The Boyd Conjecture is that the amplitude of an elementary ray from the Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW) is the physical analog of a probability amplitude from Quantum Mechanics (QM). Boyd learned TEW from his cousin Lewis E. Little, who had said that quantum math is the roadmap to the world of elementary waves, but we did not know how to read the map. He suggested that Boyd, with a degree in mathematics, should work on deciphering the map. In 2014 Boyd began thinking that amplitudes are the core of QM, and elementary rays the core of TEW: perhaps they were equivalent. Both decisively influence particle behavior without conveying any energy. This essay discusses the history, strengths, weakness and implications of this conjecture.
The Boyd Conjecture is that the amplitude of an elementary ray from the Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW) is the physical analog of a probability amplitude from Quantum Mechanics (QM). Boyd learned TEW from his cousin Lewis E. Little, who had said that quantum math is the roadmap to the world of elementary waves, but we did not know how to read the map. He suggested that Boyd, with a degree in mathematics, should work on deciphering the map. In 2014 Boyd began thinking that amplitudes are the core of QM, and elementary rays the core of TEW: perhaps they were equivalent. Both decisively influence particle behavior without conveying any energy. This essay discusses the history, strengths, weakness and implications of this conjecture.
Why is quantum mathematics (QM) the only science based on probability amplitudes rather than probabilities? A paradigm shift called the Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW) posits zero energy waves traveling in the opposite direction as particles, which a particle follows backwards: like a probabilistic guidance system emanating from detectors. Probability amplitudes are the mathematical analog of these elementary rays. Although this proposal might sound like gibberish, that is the hallmark of a paradigm shift. Thomas Kuhn warns that previous paradigm shifts were rejected because they sounded like gibberish. TEW is internally coherent, explains a mountain of empirical data, and resolves insoluble problems of QM. For example, it dispenses with the need for wavefunction collapse because probability decisions are made at the particle source, not the detector. It is the only local realistic theory consistent with the Bell test experiments. That which QM calls “nonlocality,” TEW calls “elementary rays.” One term is vague, the other involves elegant mathematics. This article introduces that mathematical notation, explains complementarity in double slit experiments, and reinterprets Feynman diagrams. QM and TEW are partners that need each other. One is a science of observables; the other a science of how nature works independent of the observer.
Richard Feynmans book QED, written for a lay audience, is a trusted source of information about Quantum Electro-Dynamics by a Nobel laureate. It is a mirror image of the Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW), discovered by Lewis E. Little. Recent work on TEW, published in this journal, shows that an elementary ray has the shape of a cylindrical helix traveling in Euclidean space, with a complex amplitude. This is an analog in physical nature of Feynmans mathematical concept of an amplitude, which is the core of QED. The only substantial difference is that an amplitude is assumed by Feynman to travel in the same direction as the particle, but in TEW they travel in opposite directions. There is almost no empirical data to resolve that disagreement. Such evidence as exists favors the idea they travel in opposite directions. If we modify Feynmans QED in this way we end up with a theory symmetrical to QED. We nickname it QÆD, using the letter Æ to symbolize an ælementary ray. QÆD is a fountain of information about the nature of elementary rays, and resolves some of the problems that Feynman said he found in QED.
This is one of a series of articles building a map of elementary waves, based on experimental data and quantum mathematics. Previous articles showed that elementary waves carry no energy. Particles follow them backwards. Why? Elementary rays consist of probability amplitudes, which influence particles because that is what probability amplitudes do. Elementary waves are that part of nature corresponding to quantum mathematics. Since these waves are the physical analogs of quantum equations, those equations provide a roadmap to the world of elementary waves: a map written in hieroglyphs. Quantum math is our Rosetta stone. The quantum world is far, far more similar to the world of everyday experience than quantum experts think. Waves are in a superposition. Particles are not. Wave function collapse does not occur when we measure something. It had occurred much earlier, when the object came into existence. This resolves insoluble problems that stumped John von Neumann. The smooth functioning of a Schrödinger equation abruptly collapses into one specific eigenstate when a gun is fired, not when the bullet hits the target. The bullet that caused World War I is an example. That bullet caused an abrupt collapse of the smooth probabilities of commerce and diplomacy.
Wave particle duality is a mistake. Another option was neither conceived nor debated, which is a better foundation for quantum mechanics. The Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW) is based on the idea that particles follow zero energy waves backwards. A particle cannot be identical with its wave if they travel in opposite directions. TEW is the only form of local realism that is consistent with the results of the experiment by Aspect, Dalibard and Roger (1982). Here we show that 1. although QM teaches that complementarity in a double slit experiment cannot be logically explained, TEW explains it logically, without wave function collapse, and 2. gives an unconventional explanation of the Davisson Germer experiment. 3. There is empirical evidence for countervailing waves and particles and 4. zero energy waves. 5. TEW clarifies our understanding of probability amplitudes and supports quantum math. 6. There is an untested experiment for which TEW and wave particle duality predict different outcomes. If TEW is valid, then wave particle duality is not necessary for quantum math, which is the most accurate and productive science ever. With a more solid foundation, new vistas of science open, such as the study of elementary waves.
This article proposes solutions to two riddles of quantum mechanics (QM): (1) What is the physical analog of aquantum amplitude?, (2) Why do electrons in a double slit experiment act differently if we look at them? The Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW) is an unconventional view of how nature is organized. Elementary ray amplitudes precede and travel in the opposite direction as particles, which then follow these amplitudes backwards. The amplitude A = |A| ei? is a vector in Hilbert space, but it moves through Euclidean space. This makes explicit something implicit in Feynman’s thinking, although Feynman had the amplitudes traveling in the wrong direction. In double slit experiments, the amplitude of elementary rays going though the two slits interfere before they reach the electron gun. Any experiment that detects which slit the electron uses, destroys the coherence of those two rays, destroying the interference. Because there is no interference, the target screen displays no interference fringe pattern. TEW represents a paradigm shift of seismic proportions, in both classical and quantum physics. Thomas Kuhn warns that paradigm shifts of this magnitude are usually rejected as preposterous. That is exactly what happened to Alfred Wegener’s idea of “continental drift.”
An earlier article in this journal introduced a renegade theory called the Theory of Elementary Waves (TEW). Whereas quantum mathematics (QM) is a science of observables, TEW is a science of physical nature independent of the observer. They are symmetrical: complement and support each other. That article left three dangling threads that this article addresses: 1. Our claim that TEW is the only local realistic theory that can explain Bell test experiments, 2. Focusing on the medium in which elementary waves move, and 3. Demonstrating that there is zero experimental support wave particle duality. TEW is neither the hidden variable theory of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen (EPR), nor the absorber theory of Wheeler and Feynman, nor an offshoot nor variant of quantum theory. It is a new paradigm, discovered by a dissident, Lewis E. Little who, after his PhD in physics, worked alone for decades outside the ivory tower of academic physics searching for and eventually finding a theory that explains quantum experiments based on local realism. The fate of new paradigms, unfortunately, is to be rejected as gibberish by leaders of the old paradigm. Plate tectonics was dismissed as absurd during the twentieth century.