Wheeler-Feynman

In terms of Wheeler-Feynman absorber theory [47] a standing wave, consisting of synchronized retarded and advanced components, originating at emitter and absorber respectively, constitutes the wave function of a photon and it extends over the entire region between emitter and absorber. 

If the superposition of point-source solutions is determined by a Green function , then by analogy with Wheeler-Feynman absorber theory the total interaction results from a symmetrical combination of retarded and advanced Green functions. On dehning these Green functions to be compatible with space-time geometry (Riemann tensor) the interaction is shown to be consistent with Einstein s field equations. 

Let me report a telephone conversation between the Ph.D. student Richard Feynman and his supervisor. Professor Archihald Wheeler from the Princeton Advanced Study Institute (according to Feynman s Nobel lecture. 1965) Wheeler Feynman, I know why all electrons have the same charge and the same massf Fejfnman Why W Because they are aU the same electron. Then, Wheeler explained Suppose that the world lines which we were ordinarily considering before in time and space—instead of only going up in time were a tremendous knot, and then, when ive cut through the knot by the plane corresponding to a fixed time, ire would see many, many world lines and that would represent many electrons (...) ... 

Two BBC journalists interviewed eight outstanding physicists Alain Aspect (photon experiments), John Bell (Bell inequalities), John Wheeler (Feynman s Ph.D. supervisor), Rudolf Peierls ( Peierls metal-semiconductor transition ), John Taylor ( black holes ), David Bohm ( hidden parameters ), and Basil HUey ( rruithematical foundations of quantum physics ). It is most striking that all these physicists give very different theoretical interpretations of quantum mechanics (summarized in Chapter 1). 

Obviously, such interpetation led to disregard advanced solutions as nonphysical. For instance, Ritz [30] and Tetrode [31] considered that the mathematical existence of advanced solutions was a major weakness of Maxwell s equations. An attempt to provide a physical basis for advanced potentials is due to Lewis, who proposed focusing on the process of propagation from an emitter to an absorber far away from the emitter [32]. This concept also appears in the work of Wheeler and Feynman [33]. However, such model constitutes another form of causality violation. Lewis [32, p. 25] himself stated I shall not attempt to conceal the conflict between these views and common sense. ... 

The photon is not a particle, but a process. A prime example is the absorber model of Lewis [32] and Wheeler and Feynman [33] for a revival of the same idea, see Whitney [74]. For a related concept with emphasis on path, see Ryff [75]. 

Thus, the wavelength-frequency relation (2.1) implies the Compton-effect formula (2.10). The best we can do is to describe the phenomena constituting the wave-particle duality. There is no widely accepted explanation in terms of everyday experience and common sense. Feynman referred to the experiment with two holes as the central mystery of quantum mechanics. It should be mentioned that a number of models have been proposed over the years to rationalize these quantum mysteries. Bohm proposed that there might exist hidden variables whieh would make the behavior of each photon deterministic, i.e., particle-like. Everett and Wheeler proposed the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics in which each random event causes the splitting of the entire universe into disconnected parallel universes in whieh eaeh possibility becomes the reality. 

This definition of an electromagnetic interaction corresponds exactly with the absorber theory of Wheeler and Feynman (1945). According to this theory an accelerated charge in otherwise charge-free space does not radiate... 

Wheeler, J.A. R.P. Feynman, Interaction with the Absorber as the Mechanism of Radiation, Revs Mod. Phys., 1945 (17) 157-181. 

Richard Philips Feyi n i lai i (1919-1988), Amerii on physicist and for many years professor at the California Institute of Technology. His f er was his first informal teacher of physics, who taught him the extremely important skill of independent thinking. Feynman studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then at Princeton University, where he earned his Ph.D. under the supervision of John Archibald Wheeler. 

Let me report a telephone eonversation between the PhD student Richard Feynman and his supervisor Prof. Archibald Wheeler from Princeton Advanced Study Institute (according to Feynman s Nobel... 

An alternative explanation of the mechanism of spontaneous emission has been proposed by Wheeler and Feynman (1945) in a theory which includes both the retarded and advanced electromagnetic potentials introduced in section 2.6. The difference between the two theories is most evident if we consider a hypothetical universe containing a single... 

The radiative decay rate calculated by Wheeler and Feynman is identical to that given by equation (4.21), provided t]iat there is sufficient matter in the universe to allow the emitted radiation to be completely absorbed. If this condition is not satisfied or if the distant matter is receding from the emitter with too great a velocity, then the rate of spontaneous emission will be less than that given by equation (4.21). Thus a connection can be made between spontaneous emission and cosmology which is discussed in detail by Hoyle and Narlikar (1968) and Pegg (1968). 

---