0000000000189934
AUTHOR
Arto Annila
On the divide between animate and inanimate
Vitalism was abandoned already for a long time ago, yet the impression that animate beings differ in some fundamental way from inanimate objects continues to thrive. Here, we argue that scale free patterns, found throughout nature, present convincing evidence that this demarcation is only imaginary. Therefore, all systems ought to be regarded alike, i.e., all are consuming free energy in least time. This way evolutionary processes can be understood as a series of changes from one state to another, so that flows of energy themselves naturally select those ways and means, such as species and societies or gadgets and galaxies to consume free energy in the least time in quest of attaining therm…
Atomism Revisited
The ancient atomism inspires us to reconsider everything as being composed of indivisible entities, known today as quanta of actions. The quantum of light is the familiar single quantum in its open waveform. Likewise, any other physical action is a geometric notion in terms of energy and time. The quantized systems, e.g., elementary particles take forms of geodesics, i.e., paths of least action in quest for energetic balance with surrounding quanta. The fine-structure constant, as the ratio of two actions corresponding to the electron and neutrino, allows us to deduce unambiguously the characteristic symmetries of leptons, mesons, and baryons. We exemplify the quantized structures of photon…
On the carrier of inertia
A change in momentum will inevitably perturb the all-embracing vacuum, whose reaction we understand as inertia. Since the vacuum's physical properties relate to light, we propose that the vacuum embodies photons, but in pairs without net electromagnetic fields. In this physical form the free space houses energy in balance with the energy of matter in the whole Universe. Likewise, we reason that a local gravitational potential is the vacuum in a local balance with energy that is bound to a body. Since a body couples to the same vacuum universally and locally, we understand that inertial and gravitational masses are identical. By the same token, we infer that gravity and electromagnetism shar…
The phase diagram and the magnetic structure of nuclear spins in elemental copper below 60 nK
Abstract The phase diagram for nuclear magnetic order is elemental copper and the corresponding ordering vectors were investigated by neutron diffraction at nanokelvin temperatures. The intermediate phase is characterized by an ordering vector (O 2 3 2/3 . This is the first time that this type of order is observed in an fcc antiferromagnet.
On the exhaust of electromagnetic drive
Recent reports about propulsion without reaction mass have been met on one hand with enthusiasm and on the other hand with some doubts. Namely, closed metal cavities, when fueled with microwaves, have delivered thrust that could eventually maintain satellites on orbits using solar power. However, the measured thrust appears to be without any apparent exhaust. Thus the Law of Action-Reaction seems to have been violated. We consider the possibility that the exhaust is in a form that has so far escaped both experimental detection and theoretical attention. In the thruster's cavity microwaves interfere with each other and invariably some photons will also end up co-propagating with opposite pha…