Observable and Unobservable Mechanical Motion

Abstract

<jats:p>A thermodynamic approach to mechanical motion is presented, and it is shown that dissipation of energy is the key process through which mechanical motion becomes observable. By studying charged particles moving in conservative central force fields, it is shown that the process of radiation emission can be treated as a frictional process that withdraws mechanical energy from the moving particles and that dissipates the radiation energy in the environment. When the dissipation occurs inside natural (eye) or technical photon detectors, detection events are produced which form observational images of the underlying mechanical motion. As the individual events, in which radiation is emitted and detected, represent pieces of physical action that add onto the physical action associated with the mechanical motion itself, observation appears as a physical overhead that is burdened onto the mechanical motion. We show that such overheads are minimized by particles following Hamilton’s equations of motion. In this way, trajectories with minimum curvature are selected and dissipative processes connected with their observation are minimized. The minimum action principles which lie at the heart of Hamilton’s equations of motion thereby appear as principles of minimum energy dissipation and/or minimum information gain. Whereas these principles dominate the motion of single macroscopic particles, these principles become challenged in microscopic and intensely interacting multi-particle systems such as molecules moving inside macroscopic volumes of gas.</jats:p>

Fibonacci Sequences, Symmetry and Ordering in Biological Patterns, Their Sources, Information Origin and the Landauer Principle

“…Thus, it becomes understandable why just the simplest mathematical regularities such as Fibonacci series [13][14][15][16][17]87] and symmetrical patterns are abundant in biology; these regularities decrease the algorithmic complexity of biological systems [33]. The informational paradigm of biology is closely related to the Landauer Principle bridging theory of information of physics and suggesting the thermodynamic equivalent of information, under establishing the lower theoretical limit of energy consumption of biological computation [35][36][37][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99]. The analyses of the computational efficiency of bacteria demonstrated that as bacteria become larger their overall translational efficiency converges on that of a single ribosome [106].…”

“…93-94. Extension of the Landauer Principle to the realms of quantum mechanics [95] and general relativity [96] were reported. The Landauer Principle applied to mechanical motion demonstrates that dissipation of energy is the key process through which mechanical motion becomes observable [97]. The analysis of performance of photon detectors (such as eyes) brings to the conclusion that just efficiency that is limited the Landauer energy bounds on information gain and information erasure [98].…”

Free Falling Szilard Engine, Entropic Forces and Landauer’s principle; Revisiting the Principle of Equivalence

“…We continue the development of the research program introduced by John Archibald Wheeler, suggesting that the basic notions of physics are deeply rooted in the theory of information [1]. We address the Gedanken experiments, combining the ideas emerging from the Einstein Principle of Equivalence [23][24][25][26][27] and the Landauer Principle [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. For this purpose three experimental systems embedded into the free falling Einstein elevator are addressed, namely: the double well system containing particle m, the free jointed polymer chain with the mass m attached to the chain, and the minimal Szilard engine driven by a single particle m. When the particle m is confined within the free falling doublepotential-well system, representing the binary logics, it may be transferred from position "ZERO" to position "ONE", by an infinitesimal horizontal force.…”