a finite maximum speed for the transmission of information over spatial distances. In our universe, this maximum speed is characterized by photons, the interacting particles of electromagnetism. The transformation equations of special relativity for reference systems moving uniformly with respect to each other result from this finite transmission speed of information, if one also requires that the physical laws have the same form in all reference systems.
What remains unclear is the irreversibility of time. While the past is unchangeable, it is also more incompletely preserved in the present the further back it is. On the other hand, the future before us is, within certain limits, open and indeterminate. Consequently, "choices" must be made at every moment to select a present from among the alternatives of the various possible futures. These decisions have to be stored somewhere so that they are still present as the past in the future.
The temporal development of the wave function of a particle and the laws of motion derived from it are in principle reversible; they preserve the past, so to speak, because they allow conclusions to be drawn from the present state to earlier states. The irreversibility of time can therefore only be caused by certain events in which the particles themselves are changed and the wave function collapses - e.g. by the creation or transformation of particles.
There are basically two conceivable options for these irreversible events: Either the information is added to the information already stored or older information is overwritten. Our assumption is that neither all previous information is deleted (in which case there would no longer be any traces of the past in the present), nor is all previous information retained (in which case the past would be perfectly preserved in the present), but that there is a certain rate at which previous information is overwritten. The rate of this “information conversion” is likely to determine how quickly time passes. If it is the case that irreversible events can only come about through the creation, transformation or annihilation of particles, the progression of time must be inextricably linked to a change in the number of particles in the cosmos - presumably an increase as long as time moves forward.
There are basically two possibilities for these irreversible events: Either the information is added to the information already stored, or older information is overwritten. We assume that neither all previous information is deleted (in which case there would be no trace of the past in the present), nor all previous information is retained (in which case the past would be perfectly preserved in the present), but that there is some rate at which previous information is overwritten. The rate of this "information conversion" is likely to determine how fast time passes. If it is the case that irreversible events can only occur through the creation, transformation, or annihilation of particles, then the progression of time must be inextricably linked to a change in the number of particles in the cosmos - presumably an increase as time moves forward.
Interestingly, the well-known uncertainty relations of quantum mechanics each link physical quantities (time and energy, momentum and position, and the components of angular momentum) that are related by a symmetry property.
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