Tony Smith's Home Page

From Sets to Quarks:

Deriving the Standard Model plus Gravitation 
from Simple Operations on Finite Sets
by Tony Smith
 
Table of Contents: 
Chapter 1 - Introduction. 
Chapter 2 - From Sets to Clifford Algebras. 
Chapter 3 - Octonions and E8 lattices. 
Chapter 4 - E8 spacetime and particles. 
Chapter 5 - HyperDiamond Lattices. 
Chapter 6 - Spacetime and Internal Symmetry Space. 
Chapter 7 - Feynman Checkerboards. 
Chapter 8 - Charge = Amplitude to Emit Gauge Boson. 
Chapter 9 - Mass = Amplitude to Change Direction. 
Chapter 10 - Protons, Pions, and Physical Gravitons. 
Appendix A - Errata for Earlier Papers. 
References.


Feynman Checkerboards.

(Feynman Checkerboards and conventional Lattice Gauge Theory are two approaches to formulating physics models on lattices.)

 
The 2-dimensional Feynman Checkerboard
is a notably successful and useful representation of
the Dirac equation in 2-dimensional spacetime.
 
To build a Feynman 2-dimensional Checkerboard,
 
start with a 2-dimensional Diamond Checkerboard with
 
two future lightcone links and two past lightcone
links at each vertex.
 
The future lightcone then looks like 
 
 
If the 2-dimensional Feynman Checkerboard is
 
coordinatized by the complex plane C:
 
the real axis 1 is identified with the time axis t;
 
the imaginary axis i is identified with the space axis x; and
 
the two future lightcone links are
(1 / sqrt2)(1 + i) and (1 / sqrt2)(1 - i).
 
In cylindrical coordinates t,r with r^2 = x^2,
 
the Euclidian metric is t^2 + r^2 = t^2 + x^2 and
 
the Wick-Rotated Minkowski metric with speed of light c is
 
(ct)^2 - r^2 = (ct)^2 - x^2.
 
For the future lightcone links on
 
the 2-dimensional Minkowski lightcone, c = 1.
 
Either link is taken into the other link
by complex multiplication by  +/- i.
 
Now, consider a path in the Feynman Checkerboard.
 
At a given vertex in the path, denote the future lightcone link in
 
the same direction as the past path link by 1, and
 
the future lightcone link in
the (only possible) changed direction by  i.  
 
 
The Feynman Checkerboard rule is that
 
if the future step at a vertex point of a given path
is in a different direction
 
from the immediately preceding step from the past,
 
then the path at the point of change gets a weight
of  -i m e ,
 
where m is the mass
(only massive particles can change directions),and
 
e is the length of a path segment.
 
Here I have used the Gersch convention
 
of weighting each turn by  -im e
 
rather than the Feynman convention
 
of weighting by  +im e, because Gersch's
convention gives a better nonrelativistic limit
in the isomorphic 2-dimensional Ising model.
 
 
HOW SHOULD THIS BE GENERALIZED TO HIGHER DIMENSIONS?
 
The 2-dim future light-cone is the 0-sphere S^2-2 = S^0 =
{ i, 1 } ,
 
with 1 representing a path step to the future in
 
the same direction as the path step from the past, and
 
 i representing a path step to the future in a
 
(only 1 in the 2-dimensional Feynman Checkerboard lattice)
 
different direction from the path step from the past.
 
The 2-dimensional Feynman Checkerboard lattice spacetime can be
 
represented by the complex numbers C,
 
with 1,i representing the two future lightcone directions and
 
-1,-i representing the two past lightcone directions.
 
Consider a given path in
 
the Feynman Checkerboard lattice 2-dimensional spacetime.
 
At any given vertex on the path in the lattice 2-dimensional
spacetime,
 
the future lightcone direction representing the
continuation of the path
 
in the same direction can be represented by 1, and
 
the future lightcone direction representing the (only 1 possible)
 
change of direction can be represented by  i since either
 
of the 2 future lightcone directions can be taken into the other
 
by multiplication by  +/- i,
 
+ for a left turn and - for a right turn.
 
If the path does change direction at the vertex,
 
then the path at the point of change gets a weight of
 -im e,
 
where i is the complex imaginary,
 
m is the mass (only massive particles can change directions),
and
 
e is the timelike length of a path segment,
where the 2-dimensional speed of light is taken to be 1.
 
Here I have used the Gersch convention
 
of weighting each turn by  -im e
 
rather than the Feynman convention
 
of weighting by  +im e, because Gersch's
convention gives a better nonrelativistic limit
in the isomorphic 2-dimensional Ising model \citeGER.
 
For a given path, let
 
C be the total number of direction changes, and
 
c be the cth change of direction, and
 
 i be the complex imaginary representing
the cth change of direction.
 
C can be no greater than the timelike Checkerboard distance D
 
between the initial and final points.
 
The total weight for the given path is then
 
the product where c runs from 0 to C of  -ime 
 
or in other words  -ime  to the Cth power. 
 
The product is a vector in the direction  +/- 1 or  +/- i.
 
Let N(C) be the number of paths with C changes in direction.
 
The propagator amplitude for the particle to go from
the initial vertex to the final vertex is the sum over all
paths of the weights, that is the path integral sum
over all weighted paths:
 
the sum over C from 0 to D  of  N(C) times -ime to the Cth power. 
 
 
The propagator phase is the angle between
 
the amplitude vector in the complex plane and the complex real axis.
 
Conventional attempts to generalize the Feynman Checkerboard from
 
2-dimensional spacetime to k-dimensional spacetime are based on
 
the fact that the 2-dimensional future light-cone directions are
 
the 0-sphere S^2-2 = S^0 = { i,1 }.
 
The k-dimensional continuous spacetime lightcone directions are
 
the (k-2)-sphere S^k-2.
 
In 4-dimensional continuous spacetime, the lightcone directions
are S^2.
 
Instead of looking for a 4-dimensional lattice spacetime, Feynman
 
and other generalizers went from discrete S^0
to continuous S^2
 
for lightcone directions, and then tried to construct a weighting
 
using changes of directions as rotations
in the continuous S^2, and
 
never (as far as I know) got any generalization that worked.
 
 
 
The HyperDiamond generalization has
discrete lightcone directions.
 
If the 4-dimensional Feynman Checkerboard is coordinatized by
 
the quaternions Q:
 
the real axis 1 is identified with the time axis t;
 
the imaginary axes i,j,k are identified with the space
axes x,y,z; and
 
the four future lightcone links are
 
(1/2)(1+i+j+k),
 
(1/2)(1+i-j-k),
 
(1/2)(1-i+j-k), and
 
(1/2)(1-i-j+k).
 
In cylindrical coordinates t,r
 
with r^2 = x^2+y^2+z^2,
 
the Euclidian metric is t^2 + r^2 = t^2 +
x^2+y^2+z^2 and
 
the Wick-Rotated Minkowski metric with speed of light c is
 
(ct)^2 - r^2 = (ct)^2 - x^2 -y^2 -z^2.
 
For the future lightcone links on
 
the 4-dimensional Minkowski lightcone, c = sqrt3.
 
Any future lightcone link is taken into any other future lightcone
 
link by quaternion multiplication by  +/- i,  +/- j, or  +/- k.
 
For a given vertex on a given path,
 
continuation in the same
direction can be represented by the link 1, and
 
changing direction can be represented by the
 
imaginary quaternion  +/- i, +/- j, +/- k corresponding to
 
the link transformation that makes the change of direction.
 
Therefore, at a vertex where a path changes direction,
 
a path can be weighted by quaternion imaginaries
 
just as it
is weighted by the complex imaginary i in the 2-dimensional case.
 
If the path does change direction at a vertex, then
 
the path at the point of change gets a weight of
-im e, -jm e, or -km e
 
where i,j,k is the quaternion imaginary representing
the change of direction,
 
m is the mass (only massive particles can change directions),
and
 
sqrt3 e is the timelike length of a path segment,
 
where the 4-dimensional speed of light is taken to be sqrt3.
 
For a given path,
 
let C be the total number of direction changes,
 
c be the cth change of direction, and
 
ec be the quaternion imaginary i,j,k representing
the cth change of direction.
 
C can be no greater than the timelike Checkerboard distance D
 
between the initial and final points.
 
The total weight for the given path is then
 
m sqrt3 ec to the Cth power times the product (c from 0 to C) of -ec 
 
 
Note that since the quaternions are not commutative,
 
the product must be taken in the correct order.
 
The product is a vector in the direction  +/- 1,
 +/- i,  +/- j, or  +/- k.

 
Let N(C) be the number of paths with C changes in direction.
 
The propagator amplitude for the particle to go
 
from the initial vertex to the final vertex is
 
the sum over all paths of the weights,
 
that is the path integral sum over all weighted paths:
  the sum from 0 to D of N(C) times the Cth power of m sqrt3 ec times the product (c from 0 to C) of -ec
 
 
 
The propagator phase is the angle between
 
the amplitude vector in quaternionic 4-space and
 
the quaternionic real axis.
 
The plane in quaternionic 4-space defined by
 
the amplitude vector and the quaternionic real axis
 
can be regarded as the complex plane of the propagator phase.
 
 

Since the D4-D5-E6-E7-E8 VoDou Physics model is 
fundamentally a Planck Scale HyperDiamond Lattice 
Generalized Feynman Checkerboard model, 
it violates Lorentz Invariance at the Planck Scale, 
affecting Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays. 



From Sets to Quarks:   Table of Contents: Chapter 1 - Introduction. Chapter 2 - From Sets to Clifford Algebras. Chapter 3 - Octonions and E8 lattices. Chapter 4 - E8 spacetime and particles. Chapter 5 - HyperDiamond Lattices. Chapter 6 - Spacetime and Internal Symmetry Space. Chapter 7 - Feynman Checkerboards. Chapter 8 - Charge = Amplitude to Emit Gauge Boson. Chapter 9 - Mass = Amplitude to Change Direction. Chapter 10 - Protons, Pions, and Physical Gravitons. Appendix A - Errata for Earlier Papers. References.
      Tony Smith's Home Page     ......