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An Insight into Information, Entanglement and Time

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It From Bit or Bit From It?

Part of the book series: The Frontiers Collection ((FRONTCOLL))

Abstract

We combine elements of Boltzmann’s statistical account of thermodynamic processes in the second law, Poynting’s twist waves on a photon shaft and Shannon’s theory of communication within a background-free conceptualization of time; where the departure and arrival of information carried by photons bounds “elements of physical reality” as perpetually reversible photon links embedded in an entangled network. Entangled networks become progressively irreversible as decoherence ebbs and flows with the environment. From this, we can begin to formulate a new and logically consistent view of the apparent non-locality revealed in violations of Bell’s inequality.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Presented without mathematical description because existing formalisms contain implicit assumptions incompatible with this insight (in addition to their intrinsic Minkowski background, there are also two mutually incompatible forms of evolution–unitary/non-unitary). Einstein also believed the formalism was a hindrance to reasoning about quantum theory [3].

  2. 2.

    Almost all Bell tests so far have been performed with photons [8]. This description may be applied to any quantum particle with a de Broglie wavelength; information simply travels at the slower rate of traversal of the particle through the apparatus. The helical path description is similar for electrons [9].

  3. 3.

    Shannon [10] defined the notion of channel capacity in his theory of communication and the notion of a ‘bit’ as the fundamental unit of information.

  4. 4.

    There are many theoretical and experimental investigations underway regarding the helical nature of photon propagation. Our contribution is recognizing that this is also a reversible action in subtime. Photons are also able to transfer multiple bits in higher order angular momentum [11–14].

  5. 5.

    Consistent with the advanced and retarded wave solutions to Maxwell’s equations.

  6. 6.

    There is nothing in nature (or in any measurement carried out so far), supporting a background of time, which would allow us to discern temporal relationships between independent entangled systems. If a system has no interactions with other systems, there is no common frame of reference or coordinate system for time. Simultaneity, total and partial orders, are undefined.

  7. 7.

    We take Feynmans clocks [16] literally.

  8. 8.

    Each link represents EPR’s “simultaneous element of reality” [4]. Links are embedded in a quantum network automata, with each atom representing a vertex of bounded degree. This implies:

    • A limit to the number of entanglement neighbors: partners with other nodes in the entangled system or with decoherence partners in the environment.

    • Like the valency in atomic bonding, this implies that nature builds a multi-hop entanglement network out into the decoherence environment (similar to Figs. 9.3 and 9.4).

    • Different particles may have different degrees. For example, photons have degree two: one transmitter and one receiver represents a Shannon channel.

  9. 9.

    Solutions to the electromagnetic field equations are symmetric with respect to time inversion. This symmetry is reflected in all our fundamental laws of physics.

  10. 10.

    This recognition that the logic of the EPR paper was correct but the assumptions were wrong is shared by Nathan Rosen [3].

  11. 11.

    Virtual machines in computing are software systems that emulate the hardware environment of a real computer, to allow one or many virtual machines (Operating Systems as well as applications) to run on the same physical hardware independently of one another.

  12. 12.

    Aspect [21] measured time using randomly switched optical crystals at 50 MHz (20 ns), while the spatial extent of the apparatus required more than double that to violate special relativity. This is not what we are referring to as a demon.

  13. 13.

    There is insufficient room in this paper to discuss distinctions with other “time loophole” theories. We draw the reader’s attention to the principal arguments: that subtime starts and stops with the emission and absorption of a photon, and is reversed in all ontological respects as the photon is returned in the hot-potato protocol. This is one way that we divorce ourselves from the background assumption of time, which is not (as far as we can tell) the case for other time loophole theories.

  14. 14.

    From the Lorentz frame of the photon, everything that happens inside the atom, between the absorption and its re-emission, will appear to have a proper time of Zero. The notion of instantaneous is a function of the arbitrary frame in which we chose to perform our calculations [3].

  15. 15.

    Because photons are indistinguishable, photons in a perpetual hot potato protocol may compete with other photons taking over the entanglement [27]. Information and energy may, however, remain trapped within the same entangled system.

  16. 16.

    A network automaton is similar to a cellular automaton, but where the cells are vertices in an arbitrary network and there is an evolving topology of links connecting them.

  17. 17.

    Multithreading is distinguished from multiprocessing in computer systems, in that threads share the resources of a single computer. i.e., we have one universe, not many.

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Acknowledgments

These ideas were inspired by the writings and conversations with Lee Smolin, Julian Barbour, Fotini Markopoulou, Simone Severini and Anton Zeilinger. They may not agree with anything I have said, but I owe my inspiration to the questions they asked. All responsibility for errors and inaccuracies is mine.

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  1. Earth Computing, Inc., Palo Alto, California, USA

    Paul L. Borrill

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  1. Paul L. Borrill
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Correspondence to Paul L. Borrill .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, USA

    Anthony Aguirre

  2. Foundational Questions Institute, New York, New York, USA

    Brendan Foster

  3. Foundational Questions Institute, New York, New York, USA

    Zeeya Merali

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Borrill, P.L. (2015). An Insight into Information, Entanglement and Time. In: Aguirre, A., Foster, B., Merali, Z. (eds) It From Bit or Bit From It?. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12946-4_9

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