{"id":8,"date":"2011-11-08T19:19:48","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T19:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.etown.edu\/omctest\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2025-02-21T20:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T20:01:12","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/stuckeym\/","title":{"rendered":"Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1980, I was a computer science major at Wright State University when I encountered time dilation and length contraction from special relativity in introductory physics. I immediately changed my major to physics.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

I earned my PhD in physics from the University of Cincinnati in 1987 with a thesis in general relativistic cosmology (Louis Witten was my thesis advisor). Immediately thereafter, I published papers on misconceptions of Big Bang cosmology, e.g., I explained how we can observe galaxies with Hubble recession velocities greater than the speed of\u00a0light<\/a>.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1994,\u00a0I read Mermin’s famous 1981\u00a0paper<\/a>, “Bringing home the atomic world: Quantum mysteries for anybody” that Feynman called “One of the most beautiful papers in physics that I know.” Therein, he presented the “Mermin device” that illustrates the conundrum of entanglement per the Bell spin states for the “general reader.” He then challenged the “physicist reader” to explain the way the device works “in terms meaningful to a general reader struggling with the dilemma raised by the device.” That motivated my interest in the foundations of quantum mechanics (see my Research page).<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2020, after 26 years of research in the foundations of quantum mechanics, I finally published an answer to Mermin’s challenge<\/a>\u00a0(here is a version<\/a> for a general audience; here is an 8.5-min video<\/a> on it). In 2022, I followed that with a paper,\u00a0“No Preferred Reference Frame at the Foundation of Quantum Mechanics<\/a>” where I explained how the information-theoretic principle of Information Invariance & Continuity at the basis of the axiomatic reconstruction of quantum mechanics entails the observer-independence of Planck’s constant h<\/em>. [Here is a version<\/a> for a general audience.] In that case, the inertial reference frames being related by spatial rotations and translations are those associated with the mutually complementary qubit measurements. Thus, the relativity principle justifying the observer-independence of the speed of light c<\/em> leads to the kinematics of special relativity (Lorentz transformations), and the relativity principle justifying the observer-independence of Planck’s constant h<\/em> leads to the kinematics of quantum mechanics (finite-dimensional Hilbert space). Here is my latest paper “Unifying Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics via Adynamical Global Constraints<\/a>” published in Jan 2025.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

These papers reveal an underlying coherence between special relativity and quantum mechanics, bringing my life in physics full circle. This is explained in detail in “Einstein’s Entanglement: Bell Inequalities, Relativity, and the Qubit<\/a>” (Oxford University Press, 2024). [Here is a very short synopsis<\/a> of the idea for a general audience.] Along the way I have written many papers<\/a>, blogs (see my Physics Forums Insights page), and a 2018 book on my interpretation of modern physics called “Beyond the Dynamical Universe<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have\u00a0broad intellectual interests and have taught astronomy, cosmology, philosophy of science, differential geometry, acoustics, science & religion, partial differential equations, numerical methods, bionanotechnology, statics, theories of consciousness, and neuropsychology, as well as traditional areas of physics, e.g., introductory physics, advanced laboratory, quantum mechanics, general & special relativity, electromagnetism, and mechanics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1980, I was a computer science major at Wright State University when I encountered time dilation and length contraction from special relativity in introductory physics. I immediately changed my major to physics. . I earned my PhD in physics from the University of Cincinnati in 1987 with a thesis in general relativistic cosmology (Louis … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-8","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/stuckeym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/stuckeym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/stuckeym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/stuckeym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/stuckeym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/stuckeym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/stuckeym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/8\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/facultysites.etown.edu\/stuckeym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}