Psychoanalysing Technoscience

While the previous chapter discussed the shift from Hegelian dialectics to dialectical materialism, this chapter addresses the shift from dialectics to psychoanalysis, notably in France, paying due attention to the productive tensions between both approaches. After a concise exposition of Freudian psychoanalysis, focussing on Beyond the Pleasure Principle, the text in which Freud explicitly “plunged into the thickets” of modern biology (Gay, 1988, p. 401), I will extensively discuss the views of Gaston Bachelard and Jacques Lacan on technoscience. Building on a previous publication (Zwart, 2019a), where I already presented a psychoanalytic understanding of technoscience, which I don’t want to duplicate here (focussing on the oeuvres of Sigmund Freud, Carl Gustav Jung, Gaston Bachelard and Jacques Lacan), I will now emphasise the continuity between dialectic and psychoanalysis, indicating how dialectics remains an important moment in Bachelard’s and Lacan’s efforts to develop a psychoanalysis of technoscience, both as a discourse and as a practice. In addition, I will elucidate the added value of this convergence by extrapolating it to three concrete case studies, one borrowed from particle physics and two from life sciences research: the Majorana particle, the malaria mosquito and the nude mouse.

Status of the R2D2 project: A future neutrinoless double beta decay experiment

The nature of the neutrino is a central questions in physics. The search for neutrinoless double beta decay is the most sensitive experimental approach to demonstrate that the neutrino is a Majorana particle. Observation of such a rare process demands a detector with an excellent energy resolution, extremely low background, and a large mass of a double beta decaying isotope. R2D2 aims to develop a novel spherical high-pressure TPC that meets all the above requirements. As a first step, the energy resolution of the R2D2 prototype was measured. A 1.1% (FWHM) energy resolution was achieved for 5.3 MeV α-particles in Ar:CH4 at pressure up to 1.1 bar. This is a major milestone for R2D2 and paves the way for further studies with Xe gas and the possible use of this technology for neutrinoless double beta decay searches.

On the Second Dipole Moment of Dirac’s Particle

An analysis is presented of the possible existence of a second anomalous dipole moment of Dirac’s particle next to the one associated with the angular momentum. It includes a discussion why, in spite of his own derivation, Dirac has doubted about its relevancy. It is shown why since then it has been overlooked and why it has vanished from leading textbooks. A critical survey is given on the reasons of its reject, including the failure of attempts to measure and the perceived violations of time reversal symmetry and charge-parity symmetry. It is emphasized that the anomalous electric dipole moment of the pointlike electron (AEDM) is fundamentally different from the quantum field type electric dipole moment of an electron (eEDM) as defined in the standard model of particle physics. The analysis has resulted into the identification of a third type Dirac particle, next to the electron type and the Majorana particle. It is shown that, unlike as in the case of the electron type, its second anomalous dipole moment is real valued and is therefore subject to polarization in a vector field. Examples are given that it may have a possible impact in the nuclear domain and in the gravitational domain.

On the Second Dipole Moment of Dirac’s Particle

An analysis is presented of the possible existence of a second anomalous dipole moment of Dirac’s particle next to the one associated with the angular momentum. It includes a discussion why, in spite of his own derivation, Dirac has doubted about its relevancy. It is shown why since then it has been overlooked and why it has vanished from leading textbooks. A critical survey is given on the reasons of its reject, including the failure of attempts to measure and the perceived violations of time reversal symmetry and charge-parity symmetry. It is emphasized that the anomalous electric dipole moment of the pointlike electron (AEDM) is fundamentally different from the quantum field type electric dipole moment of an electron (eEDM) as defined in the standard model of particle physics. The analysis has resulted into the identification of a third type Dirac particle, next to the electron type and the Majorana particle. It is shown that, unlike as in the case of the electron type, its second anomalous dipole moment is real valued and is therefore subject to polarization in a vector field. Examples are given that it may have a possible impact in the nuclear domain and in the gravitational domain.

On wave equations for the Majorana particle in (3+1) and (1+1) dimensions

In general, the relativistic wave equation considered to mathematically describe the so-called Majorana particle is the Dirac equation with a real Lorentz scalar potential plus the so-called Majorana condition. Certainly, depending on the representation that one uses, the resulting differential equation changes. It could be a real or a complex system of coupled equations, or it could even be a single complex equation for a single component of the entire wave function. Any of these equations or systems of equations could be referred to as a Majorana equation or Majorana system of equations because it can be used to describe the Majorana particle. For example, in the Weyl representation, in (3+1) dimensions, we can have two non-equivalent explicitly covariant complex first-order equations; in contrast, in (1+1) dimensions, we have a complex system of coupled equations. In any case, whichever equation or system of equations is used, the wave function that describes the Majorana particle in (3+1) or (1+1) dimensions is determined by four or two real quantities. The aim of this paper is to study and discuss all these issues from an algebraic point of view, highlighting the similarities and differences that arise between these equations in the cases of (3+1) and (1+1) dimensions in the Dirac, Weyl, and Majorana representations. Additionally, to reinforce this task, we rederive and use results that come from a procedure already introduced by Case to obtain a two-component Majorana equation in (3+1) dimensions. Likewise, we introduce for the first time a somewhat analogous procedure in (1+1) dimensions and then use the results we obtain.

On the Second Dipole Moment of Dirac’s Particle

An analysis is presented of the possible existence of a second anomalous dipole moment of Dirac’s particle next to the one associated with the angular momentum. It includes a discussion why, in spite of his own derivation, Dirac has doubted about its relevancy. It is shown why since then it has been overlooked and why it has vanished from leading textbooks. A critical survey is given on the reasons of its reject, including the failure of attempts to measure and the perceived violations of time reversal symmetry and charge-parity symmetry. It is emphasized that the anomalous electric dipole moment of the pointlike electron (AEDM) is fundamentally different from the quantum field type electric dipole moment of an electron (eEDM) as defined in the standard model of particle physics. The analysis has resulted into the identification of a third type Dirac particle, next to the electron type and the Majorana particle. It is shown that, unlike as in the case of the electron type, its second anomalous dipole moment is real valued and is therefore subject to polarization in a vector field. Examples are given that it may have a possible impact in the nuclear domain and in the gravitational domain.