Tag: quantum field theories

🔬 When the Field is a Memory: Notes from a Human–Machine Collaboration

Why is the field around an electron so smooth?

Physicists have long accepted that the electrostatic potential of an electron is spherically symmetric and continuous — the classic Coulomb field. But what if the electron isn’t a smeared-out distribution of charge, but a pointlike particle — one that zips around in tight loops at the speed of light, as some realist models propose?

That question became the heart of a new paper I’ve just published:
“The Smoothed Field: How Action Hides the Pointlike Charge”
🔗 Read it on ResearchGate

The paradox is simple: a moving point charge should create sharp, angular variations in its field — especially in the near zone. But we see none. Why?

The paper proposes a bold but elegant answer: those field fluctuations exist only in theory — not in reality — because they fail to cross a deeper threshold: the Planck quantum of action. In this view, the electromagnetic field is not a primitive substance, but a memory of motion — smooth not because the charge is, but because reality itself suppresses anything that doesn’t amount to at least ℏ of action.

🤖 A Word on Collaboration

This paper wouldn’t have come together without a very 21st-century kind of co-author: ChatGPT-4, OpenAI’s conversational AI. I’ve used it extensively over the past year — not just to polish wording, but to test logic, rewrite equations, and even push philosophical boundaries.

In this case, the collaboration evolved into something more: the AI helped me reconstruct the paper’s internal logic, modernize its presentation, and clarify its foundational claims — especially regarding how action, not energy alone, sets the boundary for what is real.

The authorship note in the paper describes this in more detail. It’s not ghostwriting. It’s not outsourcing. It’s something else: a hybrid mode of thinking, where a human researcher and a reasoning engine converge toward clarity.

🧭 Why It Matters

This paper doesn’t claim to overthrow QED, or replace the Standard Model. But it does offer something rare: a realist, geometric interpretation of how smooth fields emerge from discrete sources — without relying on metaphysical constructs like field quantization or virtual particles.

If you’re tired of the “shut up and calculate” advice, and truly curious about how action, motion, and meaning intersect in the foundations of physics — this one’s for you.

And if you’re wondering what it’s like to co-author something with a machine — this is one trace of that, too.

Prometheus gave fire. Maybe this is a spark.

The concept of a field

I ended my post on particles as spacetime oscillations saying I should probably write something about the concept of a field too, and why and how many academic physicists abuse it so often. So I did that, but it became a rather lengthy paper, and so I will refer you to Phil Gibbs’ site, where I post such stuff. Here is the link. Let me know what you think of it.

As for how it fits in with the rest of my writing, I already jokingly rewrote two of Feynman’s introductory Lectures on quantum mechanics (see: Quantum Behavior and Probability Amplitudes). I consider this paper to be the third. 🙂

Post scriptum: Now that I am talking about Richard Feynman – again ! – I should add that I really think of him as a weird character. I think he himself got caught in that image of the ‘Great Teacher’ while, at the same (and, surely, as a Nobel laureate), he also had to be seen to a ‘Great Guru.’ Read: a Great Promoter of the ‘Grand Mystery of Quantum Mechanics’ – while he probably knew classical electromagnetism combined with the Planck-Einstein relation can explain it all… Indeed, his lecture on superconductivity starts off as an incoherent ensemble of ‘rocket science’ pieces, to then – in the very last paragraphs – manipulate Schrödinger’s equation (and a few others) to show superconducting currents are just what you would expect in a superconducting fluid. Let me quote him:

“Schrödinger’s equation for the electron pairs in a superconductor gives us the equations of motion of an electrically charged ideal fluid. Superconductivity is the same as the problem of the hydrodynamics of a charged liquid. If you want to solve any problem about superconductors you take these equations for the fluid [or the equivalent pair, Eqs. (21.32) and (21.33)], and combine them with Maxwell’s equations to get the fields.”

So… Well… Looks he too is all about impressing people with ‘rocket science models’ first, and then he simplifies it all to… Well… Something simple. 😊

Having said that, I still like Feynman more than modern science gurus, because the latter usually don’t get to the simplifying part. :-/