Classical versus Quantum Coin Toss

The outcome of a classical coin toss is a classically random outcome of heads or tails. However, it is classically possible to measure the actions of a classical coin toss to an arbitrary precision and therefore it is possible to predict a classical coin toss, despite chaos.

A quantum coin, though, has one more attribute besides heads and tails and that is quantum phase. With quantum phase, the coin can still exist as heads or tails, but the quantum coin can also exist as a superposition of both heads and tails. There is no role for quantum phase or superposition in a classical coin toss. A classical coin toss begins with either heads or tails up and then executes a number of flips according to the person or mechanism doing the flipping and then lands either heads or tails up. Classically it is then possible to precisely measure all of those classical actions and therefore to predict a classical outcome to arbitrary precision.

However, any large number of classical actions necessarily entangle some quantum actions as well. This is because the microscopic universe is quantum and uncertain, not classical. A dephased quantum coin in flight will persist in a microscopic superposition until the macroscopic coin lands as heads or tails. Unlike the precise classical measurements that can predict a classical coin toss, there are no measurements that will predict the outcome of a quantum coin toss from a superposition state better than 50%.

In fact, there is really no such thing as a classical coin toss in our quantum world. Instead, a large number of classical macroscopic actions like a flipping coin will ultimately access many microscopic quantum outcomes of quantum phase noise. The classical random noise of chaos is just a convenient macroscopic archetype for the underlying microscopic quantum phase noise of physical reality.

Note that not only the quantum coin exists as a superposition, the quantum actions of starting, flipping, and landing also exist as superpositions with quantum phase. A large number of actions like flipping or neural impulses will also entangle quantum phase noise and therefore be subject to the limits of uncertainty of quantum knowledge. The fact that we cannot therefore ever precisely know a precursor feeling or precisely predict an outcome feeling gives us the archetypes of free will and free choice...

Classical versus Quantum Photons

Einstein was the first to explain the electric impulses of the photoelectric effect as a quantum consequence of single photons in 1905. Although Planck had some years earlier in 1900 proposed the notion of a quantum of light to explain the nature of blackbody emission, it was Einstein who first recognized the quantum nature of light photons as particles in the photoelectric effect. Light made up of finite photon particles instead of the classical determinism of infinitely divisible light waves birthed the uncertainty of discrete quantum mechanics.

Classical physics had long accepted the notion of light as an infinitely divisible wave and then quickly adapted to the semiclassical notion of light as a large number of single photons or electromagnetic pulses in time and space. However, even such a semiclassical photon of light shows the uncertainty principle and so photons are not subject to classical determinism. Rather, a single quantum photon obeys the quantum uncertainty of superposition of many paths, polarizations, and energies. Specifically, while classical determinism argues that a classical single photon particle can only be on one path at a time with well-defined polarization, frequency, and location and all simultaneously knowable to arbitrary precision.

The single quantum photon exists instead with an uncertain outcome as a superposition of paths, polarizations, and frequencies. As a result, there is a well-defined limit to the precision of any simultaneous single photon measurement of path, polarization, and frequency. Nevertheless, many of the semiclassical notions of a photon survive and result in much quantum confusion that precludes determinate outcomes.

Photon exchange is the basic quantum glue that bonds all matter together and photon exchange is what bonds both charge and gravity matter. The outcome of a photon precursor is a quantum bonding state between emitter and absorber matter. While single photon exchange bonds charge matter by exchange and complementary ephoton mission, biphoton exchange bonds gravity matter by the complementary exchange and emission of biphotons.

A photon is an electromagnetic pulse that has a spectrum of frequencies in its Fourier transform. This fundamental relation between time and frequency is the foundation of the uncertainty principle. A short pulse of light is made up of a broad frequency spectrum and a long pulse of light is made up of a correspondingly very narrow spectrum. Thus a photon is a fundamentally quantum object that can nevertheless behave like a classical particle of matter under certain conditions. A classical particle of matter has a well defined path, mass, polarization, and location and a particle of matter can behave like a photon under certain conditions as well.

A charge bond is a photon exchange with complementary emitted photons since it is necessary to lose heat to bond charges. A gravity bond is a biphoton exchange that also has a complementary emitted biphoton since it is also necessary to lose heat to bond gravity matter. As a result of quantum gravity, atomic hydrogen can exist as a cold vacuum lattice cloud. As the cloud density grows with more and more cold hydrogen, eventually molecular hydrogen forms and the lattice spacing decreases until it nucleates. At this point, there is a transition from gravity to charge dispersion and nascent stellar binary nucleates condense with orthogonal spins. One-half of the cloud lattice collapses into one spin while the other half collapses into the orthogonal spin.

Quantum gravity bonds form and emit heat in a concerted spiral of condensation in the nuclei of molecular clouds. However, quantum gravity biphotons are 1e-39 less than quantum charge photon and so represent a virtual continuum of spiral states with orthogonal spins. While one spin condenses with like spins into one spiral, the orthogonal spin condenses with complementary spins into the complementary spiral of a stellar binary. It is important that the stellar nuclei continue to lose heat as the molecular cloud collapses with radial accretion. Heat loss occurs from hot axial jets that result from the cold radial accretion until fusion eventually ignites the stellar nuclei into nascent stars.

Once again, there is really no such thing as a classical photon because a photon is a pure quantum manifestation. Complementary to an atom as a discrete quantum of matter that is a superposition of electrons and protons, a photon is a discrete electromagnetic quantum that is a superposition of frequencies, polarizations, paths, and locations. However, there are various semiclassical simplifications for a photon that people find useful in certain contexts just as there are for atoms. For example, a simplified semiclassical photon may have a single frequency even though a quantum photon is always a spectrum of frequencies and never a single frequency.

A semiclassical single photon may have a single polarization state  even though a quantum photon is always in a superposition of polarizations. A polarized photon will pass an aligned polarizer, which then reflects other polarizations. In contrast, a single quantum photon always exists in a superposition of polarization states until interacting with a polarizer to form a probabilistic polarization for each single quantum photon. Thus a single quantum photon may not have a well-defined polarization state before it interacts with the electrons of a polarizer. Note that a linear polarized single quantum photon is still a superposition of right and left circular polarizations.

A semiclassical single photon has a well-defined pulse path and location and cannot be in two places at the same time. However, a quantum single photon exists as a probabilistic superposition of all locations in the universe. At any given moment, that single quantum photon can exist as any number of paths and locations with various probabilities.

A semiclassical single photon still has a well defined frequency distribution and phase called a spectrum. A semiclassical photon spectrum exists as a Fourier transform of its time pulse and so the photon spectrum relates the time pulse and frequency. A quantum single photon is a superposition of frequencies and phases that are its spectrum and the Fourier transform relates photon pulse and spectrum. The quantum photon spectrum and pulse relationship is the quantum uncertainty principle between time and frequency.

Classically, there is no limit to the precision of simultaneous measurement of a particle momentum and location. A photon, however, has a discrete quantum limit to the precision of simultaneous measurements of both photon frequency and location. As a result, the more localized the photon, the broader the frequency spectrum becomes and eventually, the light wavelength exceeds the apparatus size. At that point, the measurement becomes meaningless.

Likewise, a semiclassical photon may have a well defined average location in time, but a quantum photon is always a distribution of locations, never a single location. A semiclassical photon may have a well-defined single path, but a quantum photon always exists on a distribution of paths, never just a single path. Moreover, matter has the complementary quantum properties of light.

Matter has a well-defined average location in time and matter is stationary while light only moves at a constant speed. Matter also oscillates complementary to light with a distribution of frequencies and also has a distribution of locations about an average location. An atom of matter has an average mass or frequency, but matter is also a distribution of masses about that average mass. While there are fundamental particles with very well-defined rest masses, quantum particles really only have inertial mass complementary to light. Rest mass just represents a particle’s interaction with other matter, which photons of course mediate.

Finally, classical matter has a well-defined average path, but quantum particles exist on a distribution of paths. However, upon interaction with other matter, any such distribution decays very quickly into the one path that we call our rest frame reality.

Classical Versus Quantum Narratives

Classical versus quantum are really two very different but still related narratives that underpin physical reality. While our macroscopic reality is very classical, our microscopic reality is quantum and so the two narratives derive from the very different natures of our macroscopic versus microscopic realities. Classically, the visual, audio, touch, taste, and odor contrasts of matter motion through space and time define our macroscopic reality, while the quantum amplitude and phase of much higher resolution spectra refine our microscopic reality.

In particular, we only sense a very low resolution and limited visible light spectrum and do not sense the phase or polarization of that light at all and there are similar low resolution spectra for all of our other senses as well. These low resolution spectra contrast with the very high resolution spectra that science records from many different devices. Science measures light, sound, impulse, chemistry, and odor not only at other vastly different wavelengths, but also at much higher resolution that also include phase as well as wavelength in its spectra. While there is a great deal of overlap between our macroscopic and microscopic narratives, there are many dramatic differences as well.

In our macroscopic reality, matter does not appear to exist in the same exact place at one time nor does the same matter appear to exist in more than one place at a time, either. Classically there are knowable precursors for every outcome in spite of the fact that we might not know those precursors because they might be hidden or otherwise obscured by noise. In other words, there is no classical limit to the precision of our knowledge of classical precursors despite the noise.

In our microscopic reality, though, matter can exist in the same exact place and time as other matter and the same matter can also exist in more than one place at a time as well. This is simply a consequence of quantum superposition and entanglement and does not violate causality. Thus there are still quantum precursors for every quantum outcome, but we may not be able to precisely know or measure those quantum precursors. Unlike the unlimited precision of classical knowledge, there is a discrete quantum limit to the precision of our knowledge of quantum precursors.

In both classical and quantum narratives, a pulse of light exists with both an average frequency as well as an instantaneous amplitude versus time and amplitude versus frequency. In addition, a pulse of light also has a single classical polarization state, but always a quantum superposition of two orthogonal polarization states. While a classical light pulse exists with a single well-defined polarization state, a quantum light pulse exists in a superposition of two orthogonal polarization states.



Therefore a single quantum photon always exists as a superposition of polarizations in contrast to a single classical photon that only exists with a well-defined single polarization. It is not possible to reconcile the notions of non oscillating classical matter with the oscillation of classical light. This represents the irreducible conundrum of classical versus quantum narratives. While a pair of correlated oscillating quantum states can represent a classical state, there is no classical representation for a single quantum state.

The quantum gravity biphoton reconciles classical determinate gravity relativity with the discrete uncertainties of quantum charge. While the photon-matter exchange of charge is necessarily quantum, biphoton-matter exchange is classical because of the entanglement and symmetry of quantum phase. Unlike the microscopic single photon exchange of charge with uncertain outcomes, the macroscopic biphoton exchange of gravity occurs with the determinate outcomes of universe change. The uncertainties of quantum gravity only show up at the scale of the universe while the uncertainties of atomic charge show up at the atomic scale.