Re: Could the 'missing dimensions' be quarks?

Posted by DickT on September 15, 2003 at 07:05:03:

In Reply to: Re: Could the 'missing dimensions' be quarks? posted by rtharbaugh on September 14, 2003 at 18:35:19:

Richard,

These are good thoughts. I haven't read Kepler's Conjecture so I can't comment about that, but the idea of background independence is this. Start with background dependence. Newton's space and time are there always as he says. Physics takes place in them but they go serenely on irrespective of the physics. Same with special relativity. Those observers go all over the place and do physics, but that doesn't change spacetime. You do have a hint of independence in the causal structure of lightcones and the Lorents trnsformations. Apparently there is one thing, light, which is specially related to spacetime.

But generally in all this, and in all quantum theory too, there is the space/time background in which physics happens without affecting the background. It's dualism; here is our physics over here and there is our background over there, and they don't interact.

Now consider GR. Matter^* tells spacetime how to curve and spacetime tells matter how to move. Spacetime, the fabric of the universe, is in on the action and is changed by it. There isn't anything left any more in the background. This is monism, only one fundamental kind of thing, interacting spacetime which is the same as gravitating matter. This was Einstein's vision. Spacetime is nothing at all but the gravity-curvature field. He rejected the idea that there was an "underlying manifold" on which the metric and curvature was defined.

Regards,
Dick

^*short for matter and energy, of course.

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Follow Ups: (Reload page to see most recent)

• Re: Could the 'missing dimensions' be quarks? -- pelastration 9/15/03 (0)
• Quark to Quark Measure -- sol 9/15/03 (18)
  • Re: Quark to Quark Measure -- DickT 9/15/03 (2)
    • Re: Quark to Quark Measure -- sol 9/15/03 (1)
      • Re: Quark to Quark Measure -- DickT 9/15/03 (0)
  • Dimension is Relative to Energy -- sol 9/15/03 (14)
    • Re: Dimension is Relative to Energy -- DickT 9/15/03 (13)
      • Dimension is Relative to Metric Points:) -- sol 9/15/03 (12)
        • Re: Dimension is Relative to Metric Points:) -- DickT 9/15/03 (9)
          • solar wind, heliosphere, plasmas, etc -- lanecove 9/16/03 (8)
            • Re: solar wind, heliosphere, plasmas, etc -- rtharbaugh 9/16/03 (4)
              • X-rays from the dark side of the Moon -- lanecove 9/17/03 (2)
                • X-rays from the dark side of consciousness -- rtharbaugh 9/17/03 (1)
                  • Re: X-rays from the dark side of consciousness -- lanecove 9/17/03 (0)
              • here is the link -- rtharbaugh 9/16/03 (0)
            • Discrete versus Continuity? -- sol 9/16/03 (2)
              • Re: Discrete versus Continuity? -- lanecove 9/16/03 (0)
              • Geometry is Better then Topology? -- sol 9/16/03 (0)
        • Gmn = - 8pG/c2Tmn(From Gravity to supergravity) -- sol 9/15/03 (1)
          • Re: Gmn = - 8pG/c2Tmn(From Gravity to supergravity) -- DickT 9/15/03 (0)

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