Physical Meaning of Wick Rotation and Advanced Waves

Abstract -

"When we solve (19th-century Scottish physicist James Clerk) Maxwell's equations for light, we find not one but two solutions: a 'retarded' wave, which represents the standard motion of light from one point to another; but also an 'advanced' wave, where the light beam goes backward in time. Engineers have simply dismissed the advanced wave as a mathematical curiosity since the retarded waves so accurately predicted the behavior of radio, microwaves, TV, radar, and X-rays. But for physicists, the advanced wave has been a nagging problem for the past century." ("Physics of the Impossible" by Michio Kaku - Penguin Books, 2009: pp. 276-277)

Advanced waves are usually discarded because they are thought to violate the causality principle: advanced waves could be detected before their emission. On one level, I can appreciate that reasoning. But ultimately, I think it's an error that should be replaced by Isaac Newton's idea of gravity and the modern idea of quantum mechanics' entanglement. After writing a paragraph about entanglement and Newtonian gravity, several paragraphs are devoted to the motion of electromagnetism and gravitation, plus absorption and re-radiation. These are followed by (1) advanced waves and the dating of, among other things, dinosaur fossils, (2) existing technology that, unknown to everyone, detects the presence of advanced waves, (3) advanced waves plus disease and ageing, (4) partially overcoming ageing with technology based on noise-cancelling headphones, and (5) the role of Wick rotation and advanced waves in entanglement and evolution.

Just as advanced waves are usually discarded, very few physicists or mathematicians will venture to ascribe a physical meaning to imaginary numbers, which seem to have no correspondence with external reality. Here, it will be shown that imaginary time (which is described by such numbers) has two physical meanings - (1) it provides a way to unify space and time into one space-time, (2) it will allow construction of what may be called "imaginary computers".

Keywords

Wheeler-Feynman absorber theory; Transactional Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics; retarded waves; advanced waves; electromagnetism; gravitation; radioactive dating; noise-cancelling headphones; better health; longer life; nature of space and time; increasing Astronomical Unit; Pioneer anomaly; entanglement; evolution; imaginary computers; SUSY; supersymmetry

Table of Contents
ADVANCED WAVES AND DINOSAURS
CIRCLES, SPHERES, EVOLUTION AND DINOSAURS
WICK ROTATION, BITS, COSMIC TOPOLOGY
WICK ROTATION, SPACE-TIME AND SUSY
WICK ROTATION AND IMAGINARY COMPUTERS