I’ve always been interested in physics and the fascinating intricacies of nature that make the foundation of our reality possible. From the largest possible views on cosmology and evolution of the universe, to the complexities that formulate the standard model and provide the basis for all particles and forces as we know them. There are so many wonders to see in physics, and yet, many mysteries still remain.
I’ve heard some talk recently that there is potentially some new physics that has been undiscovered by the physics community at large. As you might imagine when I heard there was talk of this, I was immediately interested. I’m no physicist myself, but I was exposed to it growing up and in college I was a few credits shy of obtaining a minor in physics. I also read a fair share about it in my spare time and have a solid understanding of it as a layperson. I won’t be able to derive any equations for you, but I can mostly explain the basics of the standard model at a mathematical level (gauge symmetries are fun!) – and by the way, if you’re looking for an excellent book on the subject check out Deep Down Things. It goes far beyond the depth of your standard pop-science book, but explains things clearly and keeps shy of any graduate-level material. I’ve found this is an exceedingly small target audience, which is part of the reason why I love it so much.
But getting back to the details here – some attention has been focused on Maxwell’s equations, and from the way I understand it, there seems to be a possible issue in the partial differential equation form we use in modern times; the original quaternion form Maxwell used was far more complex and they were rewritten by Oliver Heaviside. Some physicists believe that one of the 4 modern equations is actually over-constrained: it is a valid solution to the original form (obviously, as it is very successful in matching experimental data), but if looked at more closely, other valid solutions are also possible. These other solutions describe different, new kinds of electromagnetic waves.
One possibility is a scalar wave. Another is a longitudinal wave (scalar longitudinal, eg: SLW). A third is a helicoidal wave. If the math is followed further, others also seem possible. And in some cases, new fields may accompany these. The aspect that really caught my attention is the fact that these waves would not necessarily be subject to the same limitations that standard “Hertzian” electromagnetic waves are (propagation velocity, divergence and attenuation to name a few) and if so, this could open up an entirely new frontier. It also seems possible that these types of waves could potentially provide explanations for some of the more esoteric and unexplained phenomenon that are sometimes observed.
Others have explored this area before, some long ago. A rather famous example is that of Nikola Tesla. If the math is examined which could describe these new waves, you can get a rough idea of what type of device or apparatus could generate them and it looks like some of Tesla’s inventions may have done just that.
Then there are also some modern minds. A physicist by the name of Lee Hively has a few papers, demonstrating the validity of these ideas with data to back it up and a patent application out on extended electrodynamics related devices. Donald Reed discusses scalar longitudinal waves and has a great review of the physics and more details regarding the fields and disagreements between Heaviside and Maxwell over the physicality of these in section 2 of his paper. To quote a few key points:
Historically, a great degree of controversy has surrounded the conceptual interpretation of the role the
magnetic vector potential should play in classical electrodynamics. This can be attributed to the
fundamental mathematical relationship between the scalar potential (ϕ) and the vector potential (A), and
the electric (E) and magnetic (B) fields…
However, only E, B are usually regarded as “real” physical fields, whereas to consider the
introduction of the vector potential as no more than a mathematical convenience, useful as an aid in
solving the Maxwell’s equations for E, B…
However, this practice of attributing non-physical significance to the magnetic vector potential
couldn’t have been further from the thoughts of the original architects of what eventually became
modern classical electrodynamics…
Yet these potentials, introduced by Maxwell as physical, were summarily unceremoniously
discarded by Heaviside [7] as “non-physical”. He argued, basically from his engineering background in
telegraphy, that they they rendered the equations of propagation, in his words “unmanageable and also
not sufficiently comprehensive”. Heaviside (and Hertz independently) stated that the standard “duplex”
field equations (now known as Maxwell’s equations) and the associated two field vectors (E,B) were
the sole basis of electromagnetism…
Apart from such theoretical considerations, there has been a host of empirically-based evidence
surrounding the phenomenon of the curl-free magnetic vector potential that continues to emerge.
Observations of this nature have been reported across the board of both microscale and macroscale
domains, as well as spanning across the historical spectrum of both modern and antiquarian research…
A number of other papers also exist if one does some searching. Hell, even the CIA has an approved-for-release document dating back to 2001 which discusses scalar electromagnetic waves, extending Maxwell’s equations and mentioning the relation to Tesla’s work.
I’ve always been one who valued the idea and recognized the benefits of keeping an open mind. From the way I see it, there seems to be at least some evidence for these ideas and they could potentially explain many mysteries and may be able to solve many problems. Just look at what humanity has accomplished with a single type of electromagnetic wave – pretty much the entirety of all modern technology. Computers? Check. Radios? Check. Motors? Check. There are so many inventions that leverage some aspect of the electromagnetic spectrum, not to mention light itself. I think you would be hard-pressed to find any electrical device manufactured in this age, which does not rely on some aspect of electromagnetism to function; you would need to go back to the early part of the 20th century to find that.
Now imagine the possibilities of what we might be able to do with another few waves.
Given it seems possible that Tesla was able to create some of these waves a century ago, I was betting it should not be that difficult to do the same with our modern technology. The idea of creating some kind of experiment to simply and conclusively demonstrate these waves came to me; if something like that could be done, I think it would be of great value and hopefully generate interest for others to do the same, ideally leading to some new technologies that could better tackle the problems of the world.
I ran a few experiments, trying to leverage Tesla’s bifilar coil antenna design powered by a signal generator to transmit waves to a receiver hooked up to an SDR within a Faraday cage; I’ll provide some more details on these in a future post. The idea here was to demonstrate a clear signal transmission through a Faraday cage: something that is not possible with traditional Hertzian electromagnetic waves. I collected data, but have not had any “smoking-gun” positive signal detections yet. I also became aware that a large potential may be necessary to generate these and wave energies do not go down to arbitrarily low energies (as is the case with traditional EM waves; the wavelength simply gets longer at lower frequencies) – in physics parlance, the force-carrying bosons may have a non-zero mass. This would also line up with the fact Tesla utilized rather high voltages in his devices. I have some ideas to experiment with these, but safety when working with these is quite crucial so I’ll be proceeding rather carefully here.
So to summarize: Given the evidence, I think there is a rather strong likelyhood that extended electrodynamics is a legitimate phenomenon. I’m curious to explore this further and eager for the possibility of a future where we can start to make significant progress on the challenges of the world and it can transformed into a better place for everyone. I may not have the PhD to fully grasp the fundamentals, but I’m driven and passionate to see if we can make this a reality.
Leave a Reply