- #1
Rohan
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- TL;DR Summary
- Amongst what seems like a plethora of classical Unified Field Theories; that seemed to exist in the first half of the 20th century;
were they all abandoned because of failure to account for quantised phenomena, as matter consisting of discrete particles and fields;
as opposed to observational failure in the classical realm ?
1/ Amongst what seems like the plethora of classical Unified Field Theories; that seemed to exist in the first half of the 20th century; see for example https://link.springer.com/article/10.12942/lrr-2014-5
[caution 50MB download]
were they all abandoned just because of failure to account for quantised phenomena, as matter consisting of discrete particles and fields; as opposed to observational failure in the classical realm ?
2/ Is it possible that any of them, whilst incomplete in this way never-the-less are valid as purely classical theories ? here I have in mind that Maxwell's Electro-Magnetism, fails utterly in the quantum realm, yet retains great utility in the classical !
Contextually many of these theories , (eg Einstein seemed to have considered several ) ; seemed to have been not just attempting to unify General Relativity and Maxwell's Electro-Magnetism but also attempting to offer an alternative to Quantum Mechanics. Thus it seems the possibility of an "incomplete" Classical Unified Field Theory
may have been overlooked ! I suppose the hope which such a theory seems to represent to me is the possibility of (in Wheeler's terminology) :
-electro-geometrodynamic phenomena ...strange electrical 'forcefield' effects; at everyday energies !
General Relativity and Maxwell's Electro-Magnetism don't seem to predict such interactions;
until the mass/ energies approximate the mass of stars and then only as an electromagnetic contribution to the gravitational field !
[caution 50MB download]
were they all abandoned just because of failure to account for quantised phenomena, as matter consisting of discrete particles and fields; as opposed to observational failure in the classical realm ?
2/ Is it possible that any of them, whilst incomplete in this way never-the-less are valid as purely classical theories ? here I have in mind that Maxwell's Electro-Magnetism, fails utterly in the quantum realm, yet retains great utility in the classical !
Contextually many of these theories , (eg Einstein seemed to have considered several ) ; seemed to have been not just attempting to unify General Relativity and Maxwell's Electro-Magnetism but also attempting to offer an alternative to Quantum Mechanics. Thus it seems the possibility of an "incomplete" Classical Unified Field Theory
may have been overlooked ! I suppose the hope which such a theory seems to represent to me is the possibility of (in Wheeler's terminology) :
-electro-geometrodynamic phenomena ...strange electrical 'forcefield' effects; at everyday energies !
General Relativity and Maxwell's Electro-Magnetism don't seem to predict such interactions;
until the mass/ energies approximate the mass of stars and then only as an electromagnetic contribution to the gravitational field !