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Abstract:
Across the many branches of physics the rich variety of the empirical properties of matter in a background arena of space and time are investigated, while for the question of unification a universal theoretical basis for the most elementary structure of matter is sought. Three empirical and theoretical targets for unification may be identified: accounting for the multiplet structure of the Standard Model of particle physics, providing a framework for amalgamating gravitation with quantum theory, and identifying candidates for dark matter and dark energy as appropriate for cosmology. Some approaches to unification postulate elementary 'material' entities such as particles, fields or strings distributed in a background spacetime, sometimes with extra spatial dimensions, while in other unification schemes the geometric properties of additional dimensions of space are themselves proposed to account for observed properties of matter, as for the original theory of Kaluza and Klein. Here we describe a further possible conceptual foundation and construction in which the continuous flow of time can itself alone provide a simple and unique unifying basis for both 4-dimensional spacetime and the matter it accommodates, by generalising the familiar local quadratic form for proper time to higher-order expressions. Focussing upon the core arguments, we describe how this seemingly overlooked time-based approach to unification is not only indeed possible but also implies a very direct connection with each of the above three recognised physics targets for unification. In each case we summarise the status of the development of the theory, the open questions and the potential observable implications.
Biography:
Following undergraduate courses in Physics and Theoretical Physics at Nottingham and then Cambridge University, my early research career was in Experimental Particle Physics. This included a PhD working at CERN on LEP1 as a Lancaster University student concluding in1993, six years as a postdoc at the SLAC National Accelerator Lab in California, initially for five years with the Rutherford Appleton Lab and then with Stanford University through to late 1999, and a JSPS fellowship with Osaka University working at the KEK B-factory near Tokyo for two years. A central interest at these electron-positron collider experiments, in particular on SLD at SLAC, was the reconstruction of secondary vertex information and the associated particle physics measurements. Following the above positions, I returned to the UK as a researcher/lecturer in a joint appointment with RAL and Oxford University engaged in physics studies for a future linear collider through to 2006. I then began to independently pursue a theoretical project, to study the necessary mathematics and develop a novel approach to unification based upon ideas formed over the previous decade or so. This theoretical research involves an alternative to the more familiar approach of using extra dimensions of space, employing instead a direct generalisation of proper time to better meet the challenges of unification. These targets for a unified theory include the properties of the Standard Model of particle physics, a framework for unifying gravity with quantum theory, and a basis for dark matter and dark energy in cosmology, all of which are explored by the new theory as described in detail in a series of sixteen preprints since 2016 (see for example: https://inspirehep.net/literature/2971677).