Wave-Particle Duality

Many of the deepest secrets of quantum physics are hidden in the account of the third day of Creation in the Genesis narrative. In order to decipher the significance of this passage on this level, we need to rethink the symbolic character of water and dry land. As we explained in the previous article, the quantum world describes physical objects as having both wave-like and particle-like properties. The nature of waves is most readily understood from our acquaintance with water waves. Water, in liquid form, by its nature seems to be the best expression of waves that are discernible to the naked eye. Dry land for its part–being composed of particulate matter–perceptibly embodies the particle aspect of reality. Our world–our immediate sphere–carries a twofold makeup of water surrounding dry land which, when pushed to the figurative extreme, recapitulates our sense of wave-particle duality.

We hear the story of the spatial confinement of the waters which gave rise to dry land in Genesis 1:9 “And God said: ‘Let the waters beneath the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.’” In the commentary of Rabbeinu Bechaye (R’ Bahya ben Asher mid-fourteenth century) on this verse, he examines what he sees as an anomaly in the everyday nature of liquids (water) and solids (dust). Normally water, which is lighter than dust, should ascend above and the dust (being heavier) should sink down below. There would have to be some twist in the operation of the elements to make water recede and lower itself so that the dust (in aggregate form as the dry land) could rise out of the water. God must make a special decree (utterance number 4 that occurs on day three in the week of Creation) that augments some of the functionality of the elements within Creation. There are always ‘states of exception.’ The best science (and Torah) springs from counter intuitive statements and this is such an example. In no way are we merely speaking about physical waters and earth. The plain meaning cannot exhaust the richness of the text nor does the non-literal meaning blast off and leave the plain meaning entirely behind.

Rabbeinu Bechaye cites the well known and deceptively simple expression that ‘the earth is stretched out upon the water’ which sounds like some vague and naive picture of ancient world cosmology. Yet the classical world of definite physical objects–objects that possess locality (the discreet particle)–are suspended in energy fields (today one immediately calls to mind the fanfare of the probable discovery of the Higgs field) and/or upon waves (i.e. non-local continuous phenomena). The ‘gathering of the waters’ would then be tantamount to the collapse of the wave function. Once the wave collapses it appears to us like a particle–the ascension of dry land (a single concrete reality) over the possibilities and potentialities. Singular reality (which gives rise to classical physics) does not rest on a stable foundation–the earth does not stretch out on the earth–but rather it emerges from out of a multiplicity of possibilities expressed by the wave function which resemble the instability and fluctuations of water. Classical physics advances and ascends to the surface while floating in the primordial quantum sea.

By what means is the wave function collapsed? Amazingly scientists have demonstrated with uncanny accuracy that the simple act of observation brings about wave collapse. This too is testified to in the Torah in our verse about the gathering of the waters. As the verse states (Genesis 1:9) “…let the dryness be seen (v’tairaeh hayavasha)” can be interpreted to mean ‘you will see [and as a result of your causing of this reality to be seen–i.e. measuring a quantum system–you will have caused wave collapse which results in) dryness (the actualization of a single concrete and discreet reality.)

We also find in the commentary of Rabbeinu Bechaye a reference to a verse from the book of Job (38:30) that follows on the heels of the verse (38:28) we quoted as the prooftext for wave-particle duality in the previous article. Here God relates to Job that “The waters are hidden as with a submerged stone and the face of the deep forms a solid mass.” However, the verse can be broken up a bit differently to read “[that which resembles or is] like a stone, conceals the waters” as if to say that the stone or definite physical object that is particle-like automatically conceals the wave behavior of the waters. When we are looking at the physical universe it somehow knows that it is being observed and hides the ‘waters’ by virtue of our seeing a stone (particle). Moreover the abyss or ‘face of the deep’ (tohom) has as its stem the word for ‘chaos’ (tohu) implying that the wave function–which mathematically relates to a multitude of worlds–undergoes a process of concealing. The deep waters of an infinite number of possible worlds (olamot ein sof in the language of Kabbalah) grow a skin or crust over them which, according to Rashi, leads to the formation of ice crystals. Rashi seems to be literally speaking of the layer of ice that freezes over a body of water, but in the hands of the mystics ice is never just ice nor water just water.

The arresting of chaos, the infinite flux of potential in the unmeasured quantum system, finds itself subject to the eye of the observer who effectively arrests its development and creates a highly defined finite world with precise measurements and qualities, but whose underlying deep and amorphous reality remains inaccessible due to the ‘dry’ ice layer that has superimposed itself between the no-thingness of the wave function and the some-thingness of the particle.

In Part Three we will take up the question of the future return of a sea of endless quantum possibilities.

http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/new-earth-gathered-waters-physics-and-kabbalah-part-3/

http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/new-earth-gathered-waters-physics-and-kabbalah-part-1/

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