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The idea is that any time an electron-positron pair is created or destroyed is a change in direction. Say a pair is created in space, they move around for five

The idea is that any time an electron-positron pair is created or destroyed is a change in direction. Say a pair is created in space, they move around for five seconds, and annihilate each other. You could also explain that as a single electron in a loop – electron moves forwards in time for five seconds, changes direction (becomes a positron), moves back in time for five seconds, changes direction, the cycle repeats. You can extend that to a set of two of electrons/positron pairs. Assuming each electron is created and destroyed with different positrons, you can again explain the system in terms of a single electron that changes direction four times. Add a few more in and you have a whole universe with one electron. (That assumption may be a big one, which is where things fall down, but it's not nonsense. Also, bear in mind that the while idea of "moving" back in time is a helpful analogy, it's not very precise and shouldn't be taken too literally)

jarin 12y ago
Going a little further with the thought (and I am definitely not a physicist), what if that electron "loop" (or even the "single electron") is itself moving within the four-dimensional space. Could that explain the particle wave function? Meaning a particle's location is expressed as a probability because its location really is random-ish (i.e. the loop is moving around) until it's "locked in" within our subjective "arrow of time" frame of reference by a particle interacting with it. P.S. I acknowledge that I have absolutely no real-world basis for this idea, just a thought.
tempestn 12y ago
Of course, yes. Thank you. For some reason my mental picture was limited to creation and annihilation events being the exception, with most particles existing 'throughout time', but that's what's nonsense. In fact, if you consider that a lot of particles would have presumably been created in the big bang, at which point they would conveniently be in the same location in our other three dimensions as well, it's certainly conceivable that you could have a single particle pinballing back and forth as you (and I guess Wheeler) describe. Of course, still far from a certainty, but a neat idea.

jarin 12y ago

Going a little further with the thought (and I am definitely not a physicist), what if that electron "loop" (or even the "single electron") is itself moving within the four-dimensional space. Could that explain the particle wave function? Meaning a particle's location is expressed as a probability because its location really is random-ish (i.e. the loop is moving around) until it's "locked in" within our subjective "arrow of time" frame of reference by a particle interacting with it. P.S. I acknowledge that I have absolutely no real-world basis for this idea, just a thought.

tempestn 12y ago

Of course, yes. Thank you. For some reason my mental picture was limited to creation and annihilation events being the exception, with most particles existing 'throughout time', but that's what's nonsense. In fact, if you consider that a lot of particles would have presumably been created in the big bang, at which point they would conveniently be in the same location in our other three dimensions as well, it's certainly conceivable that you could have a single particle pinballing back and forth as you (and I guess Wheeler) describe. Of course, still far from a certainty, but a neat idea.