That's correct, but such theories can be mapped to
theories with constant C. Ultimately only dimensionless constants matter,
all other constants are just conversion factors.
----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----
Van: "Ben Goertzel" <ben.domain.name.hidden>
Aan: "Saibal Mitra" <smitra.domain.name.hidden>;
<Fabric-of-Reality.domain.name.hidden>
CC: "everything" <everything-list.domain.name.hidden>; <nbarberis.domain.name.hidden.com>
Verzonden: Sunday, August 01, 2004 07:00 PM
Onderwerp: RE: Afshar and "...the idea of a photon is dead"
>
> I don't know anything about Afshar, but I do know that
> variable-speed-of-light (VSL) theories of quantum gravity are now being
> considered seriously by physics journals and by some leading physicists.
>
> Joao Maguiejo (sp?) has a popular book on the topic entitled "Faster than
> the Speed of Light." The first half of the book will be too elementary
for
> members of this list, but the second half is a good read -- though it
leaves
> one eager for the mathematical details, which are found in the author's
and
> others' technical papers.
>
> Lee Smolin, who is well-respected for his role in creating loop quantum
> gravity, is now taking VSL theories seriously.
>
> -- Ben Goertzel
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Saibal Mitra [mailto:smitra.domain.name.hidden]
> > Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2004 8:03 AM
> > To: Fabric-of-Reality.domain.name.hidden
> > Cc: everything; nbarberis.domain.name.hidden
> > Subject: Re: Afshar and "...the idea of a photon is dead"
> >
> >
> > Unfortunately, sensationalists articles that are completely baloney
appear
> > in most scientific journals from time to time.
> >
> > Nature published an article claiming that if the fine structure
> > conswtant is
> > changing, as suggested by some astronomical observations, then this
change
> > must be due to a change in the speed of light. Now, this must be
nonsense,
> > because the value of the speed of light, being a dimensional constant,
is
> > determined by our choice of units. In fact, that there are dimensional
> > constants at all, is an artefact of using inconsistent units at the
same
> > time.
> >
> >
> > Michael Duff has explained this in the articles:
> >
> > http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0208093
> >
> > and:
> >
> > http://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0110060
> >
> >
> > ----- Oorspronkelijk bericht -----
> > Van: "Nicole Barberis" <nbarberis.domain.name.hidden>
> > Aan: <Fabric-of-Reality.domain.name.hidden>
> > Verzonden: Friday, July 30, 2004 06:15 PM
> > Onderwerp: Afshar and "...the idea of a photon is dead"
> >
> >
> > > I was stunned to read "Quantum Rebel" in July 24th's
> > > New Scientist. Shahriar Afshar, an American, comes to
> > > the conclusion that "we have no other choice but to
> > > declare the idea of Einstein's photon dead" (page 35).
> > > His work has been tested and is now being peer
> > > reviewed. How trustworthy is New Scientist as a news
> > > source? Is it prone to sensationalists articles. I'm
> > > a fairly new reader of this magazine, but it seemed to
> > > me to be a good source of science news until last
> > > week's rushed Hawking article and this week's
> > > no-such-thing-as-a-photon showcase article. Of
> > > course, if it is repeatedly proved true than I would
> > > welcome the new finding but for now I'm just a bit
> > > stunned by the news.
> > >
> > > -Nicole
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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Received on Sun Aug 01 2004 - 16:18:41 PDT