Saturday, May 19, 2012

DC currents of Becker, part III: Are the direct currents quantal?


Becker summarizes his findings by stating that living matter is effective semiconductor. There are pairs of structures in positive and negative potential in various scales and the current between the plates of this effective capacitor flows when above some minimum potential difference. The current flows from positive to negative pole and could be electron current. Also proton current in opposite direction can be considered but electron current is experimentally favored. For instance consciousness is lost when magnetic field is used to deflect the current.


In TGD framework natural carriers of these currents would be magnetic flux tubes carrying also electric fields. A very simple deformation of the imbeddings of constant longitudinal magnetic fields gives also longitudinal electric field. With a slight generalization one obtains helical electric and magnetic fields. A crucial difference is that these currents would be quantal rather than ohmic currents even in the length scale of biological body and even longer scales assignable to the magnetic body.


The following argument allows to understand the physical situation.

  1. A precise everyday analogy is vertical motion in the gravitational field of Earth between surface and some target at given height h. If the kinetic energy is high enough, the particle reaches the target. If not, the particle falls back. In quantum case one expects that the latter situation corresponds to very small probability amplitude at the target (tunneling to classically forbidden kinematic region).

  2. Now electric field replaces gravitational field. Suppose that the classical electric force experienced by the particle is towards the capacitor plate taking the role of the surface of Earth. Below critical field strength the charged particle cannot reach the target classically and quantum mechanically this occurs only by tunneling with vanishingly small probability.

  3. Particles with opposite value of charge experience force which accelerates them and classically they certainly reach the second plate. What happens in quantum situation? It seems that this situation is essentially identical with the first one: one has linear potential in finite interval and wave functions are localized in this range. One can equivalently regard these states as localize near the second capacitor plate.

  4. A good analogy is provided by atoms: classically electron would end down to the nucleus but quantization prevents this. Also now one can imagine stationary solutions for which the electric currents for individual charges vanish at the plates although classically there would be a current in another direction. Also quantum mechanically non-vanishing conserved current is possible: all depends on boundary conditions.

Basic model

Consider now the situation at more quantitative level.

  1. One can assign complex order parameters Ψk to various Bose-Einstein condensates of supra phases and obey Schrödinger equation

    i∂t Ψk= (-(hbar2/2mk)∂z2+ qk E z) Ψk .


    Here it is assumed that the situation is effectively one-dimensional. E is the value of constant electric field.



  2. The Schrödinger equation becomes non-linear, when one expresses the electric field in terms of the total surface charge density associated with the plates of effective capacitor. In absence of external electric field it is natural to assume that the net surface charge densities σ at the plates are of opposite sign so that the electric field inside the capacitor is proportional to



    σ= E= ∑ σi= ∑i qiΨbariΨi .




    This gives rise to a non-linear term completely analogous to that in non-linear Schrödinger equation. A more general situation corresponds to a situation in which the region interval [a,b] bounded by capacitor plates a and b belongs to a flux longer tube like structure [A,B]: [a,b] ⊂ [A,B]. In this case one has

    Etot= E+E0 .


    This option is needed to explain the observations of Becker that the local strengthening of electric field increases the electron current: this would be the case in the model to be discussed if this field has a direct opposite to the background field E0. One could also interpret E as quantized part of the electric field and E0 as classical contribution.

  3. The electric currents are given by

    jk= i× hbar (qk/2mk)ΨbarkzΨk .


    In stationary situation the net current must vanish:

    k jk=0 .


    A stronger condition is that individual currents vanish at the plates:

    jk=0 .


    It must be emphasized that this condition does not make sense classically.

Explicit form of Schrödinger equation

Consider now the explicit form of Schrödinger equation in a given electric field.

  1. The equation is easy to solve by writing the solution ansatz in polar form (the index k
    labelling the charge particle species will be dropped for notational convenience).

    Ψ= R (a exp(iU)+ bexp(-iU))exp(-iEnt)


    For real solutions current vanishes identically and this is something which is not possible classically.
    It is convenient to restrict the consideration to stationary solutions, which are energy eigen states with energy value En and express the general solution in terms of these.

  2. The Schrödinger equation reduces with the change of variable

    z→ (z-z0)/z1 == x ,

    z0=En/qE ,

    z1=(hbar2/2mqE)1/3 .


    to

    (∂x2 +x)Ψ= 0 .


    The range [0,z0] for z is mapped to the range [-z0/z1,0]. z0/z1 has positive sign as is easy to verify. The value range of x is therefore negative irrespective of the sign of qE. This is equation for Airy functions. Airy functions are encounterd in WKB approximation in the approximation that potential function is linear. These functions appear also in the model of rainbow.


    The change of variable leads automatically to solutions restricted near the plate where the situation is completely analogous to that in gravitational field of Earth. For stationary solutions test charge in a given background field would be localized near capacitor plate with opposite sign of charge. A strong background field could be created by charges which do not correspond to the ionic charges defining ionic currents. Electrons and protons could define this field possibly associated with flux tubes considerably longer than the distance between capacitor plates.


  3. Using the polar representation Ψ= Rexp(iU) Schrödinger equation reduces to two equations

    [ (∂x2 -Ux2+x)R]cos(U)+[Uxx +2∂xR∂xU] sin(U)= 0 ,


    [ (∂x2 -Ux2+x)R]sin(U)- [Uxx -2∂xR∂xU ]cos(U)= 0 .


    Note that both (R,U) and (R,-U) represent solutions for given value of energy so that the solution can be chosen to be proportional to cos(U) or sin(U). The electric current j is conserved and equal to the current at x=0 and given by

    j= (hbar/2m) (Ux/z1)R2 , z1= (hbar/2mqE)1/3 .


    The current vanishes if either Uz is zero or if the solution is of form Ψ= Rsin(U).

Semiclassical treatment

In semiclassical approximation potential is regarded as so slowly varying that it can be regarded as a constant. In this situation one can write the solution of form Rexp(iU) as

Ψ= R0exp[(i/h bar) ∫0z (2m)1/2(E-qEz)1/2dz] =R0exp(i∫0x x1/2dx) .

The plate at which the initial values are given can be chosen so that the electric force is analogous to gravitation at the surface of Earth. This requires only to replaced coordinate z with a new one vanishing at the plate in question and gives to the energies a positive shift E0= qE0h.

  1. The semiclassical treatment of the equation leads to Bohr rules

    ∮ pzdz/hbar= (2/hbar)∫0h pz dz= n .


    This gives

    ∮ pzdz/hbar=(2(2m)1/2/hbar)∫0h (En-qEz)1/2 dz= 2∫0x0 x1/2=(4/3)×x03/2 =n .


    Note that the turning point for classical orbit corresponds to zmax= En/qE.


  2. One obtains

    En=n2/3 E0 ,

    E0= (1/2)× (qE×hbar2/r×m1/2)2/3

    r= ∫01 (1-u)1/2du =2/3 .


    The value of zmax is

    zmax=En/qE= (n2/3/2r2/3)× (hbar2/qEm)1/3 .


  3. The approximation R=R0=constant can make sense only if the position of the second plate is below zmax. This is possible if the value of n is large enough (n2/3 proportionality), if the mass m of the charged particle is small enough (m-1/3 proportionality raising electron and also proton to special position, or if the strength of electric field is small enough (E-1/3 proportionality). The value zmax is proportional to hbar2/3 so that a phase transition increasing Planck constant can induce current flow.

Possible quantum biological applications

The proposed model for quantum currents could provide quantum explanation for the effective semiconductor property assigned to the DC currents of Becker.

  1. The original situation would be stationary with no currents flowing. The application of external electric field in correct direction would reduce the voltage below the critical value and currents would start to flow. This is consistent with Becker's findings if there is background electric field E0 so that the applied field has direction opposite to E0 so that the field strength experienced by charged particles is reduced and it is easier for them to reach the second plate. This is of course a possible objection against the proposal.

  2. Becker's DC currents appear in several scales. They are assigned with the pairs formed by CNS and perineural tissue (this includes also glia cells) and by frontal and occipital lobes. Acupuncture could involve the generation of a DC supra current. The mechanism would be essential in the healing. Also the mechanism generating qualia could involve generation of supra currents and dielectric breakdown for them. The role of the magnetic flux tubes in TGD inspired biology suggests that the mechanism could be universal. If this were the case one might even speak about Golden Road to the understanding of living matter at basic level.
Even the generation of nerve pulse might be understood in terms of this mechanism. One can argue that neurons have higher evolutionary level than the system pairs to which only electron currents or electron and proton currents can be assigned. This because the value of Planck constant is higher for the magnetic flux tubes carrying the quantal ionic currents.
  1. For Bose-Einstein condensate the simplest choice is n=1 at both plates. The energy eigenvalues would naturally differ by the shift E0= qE0h at the two plates for given particle type. Under these assumptions the current can flow appreciably only if the voltage is below the minimum value. This is certainly a surprising conclusion but brings in mind what happens in the case of neuronal membrane. Indeed, hyper-polarization has a stabilizing - something difficult to understand classically but natural quantum mechanically.

  2. The reduction of membrane potential slightly below the resting potential generates nerve pulse. Also a phase transition increasing the value of Planck constant might give rise to quantal direct currents and generate flow of ionic currents giving rise to nerve pulse. Stationary solutions are located near either capacitor plate. What comes in mind is that nerve pulse involves a temporary change of the capacitor plate with this property.

  3. If electron and proton currents flow as direct currents one encounters a problem. Nerve pulse should begin with direct electron currents and followed by direct proton currents and only later ions should enter the game if at all. The existing model for nerve pulse however assumes that at least electrons flow as oscillating Josephson currents rather than direct quantal currents. This is quite possible and makes sense if the cell membrane thickness small - that is comparable to electron Compton length as assumed in large hbar model for the nerve pulse. This assumption might be necessary also for proton and would make sense if the Planck constant for protonic flux tubes is large enough. For ions the Compton length would be much smaller than the thickness of cell membrane and direct currents would be natural.

    If the Planck constant is same for biologically important ions, direct quantum currents would be generated in definite order since in h<zmax one has zmax∝ m-1/3∝ A-1/3. The lightest ions would start to flow first.

    1. Nerve pulses can generated by voltage gated channels for potassium and calcium. Voltage gated channels would correspond to magnetic flux tubes carrying electric field. For voltage gated channels Na+ ions with atomic weight A=23 and nuclear charge Z=11 start to flow first, then K+ ions with atomic weight A=39 and Z=19 follow. This conforms with the prediction that lightest ions flow first. The nerve pulse duration is of order 1 millisecond at most.

    2. Nerve pulses can be also generated by voltage gated Ca+2 channels. In this case the duration can be 100 ms and even longer. Ca has A=40 and Z=20. The proper parameter is x=r2/qA, r=hbar/hbar0. One has

      x(Ca++)/x(Na+)= (r(Ca++/r(Na+))2 × (23/2× 40) .


      (r(Ca++/r(Na+))2≈2 would allow to compensate for the increased weight and charge of Ca++ ions.

  4. The objection is that Na+ and K+ are not bosons and therefore cannot form Bose-Einstein condensates. The first possibility is that one has Cooper pairs of these ions. This would imply

    x(Ca++)/x(2Na+)= [r(Ca++/r(Na+)]2 × 23/20 .


    Ca++ and Na+ pair would be in very similar position for a given value of Planck constant. This is a highly satisfactory prediction. Another manner to circumvent the problem is more science fictive and assumes that the Na+ ions are exotic nuclei behaving chemically as Na+ but having one charged color bond between nucleons (allowing in TGD view about nuclear physics).

It remains to be seen whether this model is consistent with the model of cell membrane as almost vacuum extremal or whether the vacuum extremal based model could be modified by treating ionic currents as direct currents. In the vacuum extremal model classical Z0 gauge potential is present and would give a contribution to the counterpart of Schrödinger equation. The ratio x(Ca++)/x(2Na+) for the parameter x=r2/q(A-Z)A (em charge q is replaced with neutron number in good approximation) equals to 1.38 and is not therefore very far from unity.

The many-sheetedness of space-time is expected to play a key role and one should precisely specify which sheets are almost vacuum extremals and which sheets are far from vacuum extremals. One expects that magnetic flux tubes are far from vacuum extremals and if voltage gated ionic channels are magnetic flux tubes, the proposed model might be consistent with the model of cell membrane as almost vacuum extremal.

The effects of ELF em fields on vertebrate brain

The effects of ELF em fields on vertebrate brain occur both in frequency and amplitude windows. Frequency windows can be understood if the effect occur at cyclotron frequencies and correspond to absorption of large $\hbar$ photons. A finite variation width for the strength of magnetic field gives rise to a frequency window. The observed quantal character of these effects occurring at harmonics of fundamental frequencies leads to the idea about cyclotron Bose-Einstein condensates as macroscopic quantum phases. The above considerations support the assumption that fermionic ions form Cooper pairs.

I have tried to understand also the amplitude windows but with no convincing results. The above model for the quantum currents however suggests a new approach to the problem. Since ELF em fields are in question they can be practically constant in the time scale of the dynamics involved. Suppose that the massless extremal representing ELF em field is orthogonal to the flux tube so that the ions flowing along flux tube experience an electric force parallel to flux tube. What would happen that the ions at the flux tube would topologically condensed at both the flux tube and massless extremal simultaneously and experience the sum of two forces.

This situation is very much analogous to that defined by magnetic flux tube with longitudinal electric field and also now quantum currents could set on. Suppose that semiconductor property means that ions must gain large enough energy in the electric field so that they can leak to a smaller space-time sheet and gain one metabolic quantum characterized by the p-adic length scale in question. If the electric field is above the critical value, the quantum current does not however reach the second capacitor plate as already found: classically this is of course very weird. If the electric field is too weak, the energy gain is too small to allow the transfer of ions to smaller space-time sheet and no effect takes place. Hence one would have an amplitude window.

The amplitude window occur in widely separate ranges 1-10 V/m and around 10-7 V/m. Of course, also other frequency ranges might be possible. Fractality and the notion of magnetic suggests a possible explanation for the widely different frequency ranges. Both p-adic length scale hypothesis and the hierarchy of Planck constants suggest that some basic structures associated with the cell membrane have fractal counterparts in a wide length scale range and correspond to binary structures. Magnetic flux tubes carrying quantal DC currents of Becker would be the most natural candidate in this respect since these currents appear in several length scales inside organism. Also the counterparts of lipid layers of cell membrane could be involved. If so, one must include to the hierarchy of amplitude windows also fields in the range corresponding to the cell membrane resting potential of about 6× 106 V/m. This is of course only a rough order of magnitude estimate since perturbations of these field are in order.

By fractality the most natural guess is that the voltage along the flux tube is invariant under the scale of Planck constant. This would mean that the electric field would behave as 1/L2 propto 1/hbar2 as a function of the length scale characterizing the scale variant of the structure. If so the range E=1-10 V/m assignable also to EEG would correspond to a length scale of 7.7-24 μm corresponding to cell length scale. Perhaps the direct currents run between cells layers. E=10-7 V/m would in turn correspond to 7.8 cm which corresponds to size scale of human brain hemisphere (experiments were carried out for vertebrates). Could the direct quantum currents in question run between brain hemispheres along corpus callosum?

The contents of this posting can be found also at my homepage as an article with homepage title Quantum Model for the Direct Currents of Becker.

20 comments:

◘Fractality◘ said...

MATTI:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAV5avfDBiw

This is a video of the legendary John Chang and his use of Chi. Western materialist skeptics attempt to expose him as a fraud but fail! His negative is his perineum and his positive is his naval chakra!

I highly recommend watching it as it pertains to your last blog postings.

Ulla said...

The firedancers and the fire meditation comes in mind. Interesting. This also says that it is wrong thinking to say that we eat because we need energy. We eat to control the energy?

matpitka@luukku.com said...

Perhaps we eat to get information, negentropic entanglement. This explains why the metabolic energy must come from biomatter and we cannot get it by putting plug in the wall!

matpitka@luukku.com said...

Thank you for video. I noticed that it is familiar for me. Recommended to anyone ready to reconsider his or her basic beliefs.

Ulla said...

http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2012/05/time-to-re-write-textbooks-rna-has.html RNA has a Fifth Base!!!

Ulla said...

Look, about eating. http://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=38376

Ulla said...

I remember, epigenetic tags for eating were among the first detected ones by the swedish scientists. These tags are inherited even (transferrred to the germ cells) a bit like the mitochondrions, which have own DNA, de facto. These tags also determine aging and later health, as instance in cardiovascular diseases, as do the mitochondrions.

The low calorie diet has health benefits hard to explain. Slowing the cell cycle may be one.

The same as curcumin etc biological compounds http://ukpmc.ac.uk/articles/PMC2966482/reload=0;jsessionid=o6eX4n4zZuwjjF34POTm.148

Orwin said...

Matti, there's a covariant position that runs closely parallel to yours, from Bethe-Salpeter in Minkowski space through parton distributions to t'Hooft!

But any interior field is determined by boundary conditions, and you miss excretion of ions balanced overall by cold electron discharge/Kirlian aura. When you put the theory itself at the boundary that's monadology of Leibniz (theory = pre-established harmony), and not auras or Chi!

Chinese and Pythagoras do say state is expressed, in physiognomy. As immune state is expressed on cell wall.

Ulla said...

And I wonder if the nerve loop take a turn outside the body too? It must get the information through communication. How would a model look like where there is no definite boundary? I don't think of the magnetic body now.

Stochastic resonance (from outer world) must be important. Take a locked-in patient with no dopamine and no communication with outer world, nor her inner self.

Ulla said...

This can be a big piece in the puzzle. Thanks for bringing my attention here once again. Now the real happenings begins to be seen. Endorphin acts by deactivating brain areas and modulating, through intervention with the energy transport. But are the fields made bigger (=erasing?), so they create superposition, and that's the mechanism of modulation? Dopamine is the 'arousing' media (SR), creating oscillations of energy and coherence or decoherence giving actions (connects to outgoing loop?)? This is seen in the CREATION of disease? I am working on it. Serotonin is the pain-producing media (inner SR?)?

See also this old one. http://zone-reflex.blogspot.com/2010/05/secret-behind-acupuncture-is-adenosine.html

Orwin said...

Curiously, dopamine acts also in the kidney, regulating blood-pressure and life-span: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110719151920.htm - "kidney fire" in Asiatic tradition.

The outer loop is the subject of Object Relations Theory, pioneered by Sandor Ferenczi and Melanie Klein after Freud. But Lacan had it "captured" by language/symbolism, much as for Leibniz! Only Deconstruction and Surrealism resist the capture/totalization.

matpitka@luukku.com said...

To Ulla:

Adenosine is building brick of adenosine triphhosphate. This would suggest that ATP is key element of acupuncture and that local feed of metabolic energy takes place.

Could the needles generate strong electric fields in their nearby environment inducing electric fields along flux tubes accelerating electrons and and protons (Becker)? Just this process takes place in charging of metabolic batteries (ADP-->ATP.

Could this induce generation of ATP and therefore high energy phosphate bonds and negentropic entanglement?

Pain as absence of negentropic entanglement usually present?

Ulla said...

Ye, something like that. But DC-currents are not 'generated', Langevin showed the energy came from the connective tissue that acts as a storage of energy in its helical structure, just as DNA do.
http://www.med.uvm.edu/neurology/WebBio.asp?SiteAreaID=717

The energy link is ATP/AMP/adenosine receptors, linked to stochastic noise. Maybe the needles create noise, the signal of injury, and that starts ther process? So Becker and biochemists measure the same thing with different tools?

Note the japanese Tien, who said:
fMRI was shown by Jie Tian to make "a dynamic reconfiguration of complex neural networks." Earlier the focus in research was on acute effects, but the effects may peak long after the treatment is finished. So then the mechanism was missed? And the responses are functional, not spatial. Acupoints can have converging effects, as instance, that spatially overlap the posterior cingulate cortex/precuneus or encoding center. The delayed correspondence between visual acupoints (GB37, BL60) - but not the non-visual acupoints (KI8) - and the intrinsic visual networks via the encoding center indicated a temporal-spatial encoding mechanism underlying the sustained effects of acupuncture, he said. Different resource distribution in spatial and temporal domains. Mars 2011.

Pain relief as a superposition (negative negentropy=superposition of negentropy :-)?)? By growing fields that lay the pain-field in the 'shadow'?
http://www.rsna.org/Publications/rsnanews/March-2011/index.cfm (middle)

Note also that pain and pleasure areas are side by side in brain, modulated by N. trigeminus, as Damasio showed. It has a very strong 'field'. Mortons headache is the worst possible. Once I sent you those papers.

I try to post today, but my time is short.

Ulla said...

Look here. http://zone-reflex.blogspot.com/2012/05/metabolic-mystery.html

not yet ready, but have to go now.

Orwin said...

Transverse dist. is predictable from bow shock of colliding galaxies. http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2011/2011JA016617.shtml etc.

In metabolism K40 IS unstable, slightly radioactive! So GUT is FALSE macrocosm! Meanwhile quarks form holons by eg Chern topology, so stringiness is topological energent!

Details involve aerobic & anaerobic respiration, but storehouse meytaphor is ancient and valid.

Orwin said...

Sorry, above belongs with next story.

Here's a critical Langevin dynamics with memory that distinguishes spatial and temporal aspects of equilibrium: http://arxiv.org/abs/1109.4107

The ORT outer loop theory has developed into a theory of memory, with declarative and implicit aspects!

So conscious space-time is a construal of personal continuity!

matpitka@luukku.com said...

To Ulla:

The non-locality of effects of acupuncture could be understood in terms of the non-locality due to the flux tube network. Their length can range up to scale of body and even more, to that of magnetic body.

It would be natural to assign pain to the loss of negentropic entanglement. One must be very careful in assigning pain to a particular position of body. I would assign it to pain receptors just like fundamental sensory qualia to sensory organs. The new view about time allows this assignment: without it phantom leg would destroy the idea. Brain would build only locate pain in the self map and give it a name.

Basic wisdom from from electrodynamics is that any sharp conducting object - such as metal needle- tends to create a strong electric field around the tip in external field. This is the reason we should not go below a tree during thunderstorm. One could make a simple test: replace acupuncture needles with non-conducting material. Is the healing effect lost as predicted?

Suppose that ATP (metabolic energy)- negentropic entanglement connection is true. Suppose that healing is by definition regeneration of negentropic entanglement. Suppose that that acceleration in strong electric field assignable to flux tube gives charged particles so much energy that they can be kicked to a smaller space-time sheet.

*The kicked charged particles at this sheet would be free except that they cannot escape from this small space-time. Does this somehow relate to negentropic entanglement, which differs from bound state entanglement like like free love from arranged marriage;-)! What is negentropically entanglement with what? Cooper pairs perhaps. Are Cooper pairs formed only at the smaller space-time sheet. Is this smaller space-time sheet a geometric correlate for a Cooper pair of electrons?

*This smaller space-time sheet would define the high energy phosphate bond and give rise to loading of metabolic batteries. The stored metabolic energy would be used as the charged particles drop back to larger space-time sheet and liberate the zero point kinetic energy. This would also destroy the negentropic entanglement and second law in generalized sense would hold true. If ATP were stable, we would live in paradise;-).

This looks to me like a plausible candidate for an explanation for the effects of acupuncture.

Ulla said...

It would be interesting to compare Reiki too. becker thought much of it. There the Earth is one supersystem?

In fact it is easy to see that Earth forms a supersystem, we only need to think of the way geomagnetism invoke on Life, as for plant growth as instance. Animal Cell growth also react to day and night.

This also makes the nerve loop closed, and take stochastic effects in consideration, but there must be more than five 'senses'. How many? 5+5?

Pain is partly a learned condition, and it is modulated. Pain is not just about opioids. The eikosanoid link and the substance P are also very important. Eikosanoids link to sickness, serotonin and acupuncture.

matpitka@luukku.com said...

To Ulla:

As a physicists I want to find the basic building brick of pain. There is certainly an extremely complex biochemistry involved but I believe that it is based on this building brick just like metabolic machinery would be based on zero point kinetic energies. The loss of negentropic entanglement is very natural candidate if one accepts reductionism in this sense.

Ulla said...

The loss of negentropic entanglement also means creation of subsystems and decoherence. Remember my FQXI essay?

I always looks for errors in my own reasoning :)