A Memorable Halloween

Attila the Hun

A few years ago, August O' Connor and I were invited to one of Santa Cruz's most exclusive social events--Kate Bowland's annual Halloween Party. Kate Bowland is a legend in midwife circles, has delivered more than a thousand babies, and helped make more people-friendly both home and hospital births in California. And Kate knows everyone. So her party was sure to be a "scene".

The rules were simple. Show up as some recognizable character and for the first two hours, play that character's role. Afterwards you can be yourself. Kate was dressed as her favorite childhood hero--Annie Oakley--and would cock and fire an empty BB gun into the air whenever she pleased. Her husband Steve was dressed as Mikhail Gorbachev, complete with forehead birthmark, grey suit with red star on the lapel. Steve greeted every guest with a hearty Russian bearhug: "Welcome to the party!"

Later in the kitchen, Kate told us that many of the stories about Annie Oakley that her father "read" to her as a child were most probably the products of her father's imagination. She was never able to find many of these stories in any Annie Oakley bios.

Entirely unplanned, one woman came as Jackie Kennedy and another as Marilyn Monroe. After sizing up each other across the room they got together and treated the guests to a splendid cat fight. Most of the guests agreed that this tussle of celebrities was one of the evening's high points.

I decided to engage with Atilla the Hun who was sitting in a throne-like chair royally observing the proceedings with a jaundiced eye. "Hi, Atilla," I said, "You're obviously a very powerful man. But I sense that you are in need of my help." I was wearing what looked like a corny Batman (or cat) mask with a green Celtic knot on my chest.

"Need your help? I need to kill and eat you. Who are you anyway?"

Atilla was obviously really getting into his role.

"Never mind me," I said. "See that woman over there? Let's call her over here."

I gesture to August and she slithers over to Atilla's throne. "This is Lady Luck," I say. "And I am Lord Luck. Would you accept our help? Do you agree that you need us?"

"Cancel the death threat," says Atilla. "The help of both of you I most definitely can use."

Even a barbarian warlord recognizes how important it is to have luck on your side.

Later, after the meal and the customary intoxicants, I wandered out onto Kate's deck to discover King Satan himself lying in a beach chair looking out over the lights of Santa Cruz and into the darkness of Monterey Bay. I sat next to him and shared one of my long-term fantasies--not as legendary Lord Luck but as ordinary Nick Herbert.

"Mephistopheles, I presume?"

"That's me."

"As a scientist, Meph, I've always been fascinated by the Faust legend--the notion of negotiating with the Devil himself for some deep wisdom not accessible to others. So I'm really excited to meet you and want to hear more about that famous "Faustian bargain". Do you take my soul and give me deep wisdom in exchange?"

"That soul stuff is really old-fashioned," the guy in the devil suit replied, taking another sip from his bottle of beer. "The price for deep wisdom is very different from what you've been told."

"What's the price?"

"The price for deep wisdom, Nick, is separation--separation from the life of ordinary humanity. End of interview."

I left Satan to enjoy his view of the Bay and am still contemplating his version of the Faustian bargain. He was not really Satan, after all--just an ordinary guy in a mask at Kate Bowland's party. But his answer is certainly worth thinking about.

Thanks, Kate, for a truly memorable Halloween.

On other fronts, Los Gatos sci-fi author and Renaissance man, Rudy Rucker, recently published on his blog, the simplest description of quantum tantra that I have ever read. Read Rudy's post and inform yourself about the next big quantum science/religion/medicine/recreation of the future.

Lord and Lady Luck

How to Build Time Machine

Faster Than Light--Japanese Edition

The hottest news in physics this fall was the alleged discovery at CERN that neutrinos travel slightly faster than light. Most physicists believe this measurement is the result of some as yet undiscovered systematic error but already a handful of theoretical physicists are claiming that they have a new theory which can explain these spectacular results.

A few years ago I published a book Faster Than Light: Superluminal Loopholes in Physics that explored possibilities for exceeding Einstein's well-known universal speed limit. Note for the record: I did not anticipate superluminal neutrinos. But in that book I do make the claim that if superluminal particles exist, then it would be possible to build a time machine--that is, a device that sends signals from the future into the past, allowing us to "know the future" before it actually happens. Somewhere in that book I may have actually posted a design for such a device. Why else would the Japanese edition of this book (pictured above) be called How to Build Time Machine?

Can one actually build a time machine using superluminal particles?  Suppose such a device works by sending signals back and forth from the Moon. Both on Moon and Earth you have access to spinning disks whose edges travel at 1/2 light speed. Mounted on these disks are sender/receivers of superluminal particles that travel at twice the speed of light. For ease of calculation assume that the Earth-Moon distance is 2 light seconds.

1. How would you construct a time machine (TM) using these ingredients?

2. How far into the future would your TM reach?

3. Could such TMs be cascaded to extend their range indefinitely?

Send solutions to nickherbert3ATgmail.com. I will publish the most interesting Time Machine proposal on this blog and award the winner a copy of Physics on All Fours.

Warning: You may have to invent some slightly new physics to solve this problem. For instance, how does the velocity addition rule work for FTL particles? And how does one correctly interpret the
space-dependent clock shift in the Lorentz Transformations?

Gentlemen (and Ladies), start your (faster than light) engines.

Sirag Numbers Enter the Canon

Saul-Paul Sirag lecturing at Esalen Institute

The Sirag Numbers, first arising in the context of "accidental commutation" in the quantum theory of angular momentum (and dedicated to Saul-Paul on his 72nd birthday), were first defined on this blog and partially "tamed" by myself and Saul-Paul Sirag.

Recently these numbers have attracted the attention of the larger mathematical community (thank you, Antti Karttunem) and are now listed in the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences as Integer Sequence A196224. The Sirag Numbers were "completely tamed" by Jack Brennan, Ray Chandler, Charles P. Greathouse and Harvey P. Dale who devised formulas which generate all Sirag numbers. Happy birthday, Saul-Paul! Now that this sequence has been officially recognized, the one thing lacking is to discover an application for Sirag Numbers in the real world.

Also in the news this week, sci-fi author Rudy Rucker paid me a visit at the Quantum Tantric Ashram where we discussed philosophy and literature in my redwood forest retreat. Over tea and stollen, Rudy presented me with copies of his book of paintings Better Worlds and his latest novel, set in Santa Cruz CA, Jim and the Flims which chronicles a throroughly Ruckeresque vision of the afterlife. Hint: the Rucker afterlife is not even close to what you've been taught in school; it more resembles some seriously twisted DMT trip.

Also this weekend Beverly Rubik, a colleague from the Consciousness Theory Group and the Esalen Seminars on the Nature of Reality, invited me to Berkeley to give a talk at her Institute for Frontier Science.

Dr Beverly Rubik, PhD

I took Beverly's invitation as an opportunity to express my latest conceptions about quantum tantra and to read from my work-in-progress Harlot Nature. The talk was well-attended by a responsive crowd which included Dana Ullman, Jim Johnson and Allison Kennedy, the co-founder of the innovative Berkeley-based psychocyberdelic magazine Mondo 2000.

Nick performing at Institute for Frontier Science

After the talk Beverly treated Allison and I to supper at P. F. Chang's Chinese Bistro in Emeryville. Walking to Chang's in the dark our group was surprised by what appeared to be a hidden portal to another reality but when entered turned out to be a time tunnel memorializing the landscape's early inhabitants. Inside the portal, a parade of black stone slabs, each etched with text and pictures, told the story of Emeryville's former human habitation, brief by geological standards. A beautiful and informative piece of public art--the city of Emeryville's Shellmound Memorial.  

Entrance to Emeryville Shellmound Memorial

Quantum Tantra Stripped Bare

Nick Herbert aka Doctor Jabir 'abd al-Khaliq

At the invitation of Len Anderson, though the auspices of Poetry Santa Cruz, Nick Herbert appeared as Featured Poet at Poet/Speak, a monthly open reading at the downtown Santa Cruz Library. This reading happened to coincide with a Greek Street Festival sponsored by Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church across the street which added a wonderful ethnic gaiety to our readings, as poets in the upstairs library room vied to outshout the clarinets, bouzoukis and Zorba impersonators downstairs in the library parking lot.

For this reading, Nick takes on the persona of Doctor Jabir, who prophesizes in tongues the Quantum Tantric Revelation: that someday soon quantum theory will give humans a more intimate way of connecting with Nature that will supercede our present-day science and religions.

His Epistle to the Greeks is the high-water mark of Jabir's prophetic career. In this performance, Jabir enters a poetic trance and strips quantum tantra bare! Fortunately this landmark Epistle to the Greeks did not evaporate into thin air, but happened to be captured on video by Alan and Sun Lundell from Cougar Rock Ridge in Boulder Creek.

Jabir's Epistle to the Greeks represents the purest revelation to date of the Inner Truth of Quantum Tantra. Al and Sun just happened to be in the right place, at the right time, to record the quantum tantric equivalent of the Sermon on the Mount.

September Events

Nick contemplating the Sirag Numbers

First of all, I would like to thank all the peeples dat remembers my birthday this year. And thanks for the many sweet birthday gifts including the opportunity to handle an 1895 Winchester 45-70 rifle

On Sunday, Sept 18, Nick will be the Featured Reader at Poet/Speak, a monthly event hosted by Poetry Santa Cruz. Reading will occur at 2 PM at Santa Cruz Main Library Meeting Room, 224 Church St. Santa Cruz, CA. Open Mike signup. A rare chance to experience quantum tantra live.

On Tuesday, Sept 20, MIT professor David Kaiser will describe his new book "How the Hippies Saved Physics" at the University Club in San Francisco from 6 to 9 PM. Some of the "hippies" will be present for interrogation including Jack Sarfatti, Fred Allen Wolf and Russell Targ. $25 including refreshments. For more info contact Michael Sarfatti at sarfatti@alum.mit.edu.

The Sirag numbers have been partially tamed! Mark Buchanan and Dick Shoup produced a list of SN up to 2995 from which Saul-Paul Sirag extracted several quasi-periodic interval pattern of period 32. From Saul-Paul's data, Nick Herbert constructed this morning the basic equations that all Sirag numbers must satisfy. The Herbert equations classify all Sirag numbers as Primary SNs or Secondary SNs. For the Primary SNs the Herbert equations generate true Sirag numbers. For the Secondary SNs, the Herbert algorithm generates true Sirag numbers but also false ones. However the Herbert classification is exhaustive--any true Sirag number will be generated by one of the Herbert algorithms.

The Primary Sirag numbers (SPs) fall in two classes, Even and Odd. Their defining algorithms are:

SE(n) = 12 + 32n where n = 0 -> N

SO(n) = 12 + 32n - 25 where n = 1 -> N

The Even Sirag numbers SE(n) repeat with a period of 32 beginning with the first Sirag number J*(1) =12. The Odd Sirag numbers SO(n) repeat with a period of 32 beginning with J*(3) = 19. Thus the primary Sirag numbers are represented by two superposed periodic sequences separated by the interval "7". These two equations generate true Sirag numbers but fail to generate ALL SIRAG NUMBERS. For instance J*(2) = 15 is not a member of SO(n). J*(2) is a Secondary Sirag number (SS).

The Secondary Sirag numbers (SSs) fall into four classes--SS3, SS4, SS12 and SS13. These SNs are generated by the four equations:

SS3(n) = SO(n) - 3

SS4(n) = SO(n) - 4

SS12(n) = SE(n) -12

SS13(n) = SE(n) - 13

Any Sirag numbers will be found to be described either as a SP or a SS. Thus this classification is exhaustive. The first set of equations (SPs) can be used to generate Sirag numbers; the second set (SSs) are useful only for classification--some of the numbers generated are not true Sirag numbers.

As an example of this classification scheme we can now recognize J*(2) as SS4(1). The famous Sirag number "1939" representing the year of Saul-Paul's birth turns out to be the Primary Sirag number SO(61). Does the largest computed Sirag number "2995" belong to one of these sets?

The skeptical reader may wish to check Herbert's claims by testing to see if any Sirag number refuses to be pressed into one of these six classifications.

Herbert's equations for the Sirag numbers are a generalization of Saul-Paul's discovery that the intervals between consecutive Sirag numbers are dominated by "7"s and "25"s. And that these intervals are further haphazardly divided into sub-intervals "3 + 4 = 7" and "12 + 13 = 25". And these intervals are the ONLY INTERVALS that appear. No pattern has yet been discovered in the distribution of subintervals, Hence the present lack of an algorithm that will generate all Sirag numbers.

Now shout it from the rooftops:

The Sirag Numbers are (partially) tamed!

Candy From Strangers

FLURB #12 is here!

Rudy Rucker's shameless "webzine without a net"

FLURB tests the edges--careful!--no guard rails.

After reading Rucker & DiFilippo's Fjaerland

in FLURB12

Nick was hooked.

Inspiring fables for quantum tantrikas.

FLURB #12 is here!

The Sirag Numbers

Saul-Paul Sirag, a "hippie that saved physics"

Yesterday, I issued a challenge to my physicist friends to solve a problem that, as Jeffrey Bub informed me, does not even exist. My challenge was based on the fact that for quantum spins 1/2 and 1, the squares of the spin components J(x), J(y), J(z) commute although the spin components themselves do not. I erroneous believed that this result was TRUE FOR ALL SPINS--what I called the "Commutation Conjecture" and asked for either a proof of this conjecture or a refutation. Within a few hours Jeffrey Bub (physicist at University of Maryland) replied that this conjecture was false and that no one in the field had ever believed otherwise. Casey Blood (physicist formerly at Rutgers) also sent a refutation a few minutes later. This contest is now closed.

My so-called "challenge" was a mistake from the start, but it led to an interesting discovery--the "Sirag Numbers"--named after my colleague Saul-Paul Sirag now living in Eugene, Oregon. Conversations with Saul-Paul concerning the quantum spin operators spurred my own refutation of the "Commutation Conjecture" that invokes a brand-new set of numbers.

If we assume that the Commutation Conjecture is true--that for every spin J, the operators J(x)^2, J(y)^2, J(z)^2 commute, then these spin squares are simultaneously observable. And furthermore these three observables must add up to J(J+1).

Now define the Sirag number J* such that the spin squared components of J* no matter how selected cannot be made to sum to J(J+1). If a Sirag number exists then the Commutation Conjecture is refuted because it leads to a contradiction.

Proof that "3" is a Sirag Number (ie, that its spin components squared cannot add up to 3(3+1)

The spin components of a spin-3 system are 3, 2, 1, 0, -1, -2, -3.

The squares of these components are 9, 4, 1 and 0.

It is impossible (by inspection) for 3 of these numbers to sum to 12.

Thus 3 is a Sirag number and the Commutation Conjecture is refuted.

Several questions immediately present themselves:

1. Is the number of Sirag Numbers finite or infinite?
2. Does an algorithm exist for calculating all J*?
3. Have these numbers been discovered before?
4. Is "137" a Sirag Number?

A little research shows that "3/2" is the smallest Sirag Number and that "3", "7/2" and "12" also belong in the class of Sirag Numbers. Today the largest known Sirag Number is "12" but that record is not likely to stand for long.

[Breaking news: the Sirag Numbers have been redefined to exclude 1/2 integer values; "3" has been shown NOT to be a Sirag Number; Mark Buchanan, president of Optical Alchemy, using an ad hoc
iPad app, has declared the lowest THREE Sirag Numbers to be 12, 15 and 19.

The Sirag Number J* is now officially defined by this equation:

X^2 + Y^2 + Z^2 = J*(J* + 1)

A integer J* is a Sirag Number, if no triplet (X, Y, Z) of integers exists that satisfies this constraint.

Saul-Paul's birthday is August 31 and Nick's birthday gift to him is this set of numbers.]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAUL-PAUL!

[[ Sirag Number cognescenti will not fail to appreciate that the Buchanan Program, through some lucky circumstance, has revealed 1. J*(1) = 12, the first EVEN Sirag Number. 2. J*(2) = 15, the first ODD Sirag Number and 3. J*(3) = 19, the first PRIME Sirag Number. The BIG QUESTION now is: What is the value of J*(4), the fourth Sirag Number? ]]

[[[ Late Breaking News!!! On Saul-Paul's birthday, Mark Buchanan calculated ALL SIRAG NUMBERS between 0 and 1000. A partial list: 12, 15, 19, 44, 51, 63, 76, 83, 108, 112, 115, 140, 143, 147. Sad to say, Saul-Paul's favorite number 137 is not on this list, but the numbers 371 and 911 do make an appearance. ]]]

Direct from Mark Buchanan's smoking iPad: the first 92 Sirag Numbers:

12 15 19 44 51 63 76 83
108 112 115 140 143 147 172 179
204 211 236 240 243 255 268 271 275
300 307 332 339 364 368 371 396 399
403 428 435 448 460 467 492 496 499
524 527 531 556 563 575 588 595
620 624 627 652 655 659 684 691
716 723 748 752 755 780 783 787
812 819 844 851 876 880 883
908 911 915 940 947 960 972 979 

Quantum Spin Challenge

Diana Warnock spinning in Boulder Creek

The quantum theory of angular momentum is one of the most beautiful creations of the human mind. Furthermore the math of quantum spin is a closed book--all its beauty published in plain sight like the rules of the game of chess, enshrined in textbooks, this wide-open wonder is even taught to undergraduates--no more mystery, quantum spin's intrinsic beauty diluted by familiarity.

As one of its initiates, I believed I knew all the quantum rules. But I was surprised by a startling paper by Russian physicist Alexander Klyashko who, in deriving a new proof of the Kochen-Specher theorem, seemed to invoke a new rule in the quantum theory of angular momentum--a rule I had never heard of.

For physicists only:

"Everyone knows" that the spin components J(x), J(y), J(z) do not commute. Consequently, when one of these spins is measured, the other two must remain uncertain--a generalization of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle to spin systems. Heisenberg says: Only COMMUTING OBSERVABLES can be simultaneously observed.

Also "everyone knows" that if you choose one spin component, say J(z), that the SQUARE OF THE TOTAL SPIN J^2, also commutes with J(z), so both J^2 and J(z) can be simultaneously measured. In
the quantum jargon, J^2 and J(z) are said to be "good quantum numbers".

But Klyashko claims (unless I am mistaken) that there is another set of mutually commuting spin variables that is not in any textbook.

Klyachko claims that the SQUARES OF ALL SPIN COMPONENTS mutually commute.

Now it is easy to verify that this assertion (which I am attributing to Klyashko) is true for spin-1/2 and for spin-1 systems by direct calculation. But is (what I am calling) the Klyashko Assertion "Commutation Conjecture" true for all values of spin, or is it only true for a few special cases?

Using the standard spin calculus, I have tried and failed to prove "Klyachko's Assertion" the Commutation Conjecture.

[One of my teachers was Sid Drell who introduced us to the physicist's version of the mathematician's "impossibility proof". Drell's version goes like this: "I'm a really smart person. And I can't prove this. Therefore it must be impossible."]

Now since I'm really smart. And I can't prove the "Commutation Conjecture" for all spins, I conclude (using the Sid Drell criterion), that the Commutation Conjecture is false.

And I hereby issue "the quantum spin challenge" to my colleagues who are more intimate than I with the open beauty of quantum angular momentum mechanics.

1. Either prove the Commutation Conjecture for all spin values.

2. Or come up with a counter-example--a spin system whose spin components squared do not commute.

First person to successful meet the Quantum Spin Challenge and send their proof to me at quantaATcruzioDOTcom will receive a copy of "Physics on All Fours", a chapbook of quantum tantric rants illustrated by my son Khola.

Who will be first to take up this challenge?

Gentlemen (and ladies) start your (quantum spin) engines.

[Within 24 hours, Jeffrey Bub at U of Maryland informed me: 1. that Klyashko makes no such claim  (hence the name change from Klyachko's Assertion to Commutation Conjecture) and 2. demonstrated that the CC holds only for spin-1/2 and spin-1 and that furthermore this fact is well known in the field so that 3. my "Quantum Spin Challenge" arises only out of Nick Herbert's ignorance of the facts and hence 4. my Challenge is (as Jeffrey so kindly puts it) "not needed". Jeffrey wins the prize and I thank him for correcting my foolishness. I apologize to Alexander Klyachko for connecting his name with this whole sordid mess.]

QT Blog: The Origin Story

Mudhead--Hopi Kachina clown and trickster

Nick Herbert never intended to start a blog. As my blog site guru Harry Hutton remarked:

Been doing this nonsense for three years now, and where's it got me? Nowhere. It has simply widened the circle of people who think I'm a dick. That's all it has achieved.

My reluctance to enter the blogosphere was further strengthened when I discovered that the virtual real estate entitled "quantumtantra.blogspot.com" was already occupied by an entity who called itself "Mudhead" after the Hopi Kachina trickster spirit. Mudhead's site specialized in paying homage to the beauty of the naked female form, following Fugs-founder Tuli Kupferberg's mantra "God is a spread shot". Each day Mudhead's site featured lots of holy pictures from the Temple of Tuli, regular dispatches from a Canadian photographer obsessed with hi-res closeups of the vertical smile, as well as hot links to other sites with similar enthusiasms. After reading my favorite physics blogs I often enjoyed dipping into this blog for a taste of Mudhead's version of quantum tantra.

But about three years ago, Mudhead's site was suddenly abandoned without explanation and its domain name tossed up for grabs for any entity who wished to take possession. 

How could I resist? Mudhead had done a fine job in establishing a beach head into the unexplored quantum tantric realm and, faced with its vacancy, I simply could not allow lesser minds to pervert this 

splendid site. That in short is this quantum tantra blog's origin myth. Thank you, Mudhead, whoever and wherever you may be. And I hope you are not disappointed with what I have chosen to do with your site.

Tuli Kupferberg: "God is a spread shot."

Quantum Physics Tells Us

Quantum wave equation -- Erwin Schrödinger (1925)

QUANTUM PHYSICS TELLS US 
THE WORLD IS UNLIKE
ANYTHING OUR BODIES KNOW


The equations harbor what look like small
migratory birds blown in on stiff winds. 
What land could they possibly
have come from?  Just look at them,
pecking randomly at the white air,
feeding on something
we don’t see.

In those moments when you think
some part of this world belongs to you,
consider what we call atoms,
for which we have no adequate metaphor,
and of which we are made.
These fellow gods
will not be ruled by anything,
even our notion of cause.  They
are elemental wildness.
 
—Len Anderson

Len Anderson, Physicist (UC Berkeley PhD)