Search

Your search keyword '"Wesson, Paul S."' showing total 432 results
Start Over Author "Wesson, Paul S."
432 results on '"Wesson, Paul S."'

162. Time as an Illusion.

Author

Wesson, Paul S.

Abstract

We review the idea, due to Einstein, Eddington, Hoyle and Ballard, that time is a subjective label, whose primary purpose is to order events, perhaps in a higher-dimensional universe. In this approach, all moments in time exist simultaneously, but they are ordered to create the illusion of an unfolding experience by some physical mechanism. This, in the language of relativity, may be connected to a hypersurface in a world that extends beyond spacetime. Death in such a scenario may be merely a phase change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2010
Full Text
View/download PDF

165. The Meaning of Dimensions.

Author

van der Merwe, Alwyn, Petkov, Vesselin, and Wesson, Paul S.

Abstract

We review the current status of dimensions, as the result of a long and controversial history that includes input from philosophy and physics. Our conclusion is that they are subjective but essential concepts which provide a kind of bookkeeping device, their number increasing as required by advances in physics. The world almost certainly has more than the four dimensions of space and time, but the introduction of the fifth and higher dimensions requires a careful approach wherein known results are embedded and new ones are couched in the most productive manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2008
Full Text
View/download PDF

178. The status of modern five-dimensional gravity (A short review: Why physics needs the fifth dimension).

Author

Wesson, Paul S.

Subjects
GRAVITY, NUCLEAR research, EINSTEIN field equations, STRING theory, SPACETIME, PARTICLES (Nuclear physics), QUANTIZATION (Physics)
Abstract

Recent criticism of higher-dimensional extensions of Einstein's theory is considered. This may have some justification in regard to string theory, but is misguided as applied to five-dimensional (5D) theories with a large extra dimension. Such theories smoothly embed general relativity, ensuring recovery of the latter's observational support. When the embedding of spacetime is carried out in accordance with Campbell's theorem, the resulting 5D theory naturally explains the origin of classical matter and vacuum energy. Also, constraints on the equations of motion near a high-energy surface or membrane in the 5D manifold lead to quantization and quantum uncertainty. These are major returns on the modest investment of one extra dimension. Instead of fruitless bickering about whether it is possible to "see" the fifth dimension, it is suggested that it be treated on par with other concepts of physics, such as time. The main criterion for the acceptance of a fifth dimension (or not) should be its usefulness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2015
Full Text
View/download PDF

Catalog

Books, media, physical & digital resources
See catalog results