Action at a distance (physics)

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For the computer science term, see Action at a distance (computer science).

In physics, action at a distance is the interaction of two objects which are separated in space with no known mediator of the interaction. This term was used most often with early theories of gravity and electromagnetism to describe how an object could "know" the mass (in the case of gravity) or charge (in electromagnetism) of another distant object.

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[edit] Electricity

Coulomb's law in electrostatics appears to be a theory with action-at-a-distance - Coulomb's law deals with charges which have always been static. Efforts to develop a theory of interaction between moving charges, electrodynamics, led to the necessity to introduce the concept of a field with physical properties. In the theory of electrodynamics as formulated in Maxwell's equations, interactions between moving charges are mediated by propagating deformations of an electromagnetic field. These deformations propagate with the speed of light and Maxwell's wave theory was later extended to cover Coulomb's law by the Lorenz gauge. The deformations of the field can carry momentum independently, thus facilitating conservation of angular momentum.

[edit] Gravity

Main article: Speed of gravity

[edit] Newton

Newton's theory of gravity offered no prospect of identifying any mediator of gravitational interaction. His theory assumed that gravitation acts instantaneously, regardless of distance. Newton had shown mathematically that if the gravitational interaction is not instantaneous, angular momentum is not conserved, and Kepler's observations gave strong evidence that in planetary motion angular momentum is conserved. (The mathematical proof is only valid in the case of an Euclidean geometry.)

A related question, raised by Ernst Mach, was how rotating bodies know how much to bulge at the equator. How do they know their rate of rotation? This, it seems, requires an action-at-a-distance from distant matter, informing the rotating object about the state of the universe. Einstein coined the term Mach's principle for this question.

[edit] Einstein

According to Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity, instantaneous action-at-a-distance was seen to violate the relativistic upper limit on speed of propagation of information. If one of the interacting objects were suddenly displaced from its position, the other object would feel its influence instantaneously, meaning information had been transmitted faster than the speed of light.

One of the conditions that a relativistic theory of gravitation must meet is to be mediated with a speed that does not exceed lightspeed. It could be seen from the previous success of electrodynamics that the relativistic theory of gravitation would have to use the concept of a field or something similar.

This problem has been resolved by Einstein's theory of general relativity in which gravitational interaction is mediated by deformation of space-time geometry. Matter warps the geometry of space-time and these effects are, as with electric and magnetic fields, propagated at the speed of light. Thus, in the presence of matter, space-time becomes non-Euclidean, resolving the apparent conflict between Newton's proof of the conservation of angular momentum and Einstein's theory of special relativity. Mach's question regarding the bulging of rotating bodies is resolved because local space-time geometry is informing a rotating body about the rest of the universe. In Newton's theory of motion, space acts on objects, but is not acted upon. In Einstein's theory of motion, matter acts upon space-time geometry, deforming it, and space-time geometry acts upon matter.

[edit] Quantum mechanics

Current physical theories incorporate the upper limit on propagation of interaction as one of their basic building blocks, hence ruling out instantaneous action-at-a-distance. Meanwhile the strange but real effect is called Quantum teleportation, see "External links" therein:

Einstein coined the term "spooky action at a distance" to describe these situations, which exhibit quantum entanglement. Relativistic quantum field theory requires interactions to propagate at speeds less than or equal to the speed of light, so "quantum entanglement" cannot be used for faster-than-light-speed propagation of matter, energy, or information. However, it must be understood that a change to one entangled particle does indeed affect the other instantaneously, but this is only known after the experiment is performed and notes are compared, therefore there is no way to actually send information faster than the speed of light. Einstein could not believe this, and therefore he proposed, along with Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, a thought experiment called the EPR paradox. John Bell derived an inequality that showed a testable difference between the predictions of quantum mechanics and local hidden variables theories. Experiments testing Bell-type inequalities in situations analogous to EPR's thought experiments have been consistent with the predictions of quantum mechanics, giving strong evidence for nonlocality.

However, the "instantaneous" in instantaneous action-at-a-distance is only meaningful from a three-dimensional point of view. In four-dimensional spacetime, in which movements positively and negatively along the fourth dimension (time) are physically symmetrical, information can travel back in time to the point when the particles were physically joined[citation needed], then forward in time to the entangled particle[citation needed]. Although the sum of the two vectors add to zero, causing it to appear instantaneous to a limited observer, the speed of propagation of information does not violate the speed of light limitation.[citation needed]

[edit] See also