Phase Angle
 Melethallia (detail), Ernst Haeckel, Kunstformen der Natur. Chromolithograph 32 x 40 cm, Verlag des Bibliographischen Instituts, Leipzig 1899-1904. Photograph by D Dunlop.

Let particle P be described by an ordered chain of events

$\Psi ^{\sf{P}} = \left( \sf{P}_{1}, \sf{P}_{2}, \sf{P}_{3} \ \ldots \ \sf{P}_{\it{k}} \ \ldots \ \right)$

that is repetitive so that $\Psi$ may also be written as

$\Psi ^{\sf{P}} = \left( \sf{\Omega}_{1} , \sf{\Omega}_{2} , \sf{\Omega}_{3} \ \ldots \ \right)$

where each orbital cycle $\sf{\Omega}$ is composed of $N$ sub-orbital events

$\sf{\Omega} = \left( \sf{P}_{1}, \sf{P}_{2}, \sf{P}_{3} \ \ldots \ \sf{P}_{\it{N}} \right)$

If P contains just a few quarks then the time of occurrence may not be a useful parameter for describing these events because Planck's postulate is plausibly justified on a statistical basis. So we also discuss the order of events using a phase angle defined by

\begin{align} \theta_{ k} \equiv \theta_{\sf{0}} + \delta_{z}\frac{2\pi k}{ N } \end{align}

where $\theta_{0}$ is arbitrary and $\delta_{z}$ is the helicity of P. By this definition the phase angle changes by $2\pi$ radians during each orbital cycle. The change in $\theta$ during one sub-orbital event is called the phase angle increment and written as

\begin{align} d\theta \equiv \delta_{z}\frac{2 \pi}{ N } \end{align}

WikiMechanics uses a finite categorical scheme of binary distinctions to describe sensation. So the number of sub-orbital events $N$ may be large but not infinite. This requirement can be relaxed later to make a continuous approximation, thereby allowing the use of calculus. But in principle $N$ is finite and accordingly changes in $\theta$ may be small but not infinitesimal. For isolated particles the increment in the phase angle does not vary and so there is an equipartition of $\theta$ between sub-orbital events regardless of their quark content.

 Next step: Zooming in on space.
page revision: 527, last edited: 13 Aug 2018 22:34