Consciousness, Physics, and the Holographic Paradigm

Essays by A.T. Williams

Part I:  Sneaking Up On Einstein

In physics, as elsewhere, the map is not the territory.
- A.T. Williams

Chapter 5

Section 5:  The Energetic Atom, Inertia, and Nonmaterial Interfaces

Many of the similarities and differences between classical physics, relativity theory, quantum mechanics, and high-energy particle physics become more manageable as a consequence of understanding not only that particulate matter is the discrete, organized aggregation of nonmaterial primordial energy, but also that each conditionally relative material object is a sequential series of periodic, synergistic, holonomic energy states or nonmaterial energy phase changes created, contained, and maintained within the omnipresent, fundamental, irreducible primordial energy domain.

This fundamental insight may at first glance seem to be counterintuitive; nonetheless, the proximate foundation of the material world we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell is the atom, a conditionally relative material object too small to be seen with an ordinary optical microscope which, in accordance with the universal principle of energy recently discovered by this author, cannot exist in the absence of nonmaterial primordial energy.

Indeed, it took humankind literally thousands of years to understand and demonstrate that a material atom is simply a discrete aggregation of nonmaterial primordial energy and is, therefore, not indestructible, indivisible, or hard and round like a billiard ball.

It turns out that each atom can be further divided into even smaller conditionally relative material objects (aggregations of nonmaterial primordial energy) such as subatomic electrons and a very small, very dense central nucleus which, according to contemporary high-energy collider experiments, acts as a gateway – an energy interface – to many even more energetic subnuclear objects.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the chemistry branch of science discovered that an atom and its constituents comprise the smallest unit of a chemical element that can retain the properties of that element. Furthermore, each atom is an open (nonconservative) material system that can change its normal net electrically neutral (zero) charge by emitting or absorbing one or more negatively charged electrons, thus becoming an electrically charged ion.

The energetic atom and inertia:

As humankind enters the 21st century, the new physics implied by the fundamental, irreducible, universal principle of energy and The Energetic Holographic Paradigm (TEHP, pronounced "teep") model of physical reality suggest that it is time to replace the traditional material atom of classical physics and quantum mechanics with a new, energetic model of the atom. For example, more than 99.9 percent of the contemporary material atom is thought to contain only empty space. In contrast, 100 percent of the new energetic atom is immersed in and pervaded by the omnipresent, nonmaterial primordial energy domain.

Large amounts of contemporary atomic and nuclear theory are subsumed by the new energetic concept of the atom.

The positively charged nucleus of the energetic atom is surrounded by the quantum mechanical orbital shells of negatively charged subatomic electrons. And the nuclear shell model developed by Maria Goeppert Mayer and Hans Jensen independently manages the binding energy transitions of individual protons and neutrons within the nucleus. Mayer and Jensen each received ¹/₄ of the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics. The remaining ¹/₂ share was received by Eugene Wigner "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles."

One major difference between the old material model and the new energetic, ^nonmaterial/_material atom is that the open (nonconservative) nuclear system discovered by 20th century collider experiments is embedded within an open (nonconservative) atomic system which is wholly immersed in the conditionally relative, nonmaterial (subquantum, prequantum) primordial energy domain. Thus, not only the autonomous energetic atom, but also its subatomic, nuclear, and subnuclear material constituents are an inseparable part of the fundamental, irreducible, nonmaterial primordial energy domain.

The new physics of the open (nonconservative) energetic atom suggest that the immersion within the omnipresent, nonmaterial energy domain of the subatomic, nuclear, and subnuclear material constituents which possess physically real mass imparts a novel gyroscopic stability to each energetic, ^nonmaterial/_material atom. This implies that the novel gyroscopic stability created by the angular and rotational momenta of the material constituents within the energetic atom directly affects atomic (hence, molecular) inertia.

A subatomic ^nonmaterial/_nonmaterial energy interface:

The remarkable advances of 20th century science have also provided extensive, previously unimagined insight into the source of fundamental nonmaterial magnetic energy which, in turn, provides a better understanding of the nature of nonmaterial physical energy per se.

1. The mutual relation between an electric current and magnetic energy was discovered by Hans Christian Ørsted in 1819. Ørsted published his discovery, in Latin, in 1820.
2. Fundamental nonmaterial magnetic energy is generated by the motion of electric charges and by elementary particles which have the property called spin.
3. Electric charge is the fundamental, subatomic quantum of electricity.
   • Electric charge can be either positive or negative.
4. The most common electrically charged material particle which possesses discrete physical mass is the negatively charged electron (e^-).
   • The electron (e^-, charge -1) and its antiparticle the positron (e⁺, charge +1) have half-integer spin (spin ¹/₂).
5. Subatomic electrons emit and absorb massless, electrically neutral (zero charge), electromagnetic force virtual exchange particles, or quanta, of visible light called photons.
6. Subatomic electrons orbit the atomic nucleus which contains protons and neutrons.
   • The electric charge of the nucleus is provided by one or more protons (p).
     • Each proton has a positive charge of +1.
   • The neutron (n) is electrically neutral (zero charge).
   • Protons and neutrons have half-integer spin (spin ¹/₂).
7. Fundamental atomic dipolar magnetic energy is generated by:
   • Internal electron spin.
   • The subatomic electron orbital current loop.
8. The novel energetic activity of the subatomic electron orbital current loop is a prime example of a ^nonmaterial/_nonmaterial energy interface.
   • Fundamental, nonmaterial, atomic dipolar magnetic energy is generated in large part by means of subatomic electron orbital current loop energy interfaces.
     • The subatomic electron orbital motion generates a closed, time-varying, unidirectional, nonmaterial electric current loop with an energy of some magnitude.
     • The time-varying, unidirectional, nonmaterial electric current generates a nonmaterial dipolar magnetic field with an energy of some magnitude.
   • Internal electron spin makes a smaller contribution to the net nonmaterial atomic dipolar magnetic field.
9. Several factors are involved in the generation of nonmaterial dipolar atomic magnetism:
   1. Internal electron spin angular momentum.
   2. Electron spin magnetic dipole moment.
   3. Electron spin g-factor.
   4. Electron orbital angular momentum.
   5. Electron orbital magnetic dipole moment.
   6. The precession of the atomic dipolar magnetic moment.
10. The potential energy of atomic and molecular electron spin and electron orbits depends on their orientation with respect to an external magnetic field.

While electric charge and magnetism are separate and distinct natural phenomena, the mutual relation between electricity and magnetism in the production of electromagnetic phenomena such as electromagnetic rotation (motors) and electromagnetic induction (generators) has long been known.

In 1821 Michael Faraday discovered and demonstrated the principle of electromagnetic rotation (i.e., the magnetic rotation induced by changing current flow in an electrical circuit). Formalized by Clerk Maxwell four decades later,52 Paul Hewitt succinctly states it as:

    A magnetic field is created in any region of space in which an electric field is changing with time. The magnitude of the induced magnetic field is proportional to the rate at which the electric field changes. The direction of the induced magnetic field is at right angles to the changing electric field.53

The corollary of the principle of electromagnetic rotation, the law of electromagnetic induction (i.e., the electric current induced in a conducting wire by a changing magnetic field), was discovered and demonstrated by Faraday in 1831.54 Formalized three decades later by Maxwell, Hewitt states it as:

    An electric field is created in any region of space in which a magnetic field is changing with time. The magnitude of the induced electric field is proportional to the rate at which the magnetic field changes. The direction of the induced electric field is at right angles to the changing magnetic field.55

Both statements (laws) are valid on all levels of energetic electromagnetic activity from the macroscopic to the subnuclear domain. Only the scale has changed.

Subnuclear ^nonmaterial/_nonmaterial energy interfaces:

1. Fundamental nonmaterial magnetic energy is also generated by particle spin and the motion of electric charges in the atomic nucleus.
2. The nucleus of each atom contains protons and neutrons.
   • Protons and neutrons are sometimes called nucleons.
   • The nucleus of the hydrogen atom consists of only a single proton.
3. Protons, neutrons, and hadrons (i.e., intranuclear particles called resonances) contain quarks and gluons.
   • Baryons (fermionic hadrons) contain 3 quarks.
     • Protons (charge +1) and electrically neutral neutrons (zero charge) are examples of baryons.
   • Mesons (bosonic hadrons) contain 2 quarks.
     • Pions and kaons are examples of mesons.
4. Protons and quarks are electrically charged particles with half-integer spin (spin ¹/₂).
   • Electrically neutral (zero charge) neutrons also have spin ¹/₂.
     • The electrically charged quarks at the center of protons and neutrons are surrounded by inner and outer shells (clouds) of pions, much as the atomic nucleus per se is surrounded by shells (clouds) of electrons.
       • In the proton the inner and outer shells are composed of positively charged pions (π⁺) which gives the proton a positive electrical charge.
       • In the neutron the inner shell is composed of negatively charged pions (π^-) and the outer shell is composed of positively charged pions (π⁺) which gives the neutron a net neutral (zero) electrical charge.
5. Subnuclear quarks absorb and emit massless, electrically neutral (zero charge) gluons, the virtual exchange particles of the strong force, much as electrons absorb and emit massless, electrically neutral (zero charge) light quanta (photons).
6. Nuclear spin generates nuclear magnetic moment.
   • Proton, neutron, and quark spins also generate measurable magnetic moments.
7. Each electrically charged subnuclear particle interacts to some degree with the electromagnetic force.

The genesis of magnetic energy:

Summarizing the remarkable 20th century atomic, subatomic, nuclear, and subnuclear scientific discoveries:

1. Subatomic electron spin and orbital motion generate a nonmaterial, unidirectional current loop of some magnitude.
2. The time-varying, nonmaterial, subquantum electric current, in turn, generates a nonmaterial dipolar magnetic field of some magnitude.
3. The nonzero, nonmaterial magnetic field generated by subatomic electron spin and the novel orbital current loop ^nonmaterial/_nonmaterial energy interface is the source of fundamental, nonmaterial, dipolar magnetic energy per se.

Classes of magnetism:

Three broad classes of the magnetic effects generated by atomic and molecular dipolar magnetic moments are:

1. Diamagnetism:
   • A majority of individual atomic and molecular dipolar magnetic moments in the material body under consideration oppose the magnetic field in which it is immersed. Magnetic effects are not retained by the object when the external magnetic field is removed.
2. Paramagnetism:
   • A majority of individual atomic and molecular dipolar magnetic moments in the material body under consideration reinforce the magnetic field in which it is immersed in proportion to the intensity of the incident magnetic field. Relatively weak magnetic effects may be retained by the object when the external magnetic field is removed.
3. Ferromagnetism:
   • Aggregations of individual atomic and molecular dipolar magnetic moments create magnetic domains within the material body under consideration. Parallel groups of magnetic domains strongly reinforce the magnetic field in which the object is immersed. Strong magnetic effects are retained by the object when the external magnetic field is removed.

Continued in Chapter 5, Section 6:  Turning Points

Reference Notes (Click on the Note number to return to the text):

52  Maxwell's equations.

53  Hewitt, Paul G. Conceptual Physics, Eighth Edition, p. 447. Addison Wesley Longman, Inc., Reading, MA, 1998. ISBN:  0-321-00971-1

54  Faraday's law of electromagnetic induction.

55  Ref. 53, p. 447.

Back to Chapter 5, Section 4:  Beyond The Borderland

Index:  Consciousness, Physics, and the Holographic Paradigm

Last Edit:  June 22, 2006.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

This paper is a work in progress.
Please check for the latest update before quoting in other venues the concepts and hypotheses presented here.
Thank you.

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Copyright © 2004-2006 by Alan T. Williams. All rights reserved.