How does E = mc2 work at Planck level

We do not need to go to a faraway land only to get to the frontier of the material world we live in. We are indebted to Planck (1900) who enabled us to discover this frontier beyond which nothing exists but energy. Everybody can reach this boundary just right from where he or she stands on, going deep inward into the center of micro-realm, to the Planck level at the distance of 10^-33 cm or period of 10^-44 second below which neither space nor time has any meaning.

Planck himself was not aware of the broader physical meaning of his finding. In fact, we can derive those values from his constant, h = 6.6 x 10^-34 joule-seconds, the measure of a unit of action which is a little bit weird and uncommon. So, why then we are facing such an odd unit? What Planck had discovered was not merely a measure of a unit of action which is an abstract thing but the real size of four-dimensional discrete energy (quantum). Energy is like water phase consisting of discrete four-dimensional “molecules”, the smallest constituent of the underlying four-dimensional sea of energy.

"Shortly" after Planck momentous discovery, Minkowski (1908) revealed the four-dimensionality of the macro-world. The unification of these theories would lead us to conclude that the four-dimensionality of the spacetime is just the manifestation of the degree of freedom of energy which itself is four-dimensional. We have, then, a very consistent geometrical pattern of the four-dimensional world, both microscopically and macroscopically, from the tiniest thing like four-dimensional quanta to the largest ones such as the four-dimensional spacetime as a whole. 

But still, nobody grasps the important implication of this quanta’s four-dimensionality. The fundamental particles, the smallest building blocks of the universe, which are the derivative of these quanta as dictated by the energy equation E= mc² should be also four-dimensional. Being discrete both spatially and temporarily, this little stuff is short-living.  The persistence of everything we see around us is just the appearance of the underlying perpetual creation and annihilation of fundamental ephemeral things, an action that takes place at the Planck level. 

As the macro-world is made of these ephemeral kinds of stuff, the same thing happens in the macro-realm. At any instant, our physical space appears and disappears in the same rhythm with what happens in the micro-realm.   How could this happen? The notions of creation and annihilation are just the terms we use to describe the transformations of energy into matter and vice versa.  Down to the Planck level the energy equation, E= mc² is highly reversible in which matter and energy flashing to and fro at the pace equal to the speed of light.

The appearance and disappearance of the whole thing from the space as a whole down to the minuscule particles at the deepest level of reality give us a feeling that something passes by. And this something is what we call time.   The past, present, and future are just a series of continuous process of formation and dissolution just like a single water wave moves across the surface of the water; the peak of the wave is the now, the flat horizon behind it is the past and ahead is the future. This is the true nature of time that people are searching for a long time. Had everything persisted there would be no time at all.

Now what we perceive as one and the same persistent particle is, in fact, a series of similar but different particles appear and disappear rapidly at the speed of light. The constant c is nothing but the rate of the perpetual creation and annihilation of the quanta, the building blocks of the universe. Among this process what we can directly measure is the rate of the perpetual creation and annihilation of the photon which is equal to the speed of light. This is the underlying fact why nothing can move faster than the light, otherwise, there would be something running ahead of its very own existence.

How this creation and annihilation physically take place? The relativity energy equation E² = m²c⁴ + p²c² implicitly shows that the energy inherently consists of the opposites: the positive and negative energies. As they are repulsive they both tend to segregate separating from each other. At Planck level, the interplays of these two (the exchange of 4D-electric currents?) across the interface (thin 3D-surface) create quantum sparks (“quarks”), analogous to the sparks appear and disappear on our TV screen. These quantum sparks are what we perceive as fundamental particles perpetually appear and disappear at a gigantic 3D- TV screen -- our dear physical space.

Ephemeral Fundamental Particles

We are used to perceiving matter as a tangible thing, however small it is. We believe that when we divide a chunk of matter into its smaller parts we will eventually unable to divide them any further. The classical reason for this is because they have no more internal structure to be split.

We have taken for granted that the smallest particle is persistent, continuously at rest or moving around in space, just like an ordinary billiard ball. This continuity and deterministic features of nature hold not only as the foundation of the classical but the relativity theory as well.

The quantum theory which mostly deducted from experiments holds the contrary. To take into account this paradox, we put forward a new paradigm: “when we divide a chunk of matter into its smaller parts we will eventually unable to divide them any further because they are so small and extremely unstable that they immediately disappear into "thin air".

The smallest part of matter, the fundamental particle" is ephemeral. The persistence of a particle in the macro realm is nothing but the appearance of the perpetual creation and annihilation of fundamental particles. In the deepest level of reality (Planck distance) matter is created and annihilated to and fro energy, in accordance with the famous Einstein’s equation E = mc2. This is the underlying reality of the discontinuity and probabilistic features of the quantum realm.

The Energy and its Polarity

The special relativity theory concerns the fundamentals namely space, time, energy, and matter which basic nature has puzzled people for thousands of years. The special relativity theory has classified and unified those fundamentals into two distinct entities: the spacetime and energy. The space and time have been unified into a four-dimensional entity called the spacetime while the energy and matter into a single energy substance from which matter is derived, as expressed in the equation E = mc2.

And the special relativity theory ends here. People presume that the spacetime is like a container and energy something that fills it. This may lead to the misconception that the spacetime could be empty devoid of energy. Once again a new paradigm shift is called for:” The spacetime and energy are inseparable just as the spherical form and water substance in a water drop to be. The spacetime is just the geometrical aspect of energy. Contrary to what Minkowski presumed, spacetime does have no existence on its own.

Now, here we have energy as the one and only independent reality in nature from which everything else is derived. It is primordial; neither can be destroyed nor created, the only existence in nature. Another important aspect of energy is its dimensions. The spacetime’s dimensions are just the reflection of the degree of freedom and the potency of energy. The higher the energy potency the bigger the number of the spacetime’s dimensions to be. This is the fact behind the existence of higher dimensional worlds which some physical theories have revealed. Under the special relativity theory, as the spacetime is four-dimensional the energy is four-dimensional accordingly.

Another important principle that the special relativity theory reveals is polarity energy. The energy as a whole consists of positive and negative energies as expressed in the relativity energy equation E2 = m2c4+p2c2. Surprisingly, nobody has paid enough attention to this energy polarity, which in reality is the basic prerequisite of the creation of the universe.

Creation by Separation

The energy as a whole tends to separate into its positive and negative components. As they segregate from each other, a hyper-interface is created in between the two; analogous to the interface between oil and water that we can observe in our daily life. As the energy and its opposite substances are 4-dimensional, this hyper-interface is 3-dimensional (space).

How do the two opposite energies split? The split does not take place instantaneously across the whole spacetime, but gradually stretching out across the spacetime just like a crack propagating in the middle of a glass sphere. This represents the expanding universe as an alternative against the Big-Bang theory. The repulsive force of the opposite energies that stretches out the 3-interface (space) is the external energy that we call the dark energy.

Probabilistic and Non-Locality Features of Nature

The interplay between the positive and negative energies gives rise to quantum fields piercing through and igniting quantum-sparks (“quarks”) at the 3-interface analogous to the pixels appearing and disappearing at a gigantic plasma TV screen. This is the deepest reality of fundamental particles.

Quanta are created and annihilated to and fro the energy in accordance with the energy equation E=mc2. There is no persistent fundamental particle exists in nature. What we perceive as a persistent particle in the macro realm is, in reality, the appearance of a series of different particles subsequently created and annihilated one after another. It is analogous to the flame of a candle which is never the same and always being different entities at any instant.

This is the underlying reality of the discontinuity and probabilistic features of quantum mechanics. Another important feature, the non-locality, is nothing but the manifestation of the perpetual particles’ creations which are taking place simultaneously.

References:

Herbert, Nick:" Quantum Reality," Anchor Books, New York, 1985

Ridley B.K.: "Time, Space and Things," Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2002

LINKS:

Multidimensional worlds:http://multidimensionalworlds.com/

Ephemeral Fundamental Particles