Has anybody seen the God Particle?

Prof. Carlo Fonseka published an article on 23rd July 2012 in “The Island” on “The God Particle” describing an answer he had given to “a very clever arts woman”. In that article he mentioned among other things the following: “To begin at the beginning, I told her that there are three ways in which we acquire scientific knowledge. The first is by direct observation through our five senses, that is to say by seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. The second is by indirect observation through our senses using instruments such as telescopes, microscopes and spectroscopes. The third method is by using our brains to build models in our imagination of what we think might be true about something we cannot directly or indirectly observe through our senses.” He also said that “there is only one way that scientists use to test a model. They make testable predictions based on the model and checkout the accuracy of the predictions experimentally.” As an example of a model he referred to the atom at the end of the nineteenth century: “At that stage the standard model of the atom was a structure with a center called the nucleus (consisting of protons and neutrons) and electrons orbiting round the nucleus. This is like the popular model of the solar system with the sun at the center and the planets orbiting round it.” Referring to the Big Bang he said “In the 20th century scientists came to believe that about 14 billion years ago there was an explosion of pre-existing energy. This explosion is called the Big Bang. At that point, matter as we know it came into existence.” Finally on the Higgs Boson this is what he said. “Though its existence was predicted by Higgs in 1964, its existence was finally confirmed only this year.”

I was puzzled by all these and on 25th July, I asked Prof. Fonseka whether he believed that the God Particle exists, and mentioned that “What the western Physicists at CERN have done is to interpret certain photographs they had obtained in their big collider to claim that the photos show some characteristics of a particle that Peter Higgs thought gives mass to the other particles. It is only a story and is not different from Newtonian gravitation that “explained” how the earth moves round the sun. Does Prof. Fonseka believe that Newtonian gravitation exists? The model of an atom with particles going round the nucleus is Rutherford’s old hat as according to the new model the quantum particles do not travel along paths or trajectories.” From his reply on 7th August it is clear that Prof. Fonseka has not seen the God Particle but he goes by some of his “Vinnus” (roughly people who are knowledgeable) the western scientists at CERN. This is somewhat in accordance with what I call the second part of Kalama Sutta and I am happy about it though I have problems with the “Vinnus” of Prof. Fonseka. It has to be stated that even the “Vinnus” have not seen the “God Particle” through direct or indirect observations, the way we mortals see desks and chairs through our senses. As I have said in my previous article the “Vinnus” have observed certain tracks on photographic plates, which they interpret as the Higgs Boson. These tracks are interpreted to exhibit certain characteristics of the Higgs Boson as predicted theoretically. What has to be emphasized is that there are no sacred facts and the facts are theory laden. No perception is independent of conception and we see the world the way construct it. Can somebody think of a perception or so called fact independent of conception? All theories are models or stories that have been constructed in order to “explain” what are called “facts”. As long as the stories and observations taken as a whole are consistent they are believed by the western scientists. This is in contrast to “prathyaksha” which should not be translated as sensory perceptions. It is funny to see the western scientists who do not consider observations as reality, constructing models to explain reality and test them with nothing but observations that do not constitute reality.

On Gravitation, Prof. Fonseka exhibiting his knowledge says: “His (Einstein’s) theory of Special Relativity published in 1905 established the equivalence mass and energy in the famous equation E = mc2. In 1915, by incorporating gravity into his Special Relativity, he revolutionized our view of space and time. If I have understood it correctly, the theory of general relativity can explain everything that Newtonian gravitation can explain plus such things as how rays of light from a star are bent when they go past a massive body like the sun. The current standard model postulates four fundamental forces, of which one is gravity.” Einstein did not incorporate gravity into the theory of special relativity though Prof. Fonseka seems to believe so. Former discarded Newton’s story of gravitation, contradicting “facts”, and constructed a new story of space - time that is determined by matter and radiation. This theory talks of an abstract concept called space -time curvature that cannot be observed directly or indirectly, and apples fall or take certain paths due to this curvature and not due to a gravitational force. The approximations of the deductions of Einstein’s theory incorporate deductions of Newtonian Gravitation Theory but that does not imply that General Theory of Relativity constructed using Manifolds, Differential Geometry, Tensor analysis etc., incorporates Newton’s Theory of Gravitation. The two theories are worlds apart so to say conceptually. For example in Newtonian Theory space and time are independent entities that could exist without matter and radiation, while in General Relativity space –time is determined by what is known as the energy – momentum tensor. Similarly, as I have mentioned the current model of the atom is conceptually very much different from Rutherford atom.

The current standard model does not postulate four forces including Gravity contrary to what Prof. Fonseka seems to believe. The standard model which is a Quantum Field Theory tries to explain the interactions among “particles” and has failed to incorporate General Relativity. It does not predict Dark energy or Dark Matter and is weak in many other areas. Western Physicists are toying with other theories, models or stories such as string theorywith extra dimensions, super symmetries etc. Prof. Fonseka says that “Big Bang theory is the nearest thing science has to offer by way of a theory of everything.” Oh no, the western Physicists have other ideas when they talk of theory of everything (ToE). It is not based on Big Bang, and they are interested in a theory that is an improvement of the standard model. However my question was “Could he explain how a theory of everything tallies with Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, assuming of course that western Physics incorporates Arithmetic?”, which Prof. Fonseka has completely ignored. It must also be pointed out that the Big Bang is a singularity in space –time that has no explanation and that contrary to the statement “This explosion is called the Big Bang. At that point, matter as we know it came into existence” in Prof. Fonseka’s article of 23rd July at least some matter as we “know” today took some time, however minute it may be, to come into existence. He says referring to Big Bang mistakenly as a ToE and to a statement by Prof. Green that it seems to him that humankind’s quest for a ToE is still a dream. For him “it is a dream that will surely come true”. The self proclaimed materialist is an idealist dreamer. Incidentally does he include Sinhala Buddhists who are not interested in a ToE also in the “humankind” referred to? Prof. Fonseka quotes the following in his last article. “Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.” Prof. Fonseka has failed to answer my questions, but it does not make him a wise man though I am certainly a fool for continuing to ask him fundamental questions in Physics and Philosophy.

Copyright Prof. Nalin De Silva

Neutrinos and Arsenic

Do particles that travel faster than light exist? This is a question people have been asking since last Thursday when CERN laboratories in Switzerland announced that they had observed neutrinos travelling with velocities greater than of light. Even before this announcement some western Physicists had been speculating on particles travelling with velocities greater than of light and had even named them tachyons. However, these exotic particles would have had imaginary masses, whatever that means, and many Physicists were not willing to buy the idea. The claim by the CERN scientists was more down to earth. They had measured the time taken by neutrinos to travel a distance of 730 kilometres to a place in Italy and had found that the neutrinos covered that distance in 60 nanoseconds less than the time taken by photons or light radiation.

It would not be possible for Sri Lanka to undertake to carry out these experiments as our equipments are nowhere near what CERN have accumulated in the recent past. Thus even though the westerners claim that the experiments in western science should be able to be repeated by “anybody”, in practise there is only one other group, namely the Fermi Laboratories that can even think of repeating the experiments. There had been a third laboratory in Japan but unfortunately it has slowed down after the Japanese tsunami. Thus it comes down to only two laboratories including CERN in the whole world that can repeat the experiments. Then it is said the equipment in Fermi Laboratory are not sensitive as those in the CERN laboratories and thus the scientists will have to depend on measurements taken by one Laboratory exploding the myth of repeating an experiment by so called independent observers.

Neutrinos are supposed to be particles that come in three different flavours. The name flavour has been given to these particles to describe a certain abstract property of them and it is said that the neutrinos change their flavour while they travel to the earth from Sun where they are emitted from. There are different opinions about the mass of the neutrinos and some western Physicists are of the view that the mass is zero. Photons (light) also have zero mass and if the neutrinos are mass less then they should also travel with the velocity of light. The uncertainties on the mass of the neutrinos may be associated with the determination of their velocities and the Physicists world over are very cautious of the experiments carried out at CERN.

In any event though the results of the CERN experiments are in contradiction with special theory of relativity which is now more than hundred years old, and a pillar of western Physics, the western Physicists in the other laboratories nor of the same laboratory did not go round claiming that the equipments at CERN were not working or experiments had not been carried out at CERN or the Physicists who were involved with the neutrino experiments were publicity seeking unethical persons. All that they said was that the experiment had to be repeated especially at Fermi laboratories.

I mention this fact in order to compare with the behaviour of some of our “scientists” when we announced that Arsenic was present in pesticides and water in Rajarata areas. Of course the clue had been given to us by the Devivaru but we had tested various samples of pesticides and water from Rajarata for Arsenic in the laboratories of the University of Kelaniya using methods in western Chemistry. Our so called scientists went round saying that either we had not tested for Arsenic or that the relevant equipment at the University of Kelaniya were out of order or we had based ourselves only on the word of Devivaru. It is unfortunate that the persons responsible at that stage for all these propaganda against us were few of the so called Chemists attached to the University of Kelaniya.

They were never interested in repeating the experiments at other laboratories even after we gave our method at number of seminars and were only interested in slinging mud against the group that was involved with observations and experiments connected with the Rajarata Kidney Disease. It was with great difficulty after the Sri Lanka Customs and the Government of Sri Lanka exerted their influence that at least one laboratory decided to repeat the experiments. Strangely enough the results of their experiments have not been made public yet and no further action has been taken in this regard.

One of the criticisms made by the scientists in Sri Lanka who are nothing but glorified technicians involved with “cookery” was that we had not published our results in a so called peer reviewed journal and had announced them to the local press. The public was made to understand that publishing in so called peer reviewed journals was the only accepted practice in science and that we were only publicity seekers. As far as we were concerned we were interested in getting the government to do something about the pesticides containing Arsenic and were not after so called research papers in “prestigious” journals. Arsenic in water or pesticides is not a major “finding” in western Chemistry and the international press was not interested in our work. The government media and some others as well were hostile to our work and finally the issue has been forgotten though some of our associates are now involved with a movement to cultivate using traditional methods that were available in Sri Lanka before the English ruined our “govikama” and the economy.

Now when I heard the news of faster than light particles on Friday I was interested in finding out the prestigious journal that published this interesting result. However, the CERN group had announced their results to the press and not published in a peer reviewed journal. Their results may be true or not but the fact remains that the world including the western Physicists some of whom are not mere glorified technicians but who can produce new concepts, theories, experimental methods rather than involving themselves with “cookery” in the laboratories came to know of the results through media. They have not asked for peer reviewed papers and are only interested in repeating the experiment at CERN as well as at Fermi Laboratories.

Now coming back to the question of whether there are particles that travel with velocities greater than light all that can be said at this point is that normal thinking would suggest that if special theory of relativity is correct then there cannot be such particles. However, there are ways of accommodating such particles within special relativity and I am sure all that is needed is to make special relativity a relative theory rather than a theory applicable to all particles. In fact in Quantum Mechanics communication takes place between entangled particles with velocities greater than of light and if so there must be some mechanism either using “particles” or some other “substance” or even mere space time that makes it possible. All these questions have to be answered within the broader context of existence and these will be discussed under the series on so called scientific knowledge.

Copyright Prof. Nalin De Silva