Document Type
Presentation
Publication Date
Fall 10-24-2014
Abstract
Physics is traditionally conceived of as a set of laws that universally governs the behavior of physical systems. These laws, however they are decreed, are believed to govern the behavior of not only everything in the universe, but the form of the universe itself. However, this traditional concept of physics as a universal governance is at odds with our modern theories of quantum mechanics and relativity, which place the observer and information in a central role. In this talk, I aim to rethink the foundations and attempt to build physics from the bottom up based on a very simple foundational idea that all one can possibly know is that things influence one another. I will demonstrate that a great deal of physics can be derived in this context from symmetries alone. For example, one can show that there is a unique consistent quantified description of a network of influence events, which is given by the mathematics of relativistic space-time and results in forces. In addition, making inferences about influence events leads to the relativistic quantum mechanics of fermions. As a result, many ‘fundamental’ concepts in physics and their relationships to one another can be derived from a more fundamental picture based on influence.
Recommended Citation
Knuth, Kevin H., "Physics: Rethinking the Foundations" (2014). Physics Faculty Scholarship. 9.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/physics_fac_scholar/9
Included in
Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics Commons, Elementary Particles and Fields and String Theory Commons, Other Physics Commons, Quantum Physics Commons
Terms of Use
This work is made available under the Scholars Archive Terms of Use.
Comments
Presented to the Physics Department at Kenyon College on 24 Oct 2014.