The Vacuum Interface

The idea that the vacuum represents an achiral interface that separates two space-time segments of opposite chirality developed from the notion that mass-dependent quantum effects arise from a field in the vacuum which affects the smallest of objects most prominently. The original argument (Boeyens, 1992) was that quantum behaviour results from feeble interactions through the interface, which create the impression of random wave-like perturbations imposed on the regular motion of small particles. 

The result is a universe that consists of exactly fifty percent antimatter, which however, can never be detected in convential observations - only when the interface is penetrated. Although matter and antimatter therefore occupy the same space, there is no possibihty of direct interaction as the two antipodes of the double cover are at different time coordinates. It is important to realize that transportation along the double cover, through the involution, gradually converts matter into antimatter. 

An age-old argument about the heat-death of the universe is also settled by the interface model. It relates to the problem that the second law of thermodynamics is time-irreversible, but based on time-reversible laws of physics. It has been argued (Boeyens, 2005) that, because the world lines in neighbouring tangent spaces of the curved manifold are not parallel, a static distribution of mass points must be inherently unstable. As systems with non-parallel world lines interact a chaotic situation such as the motion in an ideal gas occurs, which means that time flow generates entropy. 

Because of spatial curvature an initially stationary array of non-interacting particles (ideal gas) spontaneously generates relative internal (zero-point) motion. This intrinsic microscopic instability is responsible for the dispersal of energy and the source of entropy. Transportation along the interface inverts, not only the time coordinate, but also the entropy production. Integrated over the entire closed universe the total entropy production is zero 

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Case 2 of a dissipative medium is now considered where x = 0 defines the vacuum interface in a frame (x,y, z). The orientation of the xy plane is chosen such as to coincide with the plane of wave propagation, and all field quantities are then independent on z as shown in Fig. 3. In the denser medium (region I) with the refractive index = n > 1 and defined by x < 0, an incident (7) EM wave is assumed to give rise to a reflected (r) EM wave. Here is the angle between the normal direction of the vacuum boundary and the wave normals of the incident and reflected waves. Vacuum region (II) is defined by x > 0 and has a refractive index of = 1. The wavenumber [35] and the phase (47) of the weakly damped EM waves then yield... 

For inhomogeneous (damped) incident EM waves the necessary matching of the phases at the vacuum interface can be provided by the nontransverse EMS waves, but not by conventional EM waves in the vacuum region. 

This experiment presents the measurement of uranium with an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS). In this system, a nebulizer converts the aqueous sample to an aerosol carried with argon gas. A torch heats the aerosol to vaporize and atomize the contents in quartz tubes. The atoms are ionized with an efficiency of about 95% by an RF (radiofrequency) coil. The plasma expands at a differentially-pumped air-vacuum interface into a vacuum chamber. The positive ions are focused and injected into the MS while the rest of the gas is removed by the pump. The ions are then accelerated, collected, and measured as a function of their mass. Losses at various stages, notably the vacuum interface, result in a detection efficiency of about 0.1 %, which is still sufficient to provide great sensitivity. The amounts of uranium isotopes in the sample are determined by comparisons to standards. Because different laboratories have different instruments, the instructor will provide instrument operating instmctions. Do not use the instrument until the instructor has checked the instrument and approved its use. 

The quantum potential can now be identified as a surface effect that exists close to any interface, in this case the vacuum interface. The non-local effects associated with the quantum potential also acquire a physical basis in the form of the vacuum interface, now recognized as the agent responsible for mediating the holistic entanglement of the universe. The causal interpretation of Bohmian mechanics finds immediate support in the postulate of a vacuum interface. There is no difference between classical and quantum entities, apart from size. Logically therefore, the quantum limit depends on... 

The vacuum interface is the source of all quantum effects. Interaction with the interface causes particles to make excursions into time and bounce back with time-reversal and randomly perturbed space coordinates. Different from classical particles, quantum objects can suffer displacement in space without time advance. They can appear to be in more than one place at the same time, as in a two-slit experiment. 

Entities that move in the interface are achiral and massless. A virtual photon consists of a virtual particle/anti-particle pair. The vector bosons that mediate the weak interaction are massive and unlike photons, distinct from their anti-particles. The weak interaction therefore has reflection symmetry only across the vacuum interface and hence /3-decay violates parity conservation. 

Quantum phenomena at the vacuum interface have been postulated in analogy with known effects at physico-chemical interfaces. To be consistent, special properties of the latter are therefore implied. A physical interface is the boundary surface that separates two phases in contact. These phases could be two solid phases, two liquid phases, solid-liquid, solid-gas or liquid-gas phases. What they all have in common is a potential difference between the two bulk phases. In order to establish equilibrium at the interface it is necessary that rearrangement occurs on both sides of the interface over a narrow region. Chemical effects within the interfacial zone are unique and responsible for the importance of surfaces in chemical systems. At the most fundamental level the special properties of surfaces relate to the difference between isolated elementary entities and the same entities in a bulk medium, or condensed phase. 

The interface between two liquid phases will differ from this construct in detail only. The postulated effects of a potential field that changes appreciably over the dimensions of interacting particles near the surface remain valid. In the case of the vacuum interface it is the quantum-potential field that causes the surface effects. 

Exploration of intramolecular non-local effects could be the beginning of more far-reaching studies. Neural receptors with the ability to exchange information via the quantum-potential field in the vacuum interface, could be another level of quantum object that might eventually explain para-psychic phenomena. 

Similar effects can also occur in surface electronic structure when a moiety is weakly physisorbed onto the surface. The surface core-level shifts measured at the vacuum interface are reduced when atoms or molecules are physisorbed onto the surface. Changes may also occur in the valence electronic structure upon physisorption, such as the disappearance of intrinsic surface states on metals and semiconductors. 

Summary of experimentally determined geometries of Cu 100 -c(2x2) surface alloys. Positive values for buckling in the outermost mixed layer (A ) indicate adsorbate atoms relaxed towards the vacuum interface while positive values for buckling in the third copper layer (A3) indicate that Cu atoms directly below substitutional adsorbate atoms in layer 1 are buckled outwards towards the surface. The values in brackets below the interlayer spacings indicate the percentage contraction (negative) and expansion (positive) relative to the bulk Cu value of 1.807 A. 

Fig.40.a Composition-depth profiles of Pl-dPS (N=893) copolymer at the vacuum interface of different PS homopolymers (P).b The corresponding segregation isotherms [251]. Situations corresponding to different matrices are marked by O for P=88, for P=495 and V for P=3173 (results are insensitive to temperature modification [251])... 

Two new independently developed techniques called Dart ° (direct analysis in real time) and Desi (desorption electrospray ionisation) are making a huge impact on mass spectrometry. Together they remove the need for sample preparation and vacuum, speed up analysis time and can work in the open air. The sample is held in a gas or liquid stream at room temperature and the impact induces the surface desorption of ions. The ions then continue into the vacuum interface of the MS for analysis. Samples can be hard, soft or even liquid in nature. Ifa et al. have used Desi to image biological samples in two dimensions, recording images of tissue sections and the relative concentrations of molecules therein. Jeol have launched a commercial Dart ion source for non-contact analysis of materials in open air under ambient conditions. 

Inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) An argon ICP will ionize all but a few elements (e.g., fluorine) and, therefore, is a nearly universal ion source. Figure 17.2 shows the ICP source its ionizing coil and torch are on the right, while the vacuum interface is shown on the left. 

The key to the development of ICP/MS was a technique to transfer ions from the plasma into the high vacuum of the MS. This was accomplished with a differentially pumped atmospheric-pressure-to-vacuum interface shown in Fig. 17.12. An aerosol is injected into the central argon flow, where aerosol particles are desolvated and vaporized. The ions created in the plasma are drawn into the MS at the vacuum interface. The plasma density and temperature permit isotropic flow through the first orifice (typically 1 mm diameter aperture), and the plasma undergoes free jet expansion (Scoles, 1988) in the first vacuum chamber. 

The secondary criteria are functions of a steady state that reflects the exchange of matter and energy across the vacuum interface. 

As the pair of black holes (a) break the vacuum interface the annihilation explosion (b) between matter and antimatter appears as a point-like energy source surrounded by a massive magnetic field. As in an oscillating chemical reaction radiation is emitted in a periodic fashion (c), commonly observed as a variable quasar. 

Most of their interesting conclusions find a simple explanation in matter-antimatter annihilation through the vacuum interface, as proposed here. 

Multiple images occur, not only because of light rays that circle the cosmos, but also as a consequence of multiply-connected topology, that causes a single object to be visible in different directions. If our proposition, of a black hole as a hole in the vacuum interface, holds, each such object increases the connectivity of space-time and further multiplies the possibility of multiple imaging. 

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