It looks like the models for the proton are becoming more complex every day. See for example a recent article in quantamagazine. I see this constant growth of complexity as a sign that one or more of our basic assumptions is wrong. The model of Ptolemy for the motion of the celestial bodies for example, became very complex because it was based on an invalid fundamental assumption, namely that the earth was at the center of the universe. In short: invalid basic assumptions lead to overly complex theories. Read my analyses below...
Let me give a simple example, just for the benefit of illustrating the basic mechanism. Imagine that we study the behavior of carbon dioxide. Our basic assumption is that all pure substances must go through a phase of liquid if they want to transfer from a solid to a gas. Now, as we have a sample of carbon dioxide powder on a desk, at ordinary room temperature, we see it evaporate. It simply disappears. Now we look for a liquid. It is not there. We do, on the other hand, detect carbon dioxide molecules in the air. So we assume that the solid has at some point shifted to a phase of gas.
But we are still looking for the liquid. And as we cannot find it, we develop a theory about invisible liquid states. About molecules becoming virtual molecules for a short while. And we need a lot of virtual processes to describe how normal molecules become virtual molecules that cannot be detected. And we need even more speculative processes that describe how these virtual molecules maintain a fluid and then turn into the real molecules of a gas again. Mind you, that such a theory could very well be validated by experiment, as long as it describes the appearance of a carbon dioxide gas correctly.
Such a theory would then of course become an opportunity for a lot of theorists to expand on. We could for example state that in this liquid state of carbon dioxide, we would find dark matter or dark energy. And we could theorize that a vast majority of the universe is actually in this liquid state, being composed of virtual molecules, being undetectable, apart from their gravity. A vast field of opportunities would be opened for theorists, precisely because we have defined some natural processes, not detectable or observable in any direct manner, but still considered to be experimentally validated. A better way to have dealt with the absence of a carbon dioxide fluid, would of course have been to do away with the basic assumptions that all pure substances must go through a liquid phase.
Now let us get back to the proton. The basic assumption is that it is build of three quarks. Note that this is already a bit of a virtual thing, this quark. Just like the virtual molecules in the former example, they are experimentally validated in a rather indirect manner, but never observed in isolation. Just as the liquid carbon dioxide in the example can in principle not be observed, because it is “virtual”, we have a process called “color confinement” that causes the quark to - in principle - be unobservable as an isolated phenomenon. So we are already knee-deep wading through complexity. Now we throw some electrons at the proton and we discover that the dispersion of these electrons does not conform to this static model. But we do not want to let go of the basic assumption of the three quarks. So we invent some spontaneity. We let these quarks interact with a quantum foam and invent some mathematics that uses virtual particles to explain a lot of interactions going on inside the proton. We are now until our eyebrows wading through complex force fields and strange interactions. And a lot of theorists see opportunities here. They say that what goes on inside the proton could very well explain how the universe came into being.
In the example of the carbon dioxide, we only had to change our basic assumption so that it allowed for skipping a liquid state. With the proton, we only have to replace the notion of a static quark with the concept of a “basic phenomenal object” (abbreviated with Bp). The Bp has only three attributes. It has a basic charge, a basic inertia and – here it comes – an intrinsic basic speed. This last attribute makes the Bp the real (and long awaited) innovation in theoretical physics that can take us out of the current stagnation. Because of it, we have a proton, composed of three Bp’s revolving around each other in a very simple, elegant and well defined manner, while conforming to all important experimental data.
This short article is not the place to discus the whole concept of the basic phenomenal object. For that you are invited to read my book “monkeys do not die as lizards”. But I can assure you that you will be flabbergasted about the simplicity of the proton. Just as you will roll your eyes in surprise once you have understood the simplicity of the electron, also composed of Bp’s. None of the complexity of contemporary proton theories is necessary anymore, simply because we have thrown out one of the basic assumptions that only led us into unnecessary complexity. It was our stubborn refusal to let go of the static quark. We could not see that we needed a dynamic Bp to explain the strange scattering experiments.
(c) January 2025
Peter Schuttevaar
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