TFNR - Waves
Waves are Structures of Information, belonging to the class of the Structures of Propagation, dynamical structures, where:
- at the level of the Source: the Action of the Operator Propagation prevails,
- at the level of the Elementary Action: the Mode / Component in which Elementary Action mainly manifest themselves is Translation (the Component / Mode Perturbation is null, Rotation:Chirality and Rotation:AxisOrientation are indirectly involved). This mean that the propagation of Waves transfers Action in form of Translation (producing a variation in the speed of propagation in the Field, therefore producing an acceleration in the Field or in the Structures that absorb the Wave). Furthermore, the wave-like structure shows the "imprint" of the vortex-like structure that produced it and of the phenomenon that produced its emission. For example, for the photon / electromagnetic wave of visible light, the polarization parameter is determined by the dynamics of the Rotation:AxisOrientation Component, in other words the Spin of the particle that emitted it.
- at the level of Information / Energy: Motion is their main feature (no Mass since no Perturbation) (no Electric Charge, no Spin as in Vortex-type Structures, but the Components Rotation:Chirality and Rotation:Axis Orientation are indirectly involved in determining the parameter we call "polarization", the orientation, direction and verse, and temporal evolution of the intrinsic angular momentum of the Wave, the so-called spin angular momentum of light),
These characteristics determine one of the most relevant properties of this type of Structures: their incessant propagation at the maximum speed allowed (what in conventional physics is considered the constant speed of light in vacuum, which in Evolutionary Physics is considered variable in space and time depending on the precise value of the Perturbation Component and its dynamics linked to the distribution of the Dark Structures) in a straight line (in the sense of General Relativity, following the geodesics, trajectories of least action that follow the so-called curvature of space-time).
Here we are only talking about Waves in the Elementary Field, not about waves in a material medium (e.g. waves in water, air, etc.).
Physical quantities associated with Waves
Waves-type Structures can be completely characterized by three fundamental parameters:
- frequency (number of cycles per time unit) or wavelength (spatial length of one cycle), better for "single cycle waves"
- phase (angle-like quantity representing the fraction of the cycle covered up to a certain point in time)
- polarization (property of transverse waves that specifies the geometrical orientation of the oscillations / variations of the Field)
Regarding the frequency / wavelength parameter, we can distinguish:
- single-cycle waves -> waves that constitute light, emitted by a single electron in the post-emission deceleration phase (see dynamics of the emission / absorption of light by the electrons present in the atomic orbitals of ordinary matter) or oscillation during propagation in a magnetic field (e.g. synchrotron radiation),
- multi-cycle waves (wave train) -> emission of radio waves from alternating electric currents, electron flows in oscillatory propagation in electrical conductors (antennas).
In general, the use of the physical quantity "frequency" to characterize electromagnetic phenomena, whether they are described by electromagnetic waves or by particles called photons, is misleading. Many of the e.m. wave / photons emission phenomena are not periodic phenomena (e.g. emission of light due to the "quantum leap" effect of an electron). We probably imagine them as periodicals because we are still tied to the classical concept of wave. In fact, only the emissions of radio waves produced by the alternating flow of a current of electrons in a conductor (antenna) is in fact a (truly) periodic phenomenon. There are "quasi-periodic" wave emission phenomena, such as the emission of gravitational waves during a merger of massive cosmic objects (neutron stars/black holes). But the majority of wave emission materializes and must be described as non-periodic phenomena, of emission of single waves / photons (in the case of electromagnetic phenomena). Emitting large quantities of single cycle waves/photons. Therefore, to characterize waves, it is much more correct to use the term "wavelength", rather than frequency (which makes sense in a narrow phenomenological context -> emission, propagation and absorption of radio waves).
It could be said that there is a consolidated equivalence relations between wavelength and frequency and therefore the use of one quantity or the other would in fact be indifferent. This is not the case, according to the fundamental hypotheses that have been formulated in this work regarding the speed of propagation of Causality, Action and Information in the Elementary Field. Speed assumed to vary locally around an average value of the portion of space considered or of the entire spatially infinite Universe. It is precisely the local variability of this speed (for the Principle of General Equivalence, this is one of the representations of the Mode / Component of the Elementary Action that we call Perturbation, the other representations being the density of the Elementary Events, the temperature of the Field, the density of Mass, the curvature of Space-Time, or rather the curvature of Time) to represent a fundamental aspect of the "raw material" of which things are made. Universal average speed is also variable over time, due to the increase in the complexity of the organization of inhomogeneities, of the deformations of Elementary Field, the level of structuring of the Field itself (quantity and quality of the Information / Energy existing at a certain moment in history of the Universe).
All this implies that we cannot normally define a wave as a periodic oscillation and we cannot say that the wavelength represents the distance traveled by the wave in a period of Time. We will have to say that a wave is an oscillation, a deformation of a field, which propagates in the field itself. We cannot refer to "periodicity". Regarding the physical quantity "wavelength" we can imagine a definition of absolute wavelength (not dependent on Time, and consequently on the speed of light, both locally variable both in Space and Time) and a definition of length d 'relative wave (dependent on Time, and consequently on the speed of light), the normal definition of wavelength to which we are accustomed. For the definition of absolute wavelength we must not refer to a time interval (the rhythm of Time is variable locally and at different instants). The quantity "wavelength" must be defined in purely spatial terms as the distance between one extreme of the deformation of the field in which the wave expresses itself and the opposite extreme. Unfortunately, given the absence of reference points to be able to conduct such an absolute measurement of length, of distance between two points, we will never be able to characterize a wave by its absolute wavelength. The definition of relative wavelength essentially coincides with the ordinary definition we find in standard physics: the distance traveled by the wave in a period of time. These clarifications, even if in fact they do not change the way in which we can characterize the waves (in terms of wavelength / frequency) in my opinion are fundamental to avoid the incorrect representation of the waves always as periodic phenomena, even when they are not , and more generally to avoid the incorrect representation of waves as trains of oscillations, an image that makes it impossible to overcome the wave/particle dichotomy, at least as regards electromagnetic radiation.
As mentioned above, Waves are structures that propagate Action in the Translation component. With reference to standard physics, they can be described as vectors/carriers of Information, of Energy, vectors of (derivative) forces. In fact, they mediate exchanges of Information and Energy between Vortex-like Structures and Mixed structures, Complex vortices / particles and interactions, relations / interactions between Vortex-type Structures. In particular, they transfer energy (remember: elementary form of Physical Information) in the form of linear momentum (deriving from the Translation Component which determines the propagation of the wave in the Field) and intrinsic angular momentum (deriving from the Component Rotation:AxisOrientation which determines the polarization of the wave).
Types of Waves / Radiation
In this type of Structures, we find:
- gravitational waves (invisible / dark sector),
- electromagnetic waves (visible / ordinary sector).
They are the essence of Radiation, the radiative aspect of Physical Reality.
Radiation includes two types of phenomena:
- gravitational waves (dark radiation): they propagate mass, and, as stated by the Equivalence Principle, space time curvature, gradient in the Elementary Field temperature, difference in speed of light / velocity of propagation of Information in the Field, or, at the end, difference in the distribution of the elementary fluctuations of the Field (intensity of the Elementary Action). Most likely, we don’t think that gravitational waves can propagate charge and spin,
- electromagnetic radiation (visible radiation): this subclass of wave structures does not propagate mass, but only charge and spin. The fundamental undulatory representation of the "photon" is a wave structure that can be also seen like a particle (but not a vortex) in relation to its space time localization, shape (only one period of oscillation, resulting from a movement of a vortex structure in the space time field, with an initial acceleration and a final deceleration) and quantized energy amount (related to the quantity of Action that constitutes the Structure, in the terms of the correlation of the microstates that participate of its existence). Under the name "radiation" we cannot include the phenomena of the emission / propagation / absorption of massive particles, that is commonly named radiation, but represent a different phenomenon, connected to the dynamics, the motion, of ordinary matter particles (Vortices and Interactions). Its particle counterpart / representation is called "photon".
The shapes of Waves (one cycle and multiple cycles Waves)
In the field of Electromagnetic Phenomena, it is of utmost importance a correct distinction between structures formed by a single cycle, manifestations of a single phenomenon, from those formed by several cycles, wave trains, manifestations of a periodic phenomenon. This distinction helps to clarify the quantum weirdness of wave-particle duality, so well represented by the double-slit experiment and many other puzzling physical phenomena.
In the common scientific view of light quanta and electromagnetic radiation there is an important misunderstanding that takes us away from the correct understanding and description of shape of waves, and leads to the problem of wave-particle dualism. For a correct representation in spatio-temporal terms (geometric) of electromagnetic radiation (electromagnetic wave / photon) is fundamental the difference between:
- single-cycle waves (what is commonly called photon), a structure of information that can be located in space and time, obviously within the limits provided by the Uncertainty Principle, thus having a characteristic appearance of particles and not of waves, as commonly conceived,
- multi-cycle waves (wave train, what is commonly called electromagnetic wave, eg coherent photons emitted by a laser, radio electromagnetic emission, continuous oscillation).
Even if classical concepts such as particle or wave prove unsuitable to fully describe the behavior of quantum objects, the problem of finding a plausible representation breaks into what is called wave–particle duality. If we imagine a quantum of light as a single-cycle wave, it simultaneously acquires the shape and properties of a wave (diffraction and wave interference) as well as of a particle (localization, position and speed, in Space and Time, no interference). Having said this, later we will see how the phenomena of diffraction and interference are not so much determined by the wave nature of photons and elementary particles such as the electron, but by the phenomena produced by matter in particular circumstances, in the sense of a particular structuring of the Elementary Field, of the Elementary Action and of the Information / Energy (observing and representing the phenomenon at the various levels of Reality, Source, Action, Information), for example between the two slits of the experiment of the same name, or in the crystal lattice, both peculiar structurings of the Field that produce the characteristic effects (diffraction or interference figures), mimicking interference phenomena of wave entities.
Links to the tables of contents of TFNR Paper
