STUFF AND STYLE OF THE
UNIVERSE
Chapters 4 and 5
Continued from Chapter 3 of Stuff and Style of the
Universe
Back to Chapters 1, 2 and
3
To
the concluding chapters (Chapters 6,7 and 8)
4
The Packages
Fair
A
unique feature of the universe is that everything is exchanged only in discrete
packages. No loose sample is allowed. Also, all transactions are carried out in
a move-stop-and-move-again style of action. ‘Givers’ move in jerks, ‘takers’
follow suit. It may seem rather odd but presumably it has been this way
always.
Why everything behaves in ‘fits and starts’ and not in a smooth
and continuous way has remained a mystery ever after the inception of quantum
theory according to which no giver supplies anything in a steady stream. In the
world of energy transactions, nothing flows evenly. It is all in packets.
Discrete and finite are the packets. So much reluctance from a simple candle to
give a little light.
Acceptance of what is given also runs into trouble
unless the packaging is right. The wrong package is not taken. This mode of
dealing is the only one that exists, so packaging has come to be accepted as an
‘inevitable ritual’. As this business of packing and unpacking is inexplicable
and therefore apparently pointless, it has remained a thorn in the throat of
physics.
To fathom the mystery, we have to observe more closely the
‘difficulties’ the ‘givers’ and the ‘takers’ face. First of all, who in fact are
the givers? The ‘rich’, naturally; only those who have in excess can and are
made to give. But this giver-status is comparative. A non-rich source who is in
no position to give anything may suddenly find itself qualified and called upon
to subscribe. That happens if and when the ‘world’ around gets depleted due to
whatsoever reason and the non-rich happens to be holding in excess by
‘comparison’.
In a universe of various kinds of pulses of S and S itself
pervading everything, pulses alone can be the givers. No transplanting or
shipment of any ‘portion’ of toughness-difference from one part of S to another
is possible unless it is discretely packed in the form of a pulse. Any other
mode will involve intervention by an ‘external’ agency. There is none at
hand.
What is being ‘given’? What does the pulse have in excess? Well,
what does any pulse have at all? Pulses are composed of quanta of differences in
toughness of S. A portion of this is the only thing it can spare.
But any
pulse is a restless thing. Whatever it does is achieved while its pulsing goes
on relentlessly. Donation or riddance of a bit of extra toughness by it or, to
put it differently, the extraction of some toughness from it can happen only
during appropriate ‘breathing spaces’ in this act. Exchanges are strictly
constrained by the ‘pre-occupation’ of the giver. The outcome looks something
like this: Give out a little now, a little more during the same opportunity that
the next round of pulsing provides and so on. A ‘steady’ outflow or any
once-for-all dumping is naturally ruled out.
Of course, if a pulse comes
to a ‘sorry end’, all it has is given up at one stroke. This is when it ‘splits’
or gets ‘dismantled’. Even when the whole ‘wealth’ of a pulse is thus squandered
at one go, this ‘wealth’ does not get lost in smithereens. Every bit of it is
taken care of and packaged by the S around, fitting into resonance slots of host
S, as is where is. The contents of these packets together will equal the content
of the ‘demised’ pulse.
This means if by any chance the giver falls short
of ‘fulfilling’ the packaging responsibility, the taker is ready to ‘backup’.
The taker is no other than S. S is in no ‘mood’ to ‘swallow’ all-and-sundry
‘amounts’ of changes to its toughness inflicted on it as-is-where-is. The dictum
enforced by its vigour is: Only so much of a certain thing at a time. Of course
the acceptable ‘dose’ varies with the ‘kind’ of input. How much of what kind at
each instance is decided by the readiness of S to react, its vigour.
As far
as packaging goes, assurance is thus doubly assured. Whether the amount of
‘wealth’ dumped is as huge as a pre-big-bang monstrosity or as little as what a
neutrino has, the assurance holds. But for this ‘obsession’ with discrete
packaging, we would not have inherited the thoroughly ‘apportioned’ universe
that we have.
Imagine an ‘injection’ of extra toughness into tough S. The
attempt is naturally ‘resisted’. If the giver insists ‘vehemently’ enough, yes,
the injection is tolerated but the dose injected is ‘quarantined’ within a shell
of extra toughness in S developing in reaction to the spread of the dose
injected and ‘swept up’ by the very same spread.
Observation of the drama
of a package-transaction of this kind in detail (Fig. 10-14) is certain to yield
dividends. It takes place in tough S. Whatever the T-and-D of the emission that
takes place, every bit emitted adds to the toughness of S around the emitter. If
D is small and/or T not very high, the injected dose meets with less
‘resistance’. Larger the D and higher the T of injection, S reacts in a matching
fashion. The way S deals with the dose of injection into it depends solely upon
the vigour of S.
As the emitter is a point on a pulse and that pulse is
busy with its act of pulsing, the emitter cannot emit continuously. This holds
whether the pulse emitting happens to be in good, bad or
indifferent
resonance with the surrounding S. Even otherwise, as the injected quantum keeps
growing, the thickening shell of S around it builds up with it and, at some
stage, ‘matures’ to match emitter pressure. In effect, any emission always
amounts to an adjustment-game between the giver and the taker.
What if
emitter pressure is checkmated and the injection stops? S now has a quantum of
dynamic extra-toughness to contend with. If that quantum is sufficient to form a
pulse in resonance with S, well and good, the quantum assumes that role. (Fig
11).
From the moment the emitter opens up to the instant when emitter
pressure is checkmated, the extra toughness injected into S celebrates its
expansion cycle. The injection is a dynamic event. As soon as the emission
stops, the ‘dose’ injected goes into reverse cycle, forced by the reaction of S.
The emitter cannot open up when this cycle piles up toughness at the centre of
pulsing, namely, the point of emission itself, and seals it.
However,
when the pulse enters its very next expansion cycle the shell of resistance
around it developing in S ‘pushes away’ the developing outer shell of the
emission. The newborn pulse is thus ‘released’ from the mother to mind its own
business and live in S as long and as happily as its resonance capability allows
it.
Pulses seem to be ‘conscious’ of their health and wellbeing in more
ways than one. In fact they spare a portion of what they ‘have’ with a view of
‘gaining’ better chances of survival under the ‘special’ circumstances and not
out of any ‘benevolence’. Better equilibrium, harmony and longer life are the
benefits they get by doing this. A pulse can get rid of as little as it pleases.
There is no lower limit to the amount they may deliver. It is up to S, the
taker, to do whatever it ‘pleases’ with it. The package delivered is free to
fall into whichever slot it fits into in S. There are several ‘harmonics’ to
every slot too.
If the quantum delivered is tough and large enough, it
succeeds in building its own fort and
becomes an
independent pulse. For this to happen, it should be capable of fitting itself
into an appropriate slot in S to resonate. This is the cardinal pre-condition
for its survival as an independent pulse. (Fig. 12, Fig. 13)
The
fate of the unfortunate small quantum of ‘lean’ content ejected is a different
story. To trace it in some detail, one will have to go back to the process of
emission described earlier. The emitter now releases a very small quantum of
lean content. The emission invites increasing resistance to it from S and that
‘prematurely’ checkmates emitter pressure. Also, the emitter, on its own, may
close shop too soon. In either case the quantum remains too small and the nature
of its ‘content’ too lean to develop into an independent pulse in S.
All
the same, ‘action’ having been initiated by the emitter, an equal but opposite
‘reaction’ to that has developed in S. This pattern of action-reaction becomes a
‘half-formed’ pulse. It has no outer shell as the pulse has not been able to
complete its expansion cycle. Its core too is ‘half-formed’ as its reverse cycle
does not get completed. Moreover, this ‘premature’ core happens to be
almost at the mouth of the emitter when the emitter reopens next time with
another round of emission. The thrust of this emission ‘ejects’ the first-born
from the emitter. The
‘ejection’ does two things to the ‘unwanted’ child. 1) It
is sent away from the emitter. 2) It is given a ‘parting kick’ strong enough to
confer on it a consolation prize – a mode of rectification pulsing. (Fig.
14)
This saves the ‘premature’ offspring from infantile mortality.
‘Kick-started’, rectification pulsing gives it a fresh lease of life, its only
life.
As the emitter goes on, a continuous stream of such ‘half-formed’
or ‘also-ran’ pulse-lets is generated.
The ‘also-ran’ pulse-let does not develop
an outer shell worth the name so it is unable to create a ‘ripple’ of much
consequence around it. Also, it does not develop a well-formed core because what
could have become at least an apology for a core has been mercilessly ‘deformed’
right at birth by the ‘kick’. It is fated to keep on doing its best to ‘rectify’
the ‘damage’ of that kick. But every effort at it only shifts it by a distance
equal to its ‘size’. The handicap stays on even after it makes a trillion
trials. Yet, it never gives up till its ‘last breath’.
Thus an
electromagnetic wave is just a string of ‘premature’ pulse-lets ever trying to pulse
on their own but never quite making it. Such a pulse-let has no full-formed ‘body’
at any stage of its pulsing. Therefore no direct force can be applied on it. It
has been given a mighty ‘kick’ at the very start so that its only pulsing mode
is ‘rectification’. So, this sort of a pulse-let does not develop a regular ripple
worth anything around it in S. It does not ‘wait’ at any point long enough to
‘collect’ feed-back from the ripple of whatever import ensuing from its
rectification pulsing. Therefore, one cannot easily ‘control’ it by applying a
‘field’ either. Blocking it is the only decisive thing one can do with it. If
stopped, it ceases to be what it has been after ‘releasing’ the quantum that
originally went into its making.
Thus a new variety now joins the list of
pulses already made. This pulse-let too exhibits ‘particle’ properties during very
brief moments in the course of its pulsing act. It makes a show of this in ways
much less remarkable than its ‘luckier’ cousins do, but it carries out the
ritual as best as it can.
To complete the picture of this kind of a pulse-let,
we may look at it also from the point of view of S. S is made to ‘suffer’ a
disturbance to its composure when the emission is injected into it. S tries to
‘catch’ and contain it but it ‘slips’ out every time it is almost ‘caught’.
Nevertheless, S refuses to ‘admit defeat’ even after a trillion trials. The vigour of the effort by S to ‘catch’ it is the same as that with which it ‘flaps
its wings’ to ‘speed’ away. Any frequency is possible because resonance with S
is not involved. In short, it travels as fast as the vigour of S
makes it go and S keeps ‘reaching after’ it equally fast to ‘entrap’ it, a
perennial neck-and-neck chase. Its speed in any S therefore is the ultimate
speed with which anything can ever move in that S. In other words, this speed is
the index of the readiness with which the S in question can deal with a
disturbance to its toughness – its vigour.
The T-and-D of emission
determines the frequency of the resultant radiation pulse. The higher the T-and-D
injected, the quicker the reaction of S and therefore higher the frequency of
pulsing. But, once adequately kick-started, the speed of displacement of the
radiation pulse in S remains the same because thereafter it is solely controlled
by, and is a reflection of nothing but, the vigour of S.
As the T-and-D
of emission increases, the transacted quantum grows capable of securing a
resonance slot and gets ‘wedded’ to S. It completes its expansion cycle,
resonates with S and takes the push of repulsion from the emitter pulse on its
outer shell. But it is ‘thick-skinned’ enough by the time this push comes. So
this gives it no more than a decent ‘send-off’ velocity plus the corresponding
but bearable ‘heartburn’ of rectification pulsing.
What if the quanta
attempted to be emitted is too little or too ‘thin’ to reach even the stage of
‘maturity’ of the radiation pulse? It gets ‘pushed back’ into the emitter every
time by S.
The arena of forces and fields is indeed vast. There are
ferocious things there side by side with extremely weak and meek specimens. They
appear so very diverse and yet, as is argued in the next chapter, they are all
derived from one and the same source.
5
Of Forces and
Fields
The
forces that power the universe are seemingly different. Gravitation is one. It
keeps the heavenly bodies remain where they are and going the way they do. It is
a simple force, the force with which bodies attract each other. It is equal to
the product of the masses of the bodies attracting each other and varies
inversely with the square of the distance between them.
Electric force is
another. Although it seems to power human abodes more than it does the universe
these days, it shoulders a major share of the responsibility of keeping the
larger world around us as it is. Magnetic force, the alter ego of electric
force, holds an equal share.
Yet another entity, nuclear force, has been
put into two compartments for the convenience of physics, the ‘strong’ variety
and the ‘weak’. But for this force, the sun would not shine, stars would hardly
smile and superpowers would cease to be super.
Suffice it to say that
anything anybody does or happens anywhere in the universe is the result of one
or more of these forces acting severally or in various combinations.
As
physics is the science of the forces of nature, physicists have been studying
them better and better with the result that these have been understood and tamed
more or less. It has been a long road of frustrations and revelations. Laws
governing the ‘fundamental’ forces have been worked out, tested, verified,
modified and refined to a rare finesse.
Unfortunately, despite all this,
physics now stands practically arrested by a roadblock. The loud sign on the
barricade reads: Unify the various forces and proceed.
This may look like
a very simple and innocent suggestion on the face of it, but it is the toughest
challenge ever thrown in front of anybody anywhere.
On one side of the roadblock are the deep valleys of quantum
physics. On the other are the very high peaks of general relativity. Unifying
the forces means construction of a LEVEL bridge between the two. But this has to
be done without chopping off a peak or filling up a valley.
What the
various forces do is well known. What is not so well known is what they actually
are. It is not that physics did not try to find out. It did and continues to do.
But the forces seem to silently proclaim that, though they are ready and willing
to concede almost every other demand, they do not want to make a ‘public
appearance’ for open scrutiny.
Physics has been trying to pair up the
forces or hitch each one of them on to another and thus reduce their total
number. Electricity and magnetism obliged. The two now form the Siamese
twin of
electromagnetism. The week-nuclear force has been laboriously hitched on to this
pair, making it a trio called the electro-weak force. But gravitation remains
aloof.
An
approach to a solution to the problem perhaps lies in a closer look at pulses in
action. Freeze the action of a ‘natural-born’ pulse at the pinnacle of its
expansion cycle. Two of the ‘different’ forces become visible. (Fig.15) The one
at the rim of the pulse is the strong-nuclear force with the ‘rank’ of highest
might. The one ‘humbly’ present a little away from the pulse is the force of
gravitation.
The two forces are now frozen in their tracks. The thick
wall at the border of the pulse is the super-tough outer shell of the pulse
combined with the thick shell just outside of it
contributed by the extra
toughness S has assumed due to displacement of it during the expansion of the
pulse.
The inner half of this wall sharply falls in toughness with
distance from the rim inward. The outer half of it has an equal gradient of
toughness, sharply falling as one moves away from the rim of the pulse and out.
The two together make a formidable wall of toughness. It is the fort of the
strong-nuclear force. (Fig. 16)
Watch what happens when a similar wall
approaches it. The closer the two walls get, the toughness between them shoots
up. S does not ‘permit’ the development of any such thing.
S ‘pulls’ the two apart. So, in the usual course, one such wall can never
approach another. Any attempt at merger triggers enormous repulsion. At
whichever angle or with whatever velocity another wall approaches, it is
bounced. For all practical purposes, one wall of this kind is ‘untouchable’ by
another. (Fig. 17)
Move the picture by a few frames and freeze it again.
The reverse cycle of the pulse is halfway through. The inner half of the outer
wall is ‘withdrawn’. The outer half has spread into the vacant lot thus
provided.

Run the
thing fast forward a little more and freeze. (Fig. 19) It is the end of the
reverse cycle of the pulse. Almost the entire toughness commanded by the pulse
is now concentrated at its core. The top-ranking force has reappeared and can be
seen in control of its new bastion.
Meanwhile what happens outside the
pulse? S has caved in further. Also, the decline in toughness thus
created is spreading fast (at the rate warranted by the vigour of S) into the
surroundings of the pulse. (Fig.
20)
Move the tape again by another small
length. The frozen frame this time is the picture midway through the expansion
cycle of the pulse. The top-ranking force is re-appearing at its earlier
position at the rim.
Outside the pulse, the gradient caused by the
‘explosion’ is being refilled. But this operation is ‘half-hearted’ compared to
the ‘rush inward’ during the reverse cycle. This is because S is already tough.
Its readiness to spread is a lot more than its willingness to
shrink.
Gravitation confidently stays where it has always remained.
The reason is that around the pulse, during every ‘beat’, there is a decrease in
toughness that spreads very fast followed by
the slow ‘making up’ of it. The
‘jerk-in’ is repeated at every instance of pulsing action.
‘So what?’ one
may ask. To find the answer, take a look at what this kind of ‘ripple’ does to
another pulse coming within its sway. (Fig. 21) The sudden decline in toughness
around it acts on it, tending to ‘deform’ it, just as a force acting on it does.
This amounts to ‘attraction’ for the host and, if strong enough, the
‘invitation’ is acknowledged, accepted and acted upon.
Another question
arises: ‘What amount of force of this kind can a small pulse exert? Fair enough.
Imagine what the cumulative effect of this kind of force will be when there are
a lot of pulses contributing to it in unison. The clout of this combined force
can move anything of any weight. That is why gravitation can stay
confident.
Isn’t there a lot more to this mystery? To see the impact of
gravitation, zoom to a pulse within its sway. The
‘ripple’ that spreads affects the host pulse in several ways at once.
1)
It tends to pull the host in, as already seen.
2) It tends to rotate the
host in the direction of the ‘jerk-in’ spiral of the ripple. Zoom in further.
(Fig.22) The effect becomes more pronounced when the affected pulse is large
enough or is a large body of pulses. The arms of the spiral that reach its front
are stronger than the arms that reach its back and reach thereabouts ‘later’.
Hence the torque.
3) Every part of the body subjected to the ‘jerk-in’ of
the ripple also experiences the tangential component of the ‘ripple’. Therefore,
a free-falling body tends to circle the attracting body instead of coming
straight to it. (Fig. 23)
4) When there are many bodies orbiting a
massive attracting body, gravitational force between the ‘free-fallers’ tends to
align them in a common plane; as that is how every one of them can get closest
to every one else in the course of their orbital motions.
5) As and when
pulses that are ‘sufficiently’ invited are also free to move they eventually
conglomerate. If the pulses in a conglomerate are free to move within it,
gravitational pull induces every pulse to place itself as close to every other
of the lot. The assembly therefore assumes spherical shape.
6) The
‘ripple’ (gravitational force) takes shape on the basis of the vigour of S and
spreads as
fast as the vigour of S warrants. Eventually, gravitation establishes
itself as a set of concentric ‘pulse-lets’ around the gravitating body. We may
call them ‘g-secondary’ pulse-lets, or graviton. (Fig. 24) The ‘g-secondary’ pulses grow in might
as gravitational accretion gathers momentum. Changes in the ‘gravity’ of the
source are transmitted ‘across’ g-secondary pulses with a speed not more than
what is dictated by the vigour of S. Therefore gravitation cannot act
‘instantaneously’ at a distance. We may get the chance to ‘feel’ the speed with
which information travels ‘through’ g-secondary pulses in an event like a star
suddenly going extinct. In that case, the g-secondary pulses associated with the
star get ‘free’ in quick succession to ‘forget’ what they have been doing so far
(in ‘captivity’), try to pulse on their own and come to whatever end awaits
them. (If the sun closes shop at this moment, man may get about eight minutes to
pray – but only if he has a sixth sense to know of the catastrophe
‘instantaneously’.)
7) Though the ripple ideally reaches infinite
distances, in any particular case there arises a definite limit beyond which it
falls short of strength to overcome the ‘inertia’ of even the smallest of
pulses. It is known that the sun’s empire ends at the border of what is known as
the solar system. There is an immense lot of ‘matter’ in the form of dust and
icy clouds just outside but the sun’s gravitational attraction is too weak to
influence pulses beyond the limit. This limit of course fluctuates with
variations in the ‘asset’ value of the ‘holding company’.
8) When there
is a large spherical assembly of pulses, their ‘ripples’ reinforce each other
most at the centre of the sphere. If the body is large enough, the effect may
reach alarming proportions. Even the top ranking force, strong-nuclear, will
have to concede ground. The pulses so far fortified by it begin to get
vulnerable. If the size of the conglomeration crosses a certain limit, the
resultant bout of radiation shatters it. The maximum size that a conglomeration
of pulses can assume without leading to such (gravitational) collapse is
determined by the vigour of S in which it forms. In S of a different vigour this
limit will of course be different.
9) If the conglomeration is very
large, the ‘ripple’ emanating from it may grow strong enough to affect even
rectification-pulses (electromagnetic radiation) passing close to it. The effect becomes
more and more pronounced as the pulse gets closer to the conglomerate. If the
path of the ‘ray’ is close enough and/or the conglomeration it passes adequately
large, the ray takes a smooth and inward bend.
To get a view of
the electro-weak force one just repeats the observation, this time on the pulse
‘suffering’ from a depletion of vigour of surrounding S. (Fig. 25) The S around the pulse is slowly decreasing in vigour. From tough, it
is 'thinning' out. The pulse
in this has three parts, as we noted before.
1) The primary pulse-let or
positive pulse-let. (Fig. 25)
2) The secondary pulse-let or negative
pulse-let. (Fig. 26)
Interaction between secondary pulses gives rise to the
electro-weak force. Secondary pulses merit special attention as they are the
ones that make
building blocks (compounds) possible. (See the next
chapter.)
If and when the mother pulse is ‘perturbed’ (by further changes
in the vigour of surrounding S or by additional inputs into its T-and-D) it goes
further ‘out of tune’ with its surroundings. As a result it ‘relinquishes’ a
‘portion’ of any or all of its parts or any combinations
thereof.
If perturbed more, the mother-pulse slips
farther out of the resonance slot it enjoys with surrounding S and makes ‘heavy
jettisoning’. Packages that emanate as various kinds of rectification-pulses
(radiation) accompany most of these ‘heavy adjustments’. Different forms of
‘decay’ and the various products of it are well known to particle
chasers.
So, how many forces are there in the universe? In effect there
is just one, the ‘force’ or the vigour of S. But how are crystals, chemical
compounds, molecules, macromolecules and, finally, ‘life’ made with just this
one?
To the concluding chapters
(Chapters 6,7 and 8)
Back to Chapters 1, 2 and
3
Verses from the Bhagavad Gita outlining the ancient eastern concept of the Stuff (Brahma)
The fundamentals of Advaita philosophy, with a study of the concept of Brahma or
the Stuff
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Stuff and Style of the Universe
First published Nov. 2002 by Hi-Tech
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India