State of Research in Fundamental Physics
The current thrust of front-line fundamental research in Physics, appears to be approaching a dead end. Throughout the 20th century, Physicists have occupied themselves with working out Quantum Mechanics and Relativity in all their implications. In the process Physics has absorbed mathematical ideas and notions of increasing sophistication and abstraction.
Today, Unification is the theme, the backbone of modern physics. But the meaning of Unification, in this context, is the search for some grand mathematical structure, which could link the mathematical description of all separate phenomena. The tragedy of the 20th century, perhaps, is the gradual shift in our focus from the physical reality to the abstract mathematical formulations, which are supposed to describe physical reality. We appear to have been steadily indoctrinated into believing that due to complexity of physical reality, we can not even demand deeper meaning, deeper understanding and mental visualization of the basic phenomena in quantum mechanical world.
In this regard let me quote David Lindley from his popular book titled 'The End of Physics: The Myth of a Unified Theory : "... it may seem that the theoretical physicists of today are in the grip of a collective mathematical zaniness, inventing twenty-six-dimensional spaces and filling them with strings out of obfuscatory glee. Their use of language is as esoteric and baffling as that of the literary deconstructionists". Further, he states that - "...the trend toward increasing abstraction is turning theoretical physics into recreational mathematics, endlessly amusing to those who can master the techniques and join the game, but ultimately meaningless because the objects of the mathematical manipulations are forever beyond the access of experiment and measurement."
As a consequence of our shift in the focus from the physical reality to the mathematical description of physical reality, we have inadvertently adopted certain abstract mathematical concepts into our physical world view. Agreed that fundamental research does require a lot of mathematical support. But the end results of any complex mathematical processing, must be applicable to the Physics, must be applicable to the physical world and hence must come within the grasp of human mind and mental visualization. For example, the concepts of - virtual particles, particles with negative energy content, physical singularities like infinite mass concentrated in zero volume associated with the notions of the big bang and black holes, might have been originally proposed as abstract mathematical concepts. Instead of rejecting these concepts as physically invalid, these have been erroneously adopted into our physical worldview.
Additionally, experimental proofs and validations of such physically unacceptable mathematical concepts are often claimed. Invariably the results and conclusions of all experiments have to be drawn through interpretations of the observations by making use of some generally accepted theories or assumptions. Often, when the sophisticated experiments confirm or validate some physically invalid concepts, the fault is not in the observations or the techniques but with the interpretation of those observations. While announcing the results of all sophisticated experiments, the underlying theory or assumptions are never highlighted.
In all branches of applied sciences, our progress and achievements have been tremendous. But in theoretical Physics, which had been once regarded as the "mother of all sciences", the situation is quite grim. Today the best talent, the cream of our youth no longer finds it attractive to choose a career for doing fundamental research in Physics. At this juncture we must question whether the current fundamental physics is on the right track. Or perhaps in the grand maze of the unknown, we have somewhere missed the right track and are now approaching a dead end.
The Breakthrough
Currently our overall thinking or collective ‘Human Thought’, concerning fundamental Physics issues, is badly fractured. To ensure some meaningful advancement in Human Thought, we shall have to explore all possible alternative ideas and viewpoints. First of all we must highlight and critically examine the fundamental assumptions or postulates behind all proposed theories, ideas and viewpoints. Secondly, to fully comprehend and understand any physical phenomenon, we must demand mental visualization of such phenomenon.
I present one such viewpoint, through a new book titled "The Fundamental Nature of Matter and Fields"
The proposed theory represents an entirely novel point of view regarding the ultimate reality of Nature; regarding the most fundamental basis of physical reality. All matter and fields are shown to have evolved from characteristic "space-time" distortions. This point of view is drastically different from the currently accepted quantum mechanical viewpoint (Read the summary).
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