Shows
Physics FrontiersDo Aliens Speak Physics with Daniel WhitesonJim talks with Daniel Whiteson of the University of California at Irvine about his new book _Do Aliens Speak Physics,_ In this discussion we look at his "extended Drake equation that asks, "if aliens do exist, will we be able to talk to them?" Or learn anything from them.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/83(May be delayed)
2025-10-271h 01Physics FrontiersQuantum Random Access Memory with Koustubh PhalakJim talks with Koustubh Phalak about quantum random access memory (QRAM), a proposed technology that would allow the storage of quantum states in qunatum computation. Koustubh discusses quantum computing, the need for QRAM, proposed implementations of QRAM, and some of the difficulties in its implementation.Show Notes: http//frontiers.physicsfm.com/82
2025-09-301h 06Physics FrontiersPixelated Space Time with Philip TeeJim talks with Philip Tee about the effects of a fundamental length scale. Phil uses doubly special relativity to try to find observable effects of the pixelization of space, including its effect on light bending and the Casimir effect.Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/81
2025-02-091h 02Physics FrontiersEmergent Decoherent Histories with Philipp StrasbergJim talks with Philipp Strasberg about his simulations of branching and recombining processes in the evolution of quantum states, and their meaning for not only for the many worlds interpretation but also for understanding quantum mechanics in general.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/80
2024-12-291h 13Physics FrontiersPrimordial Black Holes with QCD Color Charge with Elba Alonso-Monsalve and David KaiserJim talks with Elba Alonso-Monsalve and David Kaiser about the prospects to describe dark matter as tiny black holes that were created at the end of cosmic inflation. Due to the large inhomogeneities in the distribution of matter at that time, the black holes could form directly from the matter distribution and not be color neutral (in the sense of QCD).Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/79
2024-09-0459 minPhysics FrontiersQuantum Machine Learning with Bruna ShinoharaJim talks with Bruna Shinohara of CMC Microsystems. Quantum computing and machine learning are both currently making huge strides. So it is not strange that people are trying to use quantum computing for machine learning.
2024-06-0151 minPhysics FrontiersMaxwellian Ratchets with Alex JurgensJim talks with Alex Jurgens about Maxwellian ratchets, automata that are similar to Maxwell's Demon. They talk about their implications for information processing and entropy.http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/77
2024-03-311h 21Physics FrontiersUndeciability and Theories of Everything with Claus KieferJim talks with Claus Kiefer about the implications of Goedel's incompleteness theorems on the search for the theory.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/76
2024-01-2949 minPhysics FrontiersCategorical Probability and the Measurement ProblemJim talks with Nick Ormrod and V. Vilasini about their use of categorical probability theory to analyze the measurement problem. We discuss categorical probability theory, which allows them to abstract from particular mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics to more general ideas about states and measurements and observers than found in Hilbert space formulations. They use this to look at the various properties of quantum mechanics and how they relate to each other, in particular how relativity affects the measurement problem.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/75
2023-08-201h 07Physics FrontiersStochastic Thermodynamics with David WolpertJim talks with David Wolpert about the non-equilibrium behavior of computation, what it means for entropy, and how it relates to traditional thermodynamics.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/74
2023-07-0950 minPhysics FrontiersQuantum Money with Jiahui LiuJim discusses quantum money with Jiahui Liu. Quantum money is a linchpin of quantum cryptography. The ability to create secure banknotes using quantum computers would allow even more secure methods of encryption for communications.
2023-06-181h 00Physics FrontiersBorn Rule and Gravity with Antony ValentiniJim talks with Antony Valentini about the difficulties of interpretation of quantum mechanics in light of quantum gravity. In particular, Antony discusses the failure of the Born Rule due to the impossibility of normalization (the fact that probabilities must sum to 100%) at that scale, and therefore the need to interpret the wavefunction as something more than merely the knowledge of the observer about the system. They spend some time talking about the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation in light of quantum gravity.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/72
2023-04-241h 13Physics FrontiersPrimordial Graviton BackgroundJim talks with Sunny Vagnozzi about using the Primoridial Graviton Background to rule out all inflation models. Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/71
2023-02-1945 minPhysics FrontiersPath Integrals and Entanglement with Ken WhartonJim talks with Ken Wharton about how to describe entangled states as sums over histories of particle paths using the path integral method. He shows how this works for Bell-type experiments, entanglements swapping, delayed choice experiments, and the triangle network. This leads to a second way to describe what happens quantum mechanically without introducing non-locality (but requiring other classical ideas to break down).Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/70
2022-12-1846 minPhysics FrontiersThe Flavor Puzzle with Joe DavighiJim talks with Joe Davighi of the University of Zurich about the flavor unification at high energies - the merging of all leptons into one kind of particle. The discussion includes symmetries in particle physics, symmetry breaking at low temperatures, and unification schemes in general. Joe also discusses both leptoquarks and proton stability in the context of his theory.
2022-11-2043 minPhysics FrontiersQuantum Resource Theories with Gilad GourJim talks with Gilad Gour of the University of Toronto about quantum resource theories. These are theories of largish systems that describe the relationships between possible states by the different levels of resources required for each. By using resources, a system can move from one state to another. This results in a partial order where between two states there could be two different states inaccessible to one another. Although (usually) these coalesce into an order based on a single property of thermodynamically-sized systems, the entropy, a few do not.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/68
2022-09-2651 minPhysics FrontiersOptical Gravity with Matthew R. EdwardsJim talks with Matthew R. Edwards about his theory of Optical Gravity. This is a Le Sage model of gravity based on graviton filiments.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/67
2022-08-1435 minPhysics FrontiersThe Limit of General Relativity with James Owen WeatherallJim talks with James Owen Weatherall about his work on viewing general relativity as an effective field theory and where it should give way to another theory. General relativity does a very good job of describing the world we see in astronomical observations, but certain results, e.g. singularities, and certain limits, e.g. the Planck scale, hint that there should be another theory that supersedes it. Jim Weatherall argues that this is in a high curvature regime.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/66
2022-06-2630 minPhysics FrontiersCausality, Time and the Experiment Paradox with Michal EcksteinJim talks with Michal Eckstein of the Copernicus Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies about how two different kinds of ordering, chronological and causal, give rise to a robust idea of time. Additionally, we discuss the Experiment Paradox, a generalization of other measurement-type paradoxes in physics.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/65
2022-05-221h 05Physics FrontiersBorn's Rule with Blake StaceyJim talks with Blake Stacey about recent attempts to replace Born's rule. Born's rule is the principle used in quantum mechanics that associates quantum states to the probability of measurement. There has been a recent interest in Quantum Foundations to try to find a less arbitrary rationale for this procedure. Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/64
2022-04-2429 minPhysics FrontiersGleason's Theorem with Blake StaceyJim talks with Blake Stacey about Gleason's Theorem, a foundational topic in the foundations of quantum mechanics. Gleason's theorem gives us a set of characteristic states for a measurement and the probability rule associated measuring them. This is the first part of the interview. The second part will discuss recent attempts to replace the Born Rule.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/63
2022-03-2044 minPhysics FrontiersDeformed Special RelativityJim and Randy talk about how special relativity might be amended to incorporate a minimum length scale. Such scales are common in quantum gravity theories, and in the limit where both QM and GR are less important, QG should induce first order corrections to SR. We then talk about how these corrections seem to lead to unreasonable paradoxes.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/62
2022-02-1339 minPhysics FrontiersDark StarsJim and Randy talk about alternatives to black holes without event horizons or singularities.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/61
2021-10-3142 min
2021-10-2532 minPhysics FrontiersWarp BubblesRandy tells Jim about developments of metrics describing isolated spacetime bubbles that could, possibly, move faster than light.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/60
2021-09-1243 minPhysics FrontiersThe Hubble CrisisRandy and Jim discuss the current tension between measurements of the Hubble constant by different methods, and some attempts to resolve the issue.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/59
2021-07-0548 min
Highbrow DrivelQuantum physics and the multiverse w/ Dr Jim Rantschler & Eve EllenbogenFrom spiderman to Loki to Rick and Morty, pop culture loves a good multiverse at the moment. In this episode we ask a quantum physicist what a multiverse is and whether the science behind it checks out. Expert guestJim Rantschler teaches physics at Texas A&M at Galveston. He has worked as an NRC postdoc at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a research professor at the University of Houston, and a Senior Principal Engineer at Western Digital. He previously taught at Xavier University of Louisiana. Jim hosts the awesome Physics Frontiers p...
2021-06-061h 00Physics FrontiersPhantom MatterJim and Randy talk about the Higgs portal to dark matter and the nightmare scenario for particle physicists: what if the LHC never saw any traces of supersymmetric particles?Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/58
2021-06-0638 minPhysics FrontiersQuantum Effects in Gravitational WavesRandy and Jim talk about two proposals to use gravitational wave interferometry to show that gravitons exist through noise measurements.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/57
2021-05-0226 minPhysics FrontiersAnomalous Magnetic Moment of the MuonJim and Randy discuss the measurements of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and some of the ways in which the discrepancy between theory and experiment could manifest themselves in new physics.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/56
2021-04-0144 minPhysics FrontiersMultiversalityJim and Randy discuss the rationales for multiverses based on quantum mechanics, string theory, and the anthropic principle.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/55
2020-12-0737 minPhysics FrontiersThe ANITA ExperimentRandy and Jim talk about the strange results of the ANITA experiment: tau neutrinos that seem to come up out of the Earth.Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/54
2020-10-1845 minPhysics FrontiersElectromagnetic Gravitational RepulsionRandy tells Jim about ways in which electromagnetism reduces the gravitational attraction caused by a body.
2020-08-1741 minPhysics FrontiersSterile NeutrinosJim and Randy discuss the hypothesis of sterile neutrinos, neutrinos that are even more ghostly than neutrinos that are dark matter candidates.
2020-07-0837 min2020-06-1038 minPhysics FrontiersX17Jim and Randy discuss a possible "fifth force," the hypothetical X17 particle that has been seen in several experiments. Erratum: The g-2 of the muon was shown to be off by 1 part in 500,000 in 2001 at Brookhaven. It may not be in there, I'm not sure how much of that I cut out.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/50
2020-05-0438 minPhysics FrontiersThe Unruh EffectJim and Randy discuss the apparent creation of quanta seen by comparing the viewpoints of relatively accelerating observers -- the Unruh Effect. (There is a little noise that shows up on Randy's track half way through - I did my best)Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/49(links to papers, podcasts, and more!)
2020-04-0439 minPhysics FrontiersThe Gertsenshtein EffectRandy introduces Jim to the Gertsenshtein effect, the conversion of gravitational waves to electromagnetic waves through resonances.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/48
2020-01-1940 minPhysics FrontiersBimetric GravityRandy introduces Jim to Sabine Hossenfelder's bimetric theory of gravity. In this gravitational theory, there are two types of matter whose only interaction is through gravitation. However, each one reacts to space-time differently, resulting in different metric tensors for each. In low-curvature situations, this creates a kind of anti-gravitation.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/47
2019-11-2446 minPhysics FrontiersWigner's FriendRandy and Jim discuss experiments that purport to show that there is no such thing as objective reality.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/46
2019-09-2244 minPhysics FrontiersLoop Quantum GravityJim and Randy discuss loop quantum gravity, and integration of quantum mechanics and gravity that quantizes space-time itself through the use of uncertain quanta of volumes and the random connections between them.
2019-08-1744 minPhysics FrontiersSpooky Action at a DistanceJim and Randy discuss experiments that put a minimum superluminal speed of communication between parts of a wavefunction.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/44
2019-07-1647 minPhysics FrontiersThe Positive Energy TheoremRandy introduces Jim to a refutation of the positive energy theorem in a universe with a cosmological constant.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/43
2019-06-0634 minPhysics FrontiersEntropic GravityJim and Randy discuss Eric Verlinde's theory thermodynamic theory of gravity. This theory purports to explain gravitational attraction and inertia through statistical mechanics.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/42
2019-05-0436 minPhysics FrontiersThe Chameleon FieldRandy and Jim discuss the chameleon field -- a way to model dark energy with a scalar boson of varying strength.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/41
2019-02-2433 minPhysics FrontiersThe OctonionsRandy tells Jim about a way to use an extension of an extension of the complex numbers to reveal the nature of elementary particles.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/40
2018-12-2352 minPhysics FrontiersNegative Effective MassRandy tells Jim about experiments with Neutrons and Photons in materials that exhibit negative effective mass. Not only do these effects show that the inertial mass of quasiparticles in a material can become negative, they show that these negative mass quasiparticles act like they have negative gravitational mass, as well.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/39
2018-12-0935 minPhysics FrontiersThe Dimensionality of Space-TimeJim discusses why the world we observe is 4-dimensional with Randy. We discuss anthropic and fundamental reasons why we need 3 dimensions and no more than one time dimension for reasons of complexity, predictability and stability.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/38
2018-11-2543 minPhysics FrontiersThe Einstein-Cartan Torsion Field TheoryRandy explains to Jim theories on how to incorporate a native angular momentum into general relativity.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/37
2018-10-3035 minPhysics FrontiersThe Metamaterial Stress TensorRandy tells Jim about recent results in the description of the electromagnetic stress tensor in metamaterials. In particular, we discuss the efforts to computationally model the stress tensor in amorphous metamaterials.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/36
2018-10-1542 minPhysics FrontiersThe String Theory LandscapeJim and Randy explore the landscape of string theory in the anthropic manner put forward by Leonard Susskind.Show Notes:http:frontiers.physicsfm.com/35
2018-09-2242 minPhysics FrontiersCPT Symmetry and GravitationCPT Symmetry is a fundamental symmetry in the standard model. Jim and Randy discuss what happens when it is applied to general relativity.Show Notes: frontiers.physicsfm.com/34[Really sorry for the muted tracks on the first upload. The problem has been fixed. - J]
2018-08-1032 minPhysics FrontiersRetrocausalityJim and Randy look at how quantum mechanics is affected by time. Most importantly, what happens when temporal boundary conditions are used to create standing waves in the wave function of a particle?Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/33
2018-07-2534 minPhysics FrontiersTunneling TimeJim talks to Randy about the amount of time it takes for an electron to tunnel through a forbidden region of space. Astoundingly, how quickly this happens has been a subject of debate for eighty years and is still unresolved.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/32
2018-07-0747 minPhysics FrontiersPost-Newtonian GravitationJim discusses the Parameterized Post-Newtonian formalism with Randy. The PPN framework is a general, linearized metric theory of gravity that can simulate all metric theories of gravity and compare them to solar system sized experiments.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/31
2018-06-0941 minPhysics FrontiersThe Consistent Histories Interpretation of Quantum MechanicsJim and Randy discuss the consistent histories interpretation of quantum mechanics. The brainchild of Robert Griffiths and with a surprisingly strong set of supporters, Consistent Histories seems to be a strong, logical description of what happens in the quantum world.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/30
2018-05-2446 minPhysics FrontiersGravitational Alternatives to Dark EnergyJim and Randy discuss how modifications to general relativity can be used to mimic the effects of dark energy. They discuss various forms of gravitational theory that can do the job, as well as the field particles that mediate their "fifth force."Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/29
2018-05-1646 minPhysics FrontiersThe Quantum Vacuum and the Casimir EffectJim and Randy review two very convincing papers that make the claim that the Casimir effect is due to materials fluctuations and not the zero point energy.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/28
2018-04-2541 minPhysics FrontiersThe Gravitational Equivalence PrinciplesJim talks to Randy about the different ways in which the equivalence principle of general relativity can be formulated. More than just the equivalence of accelerations, the different possible meanings of the equivalence principle mean different things about how gravity works. From weak to strong, from Einstein's equivalence principle to Schiff's conjecture, the implications of these theories are explored.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/27
2018-04-1546 minPhysics FrontiersAntimatter Production at a Potential BoundaryRandy shows Jim an idea for generating antimatter using the Casimir effect that doesn't require a collider.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/26
2018-03-2539 minPhysics FrontiersGravitational Field PropulsionRandy introduces Jim to several ways in which people have theorized that gravity can be used to propel an object through space. The slingshot effect is the only proven method here, but people have found many ways that theoretically could induce propulsion taking advantage of non-commutative motions in space-time, negative inertia, artificially-induced gravitational dipoles, and creating bubbles in space-time. Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/25
2018-03-1658 minPhysics FrontiersThe Island of StabilityRandy tells Jim about the island of stability: a theoretically predicted oasis of stable nuclear isotopes that researchers keep getting nearer and nearer to discovering. Randy and Jim talk about what they are, how researchers are trying to produce the isotopes, and the theoretical methods that predict their existence.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/24
2018-02-2425 minPhysics FrontiersDark EnergyRandy helps Jim get a handle on Dark Energy. Why do we need it? What could it be? What does it have to do with you? How close are we to knowing anything about it?Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/23
2018-02-091h 13Physics FrontiersWeyl and QuasiparticlesJim and Randy discuss quasiparticles recently found in condensed matter systems that mirror particles theorized nearly a hundred years ago, but never found in the vacuum. Weyl particles are massless fermions, and once it was hoped that neutrinos would turn out to be this kind of particle, and Majorana fermions have real-valued wave functions and therefore many strange and possibly useful properties. Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/22
2018-01-2237 minPhysics FrontiersThe Origin of InertiaRandy tells Jim about a scheme that uses Mach's Principle - the idea that there is a preferred background frame with respect to the fixed stars - to explain the origin of inertia.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/21
2018-01-1138 minPhysics FrontiersTime CrystalsJim talks to Randy about structures that are periodic in time like crystals are periodic in space. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/20
2017-12-221h 02Physics FrontiersThe 2T Physics of Itzhak BarsRandy tells Jim about a theory that complements other theories of fundamental physics based upon a phase space symmetry between the 4-position and the 4-momentum of a particle. The upshot of the theory is that there should be a second time dimension and a fourth space dimension, both macroscopic in extent, and the physics we see are 4D projections from the larger 6D space-time.Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/18
2017-12-0644 minPhysics FrontiersThe Physics of Time TravelRandy and Jim talk about traveling through through time, discussing relativity and, in particular, Kurt Goedel's solution for closed timelike curves in General Relativity. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/17
2017-11-2443 minPhysics FrontiersStochastic Resonance Energy HarvestingRandy tells Jim about ways in which external vibrations can be used to do useful work in large-scale devices. These processes look at have happens when bistable systems (e.g., a bent cantilever) are subjected to random forcing from the environment. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/16
2017-11-0637 minPhysics FrontiersFive Proven Methods of LevitationRandy shows Jim five different ways in which a body can be levitated: by magnetism, by superconductors, by Lenz' Law, by acoustics, and most recently by thermophoresis. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/15
2017-10-2147 minPhysics FrontiersStochastic ElectrodynamicsRandy explains Stochastic Electrodynamics to Jim, the theory that vacuum fluctuations are the cause of quantum mechanical behavior. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/14
2017-10-0450 minPhysics FrontiersExotic Photon Trajectories in Quantum MechanicsJim and Randy discuss strange trajectories observed in triple slit experiments with metallic plates. Photons seem to pass through one slit, come back through the middle slit, and out the third due to their interactions with surface plasmons. There are implications in this experiment about the way in which wavefunctions need to be interpreted in non-relativistic quantum mechanics.Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/13
2017-09-1426 minPhysics FrontiersA Gravitational Arrow of TimeJim and Randy discuss a cosmological theory that purports to find an explanation for the arrow of time in gravitational theory based on the shape and distribution of matter and how it evolves. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/12
2017-08-2041 minPhysics FrontiersPhotonic Molecules and Optical CircuitsRandy tells Jim about photonic molecules, pairs of photons that create bound states like molecules do through a force mediated through an ultracold gas and similar ideas in optical circuits. They also discuss application of the same for quantum computing. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/11
2017-07-1636 minPhysics FrontiersRequirements for Alternative Gravity TheoriesIn this episode Jim and Randy talk about how to evaluate alternative gravity theories. What sort of things do we want them to explain, what experiments do they have to predict, and what theoretical requirements do they have to meet. This is in some ways a continuation of Episode 9 - f(R) Theories of Gravity, but the discussion is relevant to all attempts to amend gravitational theory.Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/10In the program, Randy talks about the outline I sent him. I put that up on the Physics...
2017-07-0148 minPhysics Frontiersf(R) Theories of GravityJim and Randy discuss gravitational theories that modify general relativity by changing the action using a polynomial dependence on the Ricci scalar. Although not physically motivated, some of these theories produce effects similar to those of dark matter, dark energy, and cosmological constants. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/9
2017-06-0237 minPhysics FrontiersVacuum Fluctuations and the Casimir EffectJim and Randy discuss how vacuum fluctuations produce the van der Waals forces and the Casimir effect. Van der Waals forces are factors in atomic bonds and the Casimir effect produces an attractive force between nanoscale objects. The claim is that vacuum fluctuations -- the production and annihilation of particle-antiparticle pairs -- are the underlying reason for both effects. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/8
2017-04-2847 minPhysics FrontiersVirtual Gravitational DipolesRandy discusses what the Cosmological implications of a negative gravitational mass would be with Jim. If there were a negative gravitational mass (as opposed to inertial mass), then every time that an electron-positron pair was created in the vacuum, that would create a gravitational dipole. This in turn would create effects similar to dark matter, dark energy, and a cosmological constant -- and this in turn would have an effect on the origin of the universe. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/7
2017-03-1450 min
PhysicsFMPhysicsFM - Intermission - Quantum MetaphysicsJim and Randy discuss the ways in which we interpret the wavefunction, quantum indeterminancy, and other strange things that happen in quantum mechanics -- going through nine classes of interpretation and what they mean about the underlying reasons for quantum mechanical behavior.
2017-03-041h 28Physics FrontiersGeneral Relativity for the ExperimentalistRandy shares some of his favorite papers with Jim: papers on general relativity by engineer and science fiction author Robert L. Forward on how general relativity could be used in a terrestrial environment, including proposals for devices and materials. These papers are "General Relativity for the Experimentalist" and "Guidelines to Antigravity." Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/6
2017-02-1449 minPhysics FrontiersPilot Wave HydrodynamicsRandy and Jim discuss a physical analogy to quantum mechanics consisting of a droplet of fluid bouncing off of the waves in a similarly composed fluid that were generated by the droplet's own bounces. The analogy is very close to the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation of quantum mechanics. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/5
2017-01-2058 minPhysics FrontiersPhononicsRandy tells Jim about the emerging field of Phononics: using quantum particles of heat in materials for information processing in advanced materials. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/4
2017-01-0547 minPhysics FrontiersGravitoelectromagnetismRandy talks to Jim about gravitoelectromagnetism. Based on the similarity between Newtonian gravity and electrostatics, there should be a second gravitational field,the gravitomagnetic field. What are the implications of the existence of such a field, and how large are those effects? Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/3
2016-12-0641 minPhysics FrontiersThe de Broglie-Bohm Interpretation of Quantum MechanicsJim talks to Randy about the pilot wave interpretation of quantum mechanics, which separates the particle and wave behavior of a non-relativistic quantum particle into that of a particle moving in and exciting a quantum mechanical medium. Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/2
2016-11-1530 minPhysics FrontiersG4V: Four Vector Potential GravitationRandy talks to Jim about Carver Mead's G4V, a formulation of gravitation combining the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass with a vector potential formulation of gravitation (a 4-vector form, with the usual gravitational potential in the temporal component). Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/1
2016-10-3144 minPhysicsFMPhysicsFM - Quantum Paradoxes 9 - Quantum CatsRandy and Jim discuss the implications of Schroedinger's Cat. In light of the measurement problem, in light of the collapse of the wave function, how can you understand what is happening to a quantum mechanical system?
2015-08-061h 05
PhysicsFMPhysicsFM - Quantum Paradoxes 8 - Measurement and CompensationJim and Randy discuss how "compensation forces" allow measurements of non-canonical variables without the difficulties discovered in the previous episode. They also discuss why some very important concepts of classical physics -- velocity and the electric field -- are not canonical.
2015-07-0342 minPhysicsFMPhysicsFM - Quantum Paradoxes 7 - Quantum Measurements - Jim Rantschler and Randy MorrisonRandy and Jim talk about measurements of quantum systems, specifically in terms of a paradox involving the measurement of the velocity. This includes a long discussion of the von Neumann model of quantum mechanics.
2015-04-2236 minPhysicsFMPhysicsFM - Quantum Paradoxes 6 - Nonlocality and Causality - Randy Morrison and Jim RantschlerJim and Randy discuss Aharonov and Rohrlich's suggestion that quantum mechanics should be formulated in terms of axioms based upon its physical peculiarities -- Nonlocality and Causality.
2015-03-2552 minPhysicsFMPhysicsFM - Quantum Paradoxes 5 - Modular Variables - Randy Morrison and Jim RantschlerRandy and Jim discuss modular variables and how looking at an infinite number of slits in a diffraction grating can better elucidate the process of quantum interference than the two-slit experiment.
2015-02-2149 minPhysicsFMPhysicsFM - Quantum Paradoxes 4 - Phases and Gauges - Randy Morrison and Jim RantschlerJim and Randy talk about two paradoxes that help describe the Aharonov-Bohm effect. This requires an excursion into the gauge invariance of the vector potential of electrodynamics -- and how that gauge has real effects in quantum theory, even though it did not in classical physics.
2015-01-2452 minPhysicsFMPhysicsFM - Quantum Paradoxes 3 - Is Quantum Theory Complete? - Randy Morrison and Jim RantschlerRandy and Jim discuss the completeness of quantum theory via the EPR Paradox, Bell's Theorem, and the Aspect Experiment and they discuss the Block Universe and David Bohm's interpretation of quantum mechanics.
2014-12-2031 minPhysicsFMPhysicsFM - Quantum Paradoxes 2 - How to Weigh a Quantum - Randy Morrison and Jim RantschlerJim and Randy discuss the meaning of consistency, black body radiation, the Compton effect, uncertainty relationships, single-slit diffraction, and the clock in a box paradox.
2014-11-2138 minPhysicsFMPhysicsFM - Quantum Paradoxes 1 - The Uses of Paradox - Randy Morrison and Jim RantschlerRandy and Jim discuss paradoxes in general, some quantum effects, what paradoxes mean to physics, and the twin paradox.
2014-10-2141 min