On the Dressed Photon Constant and Its Implication for a Novel Perspective on Cosmology

As an important follow-up report on the latest study of the first author (H.S.) on an off-shell quantum field causing a dressed photon and dark energy, we further discuss a couple of intriguing subjects based on the new notion of simultaneous conformal symmetry breaking. One is the dressed photon constant. If we use it, in addition to h¯ and c, as the third component of natural units, it is defined as the geometric mean of the smallest and the largest lengths: Planck length and that relating to the cosmological constant. Interestingly, this length (≈50 nanometers) seems to give a rough measure of the Heisenberg cut for electromagnetic phenomena. The other is a new perspective on cosmology that combines two original notions, i.e., twin universes and conformal cyclic cosmology, proposed, respectively, by Petit and Penrose, into one novel picture where universes expand self-similarly. We show the possibility that twin universes having a dual structure of (matter with (dark energy and matter)) vs. corresponding anti-entities, separated by an event horizon embedded in the geometric structure of de Sitter space, undergo endless cyclic processes of birth and death, as in the case of the pair creation and annihilation of elementary particles through the intervention of a conformal light field.

Dressed Photon Constant as a Key Parameter for the Conformal Cyclic Cosmology of Twin Universes

As an important follow-up report on the latest study of the first author (H.S.) on an off-shell quantum field causing a dressed photon and dark energy, we further discuss a couple of intriguing subjects based on our new theory. One is the dressed photon constant. If we use it, in addition to h¯ and c, as the third component of natural units, then it is defined as the geometric mean of the smallest and the largest lengths: Planck length and that relating to the cosmological constant. Interestingly, this length (≈ 50 nanometers) seems to give a rough measure of the Heisenberg cut for electromagnetic phenomena. The other is a new perspective on cosmology that combines two original notions, i.e., twin universes and conformal cyclic cosmology, proposed respectively by Petit and Penrose, into one novel picture where universes expand self-similarly. We show the possibility that twin universes having a dual structure of [matter with (dark energy & matter)] vs. corresponding anti-entities, separated by an event horizon embedded in the geometric structure of de Sitter space, undergo endless cyclic processes of birth and death, as in the case of the pair creation and annihilation of elementary particles through the intervention of a conformal light field.

ψ-epistemic interpretations of quantum theory have a measurement problem

ψ-epistemic interpretations of quantum theory maintain that quantum states only represent incomplete information about the physical states of the world. A major motivation for this view is the promise to provide a reasonable account of state update under measurement by asserting that it is simply a natural feature of updating incomplete statistical information. Here we demonstrate that all known ψ-epistemic ontological models of quantum theory in dimension d≥3, including those designed to evade the conclusion of the PBR theorem, cannot represent state update correctly. Conversely, interpretations for which the wavefunction is real evade such restrictions despite remaining subject to long-standing criticism regarding physical discontinuity, indeterminism and the ambiguity of the Heisenberg cut. This revives the possibility of a no-go theorem with no additional assumptions, and demonstrates that what is usually thought of as a strength of epistemic interpretations may in fact be a weakness.