Distinguishing between evidence and its explanations in the steering of atomic clocks

TL;DR

This paper explores how the separation of evidence and explanations in quantum theory influences atomic clock steering, emphasizing the role of guesswork and spacetime hypotheses in logical synchronization and signal propagation.

Contribution

It introduces a framework linking spacetime metric guesses with logical synchronization in atomic clocks, highlighting the fundamental role of unforeseeable events in physics and communication.

Findings

Spacetime curvature variation limits logical communication bit rate.

Logical synchronization depends on guesswork about signal propagation.

Quantum theory's separation of evidence and explanation impacts clock steering.

Abstract

Quantum theory reflects within itself a separation of evidence from explanations. This separation leads to a known proof that: (1) no wave function can be determined uniquely by evidence, and (2) any chosen wave function requires a guess reaching beyond logic to things unforeseeable. Chosen wave functions are encoded into computer-mediated feedback essential to atomic clocks, including clocks that step computers through their phases of computation and clocks in space vehicles that supply evidence of signal propagation explained by hypotheses of spacetimes with metric tensor fields. The propagation of logical symbols from one computer to another requires a shared rhythm---like a bucket brigade. Here we show how hypothesized metric tensors, dependent on guesswork, take part in the logical synchronization by which clocks are steered in rate and position toward aiming points that satisfy phase constraints, thereby linking the physics of signal propagation with the sharing of logical symbols among computers. Recognizing the dependence of the phasing of symbol arrivals on guesses about signal propagation transports logical synchronization from the engineering of digital communications to a discipline essential to physics. Within this discipline we begin to explore questions invisible under any concept of time that fails to acknowledge unforeseeable events. In particular, variation of spacetime curvature is shown to limit the bit rate of logical communication.