Notes on Research

Note to self, this is what I learned for almost a year as a Research Assistant:

1. Don't be afraid of new things which I have absolutely no background on. Just read up.
2. Don't mentally block any areas to investigate for research.
3. Don't read a book from 1st page to the last because most likely I only need a few chapters on it. 
4. Don't be afraid to change the direction of research until you feel a great passion in yourself to want to do this day or night. 
5. Don't be lazy to do the exercises and simple readings of paper and verification of them, just not all of them, the important ones only.
6. Talk to people!
7. Use Wikipedia early on. 
8. Speed read the papers, get the physics instead of getting stuck on the technicalities. 

Physics and Buddhism, internalizing

Here I come, having nothing in mind to talk about, just want to make a post. Should I continue to update things about my life?

Let's try that.

Currently working as a Research Assistant in NUS, I'm almost finishing writing a paper of my FYP and getting to read up a lot of different stuffs related to relativistic quantum information.
Here are some of the books I've read/am reading:
Sakurai: Modern Quantum Mechanics, http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Quantum-Mechanics-2nd-Edition/dp/0805382917, one of the best books in QM.
Feymann's Lecture Volume 3, also cool, but sakurai one is cooler.
Rindler's Special, General and Cosmological Relativity, a good recap/ serious study about relativity.

It's amazing how many things you don't learn properly in undergraduate physics. Now I'm learning on my own and getting to see how much of physics I need to really keep in mind and not rely on google/ lecture notes.

For analogy, I've been reading a lot of books about Buddhism lately too, it's been like I'm getting Buddhist books faster than I can read them. It is usually the case that I attempt to understand immediately what is written in there (I read the books appropriate for my level of course, to intellectually understand their contents) and the knowledge becomes part of me. So if anybody asks me about a thing I just recently read/ studied quite rigorously I can answer with reason.

So I'm noticing that I'm starting to take the same attitude towards physics. That I'm internalizing physics inside of me. So that when people asks me about the concepts, I should be able to come out with the maths (not trained, so can't do it yet) and explain the concepts properly.

I've still a lot to catch up in Physics and therefore I'm trying-as much as I hope to- to reduce some of the time I spend in Buddhist activities and devoting them to Physics. At last, I've still not yet succeeded. Pokemon comes in the way and is to be partially blamed. But hey, at least I'm spending less time on it than on writing a book the last month or Avengers Alliance. Btw, I've just downloaded the free DC Universe Online, and it makes my head dizzy after playing it for less than an hour continuously. Maybe I'm more suited to a 2D RPG than a 3D one.

Well, maybe I should continue on my other blog if I want to talk more about Physics and Buddhism. See ya there!
http://physicsandbuddhism.blogspot.sg/2012/12/physics-and-buddhism-internalization.html

Multiverse Part 2: Science Fiction

Refer to Multiverse Part 1,

But all this assumes another thing: that all choices that can be made must be made. It is reasonable to think that given infinite time or resources (universes), all quantum probabilities that can happen, will happen. And yet is free will determined by quantum probabilities? This is the question. Is free will truly free?

The real question is: is there something that is possible for you to do, but you would never in all the universes do it? No matter what happens.

It's hard to think of something like that. In the end, it depends on the idea that is the mind subject to the laws of probability?

Hmm... it seems that I need to refine my ideas about the 9 different kinds of multiverse according to The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene.

Meanwhile, we take what works: Morality, free will and conditioned cause and effect.

More Money or Interest?

Received an email a while back and now I'm posting this. 

Good evening,

How are you doing? Alvin Poh Leong Ann here... My apology for the late reply and for all the trouble caused. Yes, I do have a rough idea of it now. Recently I was away very often. I had attended several orientations organized by the Engineering Faculty and the NUS MSL. I’m glad I have read your blog. It gave a better insight of the Physics programme in NUS.

As mentioned earlier, I intended to further my studies in Physics however I’m offered to study Electrical Engineering instead. I would like to inquire, are there many differences between them? Are there more research and academic enhancement programmes such as the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme in Science (UROPS) and Special Programme in Science (SPS) for students who opt to do a Science degree? I have read about the SPS. Is it a recommended programme for research students? Engineering students wouldn’t be able to join, right?  I come to realize the Summer Programmes for NUS Science Students include many research orientated places in the prestigious university around the world, isn’t it?

I’m offered to do EE with a scholarship. I’m uncertain whether the switching of courses is allowed. I do understand that taking a double major is different. However, do you think is advisable? I inquired about it through a senior during my orientation. He did mention in such cases, students will have to overload each semester with more modules.

My main interest lies in the field of energy, particle and nuclear physics. When I was young, I aspire to be part of CERN research team despite the fact that it is quite farfetched. Anyhow, I’m uncertain of how to even get there. Being in EE, do I lack a lot academically? Will it be a disadvantage for me? It is most appealing to me that the Centre of Quantum Technology is affiliated to NUS. However, does it only involve Physics students in NUS?

Besides, are you graduating soon? Will you be doing your graduate studies? Will you be around in NUS?

I’m glad to meet you. Recent years not many students from Malacca High School are studying in NUS. You have been very helpful. Thank you very much!

Have a nice day! =)

My reply:

 Cool. Good that you've known MSL.

First off I would like to say that even Engineering Science studies nothing close to what we pure science students do, much less Electrical Engineering. From what limited experiences I had in USP about EE is that it mainly focuses on manipulation of electrical fields, wiring, etc...go google it. It's a bit boring to me. And nowhere close to the field of energy, particle and nuclear physics. So a double major is not a replacement for a pure major in Physics.

Only thing that you might get closer to Physics is to do the France Double Degree Program. It's extremely prestigious and hard. Full of pure maths and then physics and you'll have to learn them in France. It's open to Physics, Maths and Engin students. You'll spend your Saturdays studying with these people, and mainly become a study machine. For 1 and a half year from sem 2 onwards. Then 2 years in France and back for masters. But I'm not sure if you're going to study the same thing as a pure Physics student over there.

Secondly, SPS is not something to overlook here. It's only for Science students, it's tough, it's designed for research students and although I haven't described it fully in my blog yet, it's the main thing in Uni that I am glad to have and never regretted. In fact, I'm in SPS room writing to you right now. Summer Programmes, ya, lots of cool places to go to. See my Imperial experiences. I do believe there's a similar programme for Engin students, focusing on Engin stuffs. Go find out.

Third, Scholarship. Now the money factor comes in.
If you're an idealist, you'll switch to Science, no matter what it cost and will follow your passion to the end.
If you're a realist, then here's the deal: if you're so desperate for Physics as to want to turn down this Scholarship, you'll have to have loans. Assuming you'll already have Tuition Grant, so locked in Singapore for 3 year after graduating. Tuition Fee Loan, Study Loan, Student Assistant Loan. Amongst the 3 of them, you'll cover the tuition fees, Accommodation and might need a bit of money for food and others. (I don't buy books or printer, so I save from there.) The occasional Summer trips, Global Programmes, Summer Programmes, you'll either have to find the ones that gives you net money (i.e. you work there), or you'll have to ask from your parents. (about $900 for most of them, once a year.) Or you can just do a part time job. It's not that hard to work and study at the same time. There's demo lab, and SPS Mentor (year 3 and 4 only), and Physics lab (year 4 only), and others. Or summer internship etc....
And most of all, after graduating, the interest will start to count and you'll have to pay all the loans back. To make it comfortable, you'll have to pay more than 3 years. That's what I'm in now. But it's ok for me, I'll just continue paying it using my PhD. Scholarship, when I get it. You'll be poorer than most of your peers, but if you're pursuing further studies... then there's not much difference anyway, you'll stay poor until you graduate from PhD.
Overall, this is not a small factor to discount. It's your life: compromise your passion for money, or money for passion. Your choice. Your parents and family will prefer if you chose the first one. My style is the second one.
Fourth, there's no way in NUS, even in Engineering Science that you'll get a good exposure to the field of energy, particle and nuclear physics if you choose Engin. Ok you can always self study or take the France thing. Ok, just ask my friends over there. You can take mostly Physics over there, including things like energy, mostly about nuclear, environment friendly energy and management stuff. But it's not guaranteed that you'll get into a School. It's hard to get in and it's harder than SPS. And you've to be super intelligent with good CAP in your first sem to get invited to the programme. And super hardworking for the next 1 and a half years.

Fifth, to get to CERN, they need technicians and physicists too. So as an EE you can go there too! Just visit their website, build up your profile, etc, apply there....Just that you might have to do maintenance stuffs more than the real Science. But there's no guarantee that you'll make a better Physicists too, cause research is not really as cool as in Iron Man 2. To do what Tony Stark can do, go Engin. Research in CERN mostly involves analyzing whole chunks of data, not as exciting as they show in the movies. In EE, you know you can't do theoretical Physics then (see the unless above). But if you do theoretical Physics, you don't need to go to CERN, you can do it anywhere. CQT works with people from Computer Science too, to get a different perspective. If you go for Physics major, you'll most likely end up here, at least for a short while. I'm going to be here for 3 years.

That's about all. I really can't decide for you, so I hope I made this email not too bias either way. You'll have to decide for yourself and try not to get influenced by the tone of the email but rather consider the facts and make the choice that your heart tells you to make. Or your logical mind. You see, I'm still mixing up the tones here.

I later found out that his Scholarship allows him to change the faculty if he wants, but he prefers Engin, and not a fan of too many maths he sees in Physics. So he's doing Engin now. 

But anyway, food for thought. What's your choice? More Money or Interest?

Job

So, I'm posting this for fun. For now. Again. After so long of talking about other stuffs, it's back to me. The Ego. Oh well, school has just started, and it shouldn't affect me, but that I get to meet a lot of new people. Both in SPS and NUSBS, not so much on USP cause I don't go there.

Well, it seems a bit strange, I had started work on week 0 itself and I should be getting to know the people in CQT rather than my old attachments. Well, for that matter, a lot of the people I met asked me where do I work after the introduction that I'm an alumni.

Here's what I tell people:
Me: I'm working as a Research Assistant in Centre for Quantum Technologies now, yes it is in NUS.
Questioner: What am I researching on?
Me: Physics
Questioner: Which field?
Me: Theoretical Physics
Questioner: What topic? 
Me: (If not physics people then I think: Do you really wanna know?) Quantum Entanglement in General Relativity.
Questioner: (Blank look or amazed look if not physicist) So what do you do in it?
Me: (If I know it would not be called research is it?) Oh, I read papers, do the maths, get ideas, do the maths, write papers etc....

It's actually different people added together from above. Well, anyway, don't feel bad if you are one of them and reading this. I'm just letting you know my inner state.

On a cooler note, I am discovering more and more people who reads my blog! People who are going to enroll/join in SPS, USP, NUSBS, Physics, etc... Thanks for reading people! It's inspiring to know, so do leave comments, that way I can know that the post is read there and then! (Instead of having to meet you guys in NUS one by one and having a long enough conversation to come to the topic of my blog, it's nice, but it's only once a year!)

My Honours Year Project

http://www.physics.nus.edu.sg/student/Honours%20Projects%20Repository/Ng%20Xin%20Zhao.pdf

You are welcomed to cite it with the following details:
Title: Thomas Precession: A Fibre Bundle Approach
Author: Ng Xin Zhao
Supervisor:
Dr. Kuldip Singh

University: Physics Department, National University of Singapore
Date: April 2, 2012

Responses for Yearbook

Please answer all of them, some of the responses will be put inside the yearbook. Thanks!! :)


Why do you wish to study Physics in the first place?
I want to know the deep secrets of the Universe. Inspired by Popular Science books and the International Physics Olympiad, I definitely know my major in University will be Physics. 


How do you feel about graduating from NUS?
Like normal. There is no significant change in the fabric of spacetime for this insignificant event. Ok more seriously, undergraduate education is as I suspected. Not enough. My quest for the secrets of the Universe goes on.


Where is your favourite hangout place in NUS? 
Special Programme in Science room. In SPS room, there are almost always friends there 24/7. I have my own table space, lots of free food opportunities, strategic location in Science Faculty, and the option to stay overnight to do work... or play.


What are your memorable moments in NUS?

1. The time when I fell in love.

2. All those overnight stays in SPS.

3. Being in the committee of NUS Buddhist Society and doing lots of work!

4. The two semesters when I overloaded seven and a half modules.

What are the unforgettable experiences you have in NUS Physics Department? 

1. Being in Physics Society Committee.

2. Doing a level 5 module, Quantum Information and Computation.

3. The Summer Exchange to London. 

4. Rushing for reports for the research modules, not the Experimental modules.

What are the things you want to do in NUS but didn't do?

Explore every single place, hidden rooms and corridors in NUS, for every campus. I haven't been to Bukit Timah campus! Or Duke NUS.


Do you have any message for your fellow graduating friends?
For all the good and bad times we had together, let us recall how they made us a more matured and better person. Let us use this university experience to learn and live a meaningful life.


Who would you like to thank the most in the Physics Department and why? Can be your classmates, profs, staff in deptHariom, my classmate, for being there when it mattered and constantly inspiring me.

My Certs

Hey all,

I’ve not been updating on my personal life for quite long now. But this is not one of the post where I go through all the thing I had done since the last post.

This is about the certs which I had chosen to present for my job application. There are so many certificates by the time you graduate and you’ll realise that to put all these in your CV is totally ridiculous. Some certs like participation in a Scouts Camp during your secondary days and motivation workshop for the national examinations are not even worth mentioning. Here I’ve selected the most important and relevant certs so far for the application of this first job. Only in the first job would these matter, hence the timing of this writing.

There are ten of them in total and I shall go through them one by one, giving perhaps the link to the past posts too.

 

Firstly, the programmes that I am in: Bachelor of Science Course.

1. Dean’s List for meritorious performance in the AY 2008/09 Sem 2 of the Bachelor of Science Course. Link.

This one I had gotten during my sem 2. For the achievement of 4.75 Semester Average Points (SAP). Well, you might think I should had gotten it for every semester. However… there are too many things to handle in a semester, and this was the one where I put almost all my free time into studies. It teaches me that this is not the way I wished to spend my university life: I don’t want to become a Study Machine. So at least I have one. It represents my main course in NUS. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 3^rd one I obtained chronologically, in the beginning of sem 3. I put it first because of the 6+5+5+6=22 modules minimum requirement I took for this.

The next programme is University Scholars Programme.

2. Honour Roll for meritorious academic performance and contributions and achievements beyond the classroom in Academic Year 2009-2010. Link.

This one was because I finished 4 out of 8 first tier modules in USP and also joined in the Buddhism in Asia Global Programme. I felt the most undeserving of this cert, as it is unexpected and I didn’t really did any real work to get it. Plus I am not so close to the USP community. This teaches me that a cert does not represent how exactly the person who has it feels about having one. It represents me being in USP, wherein that time, I do not feel a sense of belonging to. It also teaches me that appreciation may come from the most unexpected places, so appreciate them. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 6^th one I obtained chronologically, in the middle of sem 5. I put it second because of the 12 modules minimum requirement I took for this.

The next one I am however extremely proud of.

3. Special Programme in Science. This is to certify that Ng Xin Zhao has successfully completed the Special Programme in Science.

(on the back) The Special Programme in Science (SPS) is an intense programme in the Faculty of Science that seeks to nurture talents among budding scientists. It is specifically directed at the academically talented students who cherish outstanding scholarship, and delight in the rigorous training of the mind and character.

The Programme introduces students to some of the broad areas of science through seminars, discussions, laboratory and fieldwork. With strong emphasis placed on interdisciplinary science, it offers abundant opportunities for those motivated to embark on in-depth studies of advanced topics that are at the forefront of modern scientific endeavours.

Innovative teaching methods, through peer learning and mentoring, form the basis with which creative and critical thinking is fostered. This dynamism is largely sustained by the passion and enthusiasm that the participants have for intellectual pursuits. Apart from their academic curriculum, students in the Programme are also involved in many enrichment activities organized by the faculty.

Quite the description at the back of the cert! Well, they forgot to mention that SPS has a 24/7 room with bookable table spaces for you for each whole semesters and free food are found not-too-rarely just outside SPS room.

Well, it was my 5 modules that I took for this and it represents one of the hardest achievements in my university life. And one of the most worthwhile achievement too. The mentorship experience certainly opened my eyes to how does it felt like grading, teaching, guiding, mentoring, and being normal (instead of extremely weird). Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 9^th one I obtained chronologically, in the middle of sem 7.

Next up is an internship!

4. Certificate of participation. This certificate is awarded to Mr Ng Xin Zhao of NUS for participating in the Vacation Internship Programme at the Data Storage Institute from 10 May 2010- 20 July 2010. Project: Study of Nanophotonic Integration Technology. Supervisor’s commendation: The student has demonstrated resourcefulness and great skills in theoretical study and programming. He has good attitude in learning and working with the unknown.

This internship lasted less than 12 weeks, between sem 4 and 5, with a meditation retreat in the middle. It was with the A Star. I touched a bit on applied physics here and get to experience the working life of clocking in and out at the exact timing. In my opinion, the work I did in SPS during my sem 3 surpasses the work I got to do here. This experience told me I am not suitable for industry research. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 4^th one I obtained chronologically, in the beginning of sem 5.

After that I had joined in an International event at the beginning of sem 5. It was:

5. 1st Summer Youth Olympic Games 14-26 August 2010 In recognition of your achievements and contribution to the success of the 1^st Summer Youth Olympic Games.

For this event, I travelled to NTU for a few times during the beginning of the semester to help teach the young athletes (teenagers) how to fold origami. It was yet another International event that enabled me to relive for a moment the awesome feeling of being in one. It also has an interesting backstory, involving the Universal Studios ticket that we got for free, that almost came to be but it did not happened. And I am glad it did not happen. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 5^th one I obtained chronologically, in the beginning of sem 5.

When I mentioned the international programme that I was in, it was:

6. The Academic Committee of 38^th International Physics Olympiad Awards to Xin Zhao Ng from Malaysia Honorable Mention 13 to 22 July, 2007, Isfahan, Iran.

It was the one that changed my life, took me away from depression, made me extremely famous in my high school, got me brimming with confidence and turned into arrogance, and put me on the path to become a Physicist. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 1^st one I obtained chronologically, during my high school years, 1 year before entering NUS.

The second one I obtained would be one year later, just before matriculating into NUS.

7. The International Board of the IPhO awards the Silver Medal to Ng Xin Zhao from Malaysia at the 39^th International Physics Olympiad held in Hanoi, Vietnam July 20-29, 2008.

It was the one that got me into newspaper at last! And the one that I bragged on (in)famously during my first (and second) year in NUS. It was also the time when I learned that my name sounds similar to “Hello” in Vietnam. Making me famous there too. It was partially also with this confidence in the interview that got me into SPS.

Now you had seen: First 4 University Programmes, next 3 International Programmes, and the next 3 are the ones that I treasure the most: Spiritual development, or for those without religion, Co-curricular activities.

8. This certificate is hereby awarded to Ng Xin Zhao for services rendered to NUS Buddhist Society as the Deputy Dharma Director of the 31^st Management Committee. February 12, 2011.

This cert represents a lot of hours attending and organizing NUSBS weekly and annual activities with 14 other friends who are kind and nice. It gives me meaning in my second year of University life and gradually changed me from the Study Machine into someone who is balanced and happy!

One of the toughest moments in my NUSBS life that I burned out, but rekindled in the next cert you see. Amongst the 10 certs, this is the 7^th one I obtained chronologically, during the Dana Lunch 2011, middle of sem 6 for services rendered during sem 3 and 4.

9. This certificate is hereby awarded to Ng Xin Zhao For his services rendered to NUS Buddhist Society as the Vice President of the 32^nd Management Committee AY 2010/11

This is the year when I was at my peak in NUSBS. Doing more jobs than I did in the past year that I did not thought possible, fulfilling a lot of successful events, managed a cool team of people who are nice and kind and good in their own way, and the one year that made me prouder than ever for being in NUSBS. It does gives me a lot of work to let go later on. However, while it lasted, it was nice. Nice to the full end of nice. I miss the 32^nd MC! (Which we have been keeping in touch too, more of that next time.)

It was also reminder of one of the few events in NUSBS that I helped out after stepping down. Yup, hard for me to let go…Dana Lunch 2012 where this cert was given was one such event, making this the last of the cert that I chronologically obtained, in the middle of sem 8. Another activity that I helped out was a bit earlier, it was:

10. Certificate of Participation Awarded to Ng Xin Zhao For the successful completion of Intervarsity Youth Leadership Dharma Camp 2011 (24 to 25^th September)

One of the few things that made this event and Dana Lunch 2012 worth mentioning is that it is when a lot of Buddhist Organizations were involved. In Dana Lunch 2012, the TIBS was invited with 12 External Buddhist Organizations sharing about themselves. In the Intervarsity Youth Leadership Dharma Camp 2011, it was Fo Guang Shan who hosted the TIBS in assisting us to share our common problems and solutions to them. It was a tremendous morale boost to all who participated and I was glad to be one of the few who represented NUSBS in the planning stage, and in the sharing stage. Being the 8^th cert I got, in the middle of sem 7, it also serves as a reminder to not delude myself, and a dangerous reminder of just how easy it was to fall back into delusion without a proper ending to safeguard the mind and senses. Perhaps only one person would understand this, but oh well. I’ll still put it here.

Now that you’ve seen my University life, you can roughly conclude that I was:

Playful and arrogant during Sem 1, so I didn’t got Dean’s List then,

A Study Machine in Sem 2, so I got the Dean’s List,

A research intensive person in Sem 3, part of the reason I am proud to be in SPS,

Getting into more Spirituality in Sem 4, with a meditation retreat in the middle of my internship!

Receiving and making good fortunes in Sem 5, where I got a recognition I didn’t anticipated, and decided to be Vice President of NUSBS,

Got more involved in spirituality than in studies in Sem 6, wherein I still didn’t get Dean’s List and was planning for big things to happen (Intervarsity Dharma Camp and Dana Lunch 2012).

Trying to let go, very hard no less, in Sem 7, wherein I was still involved in NUSBS and

Finally, involved in mentoring in Sem 8, as mentioned in the SPS part.

Done.

Advice for NUS Physics Undergraduates

So, you are a Physics major. When you talk to people, most of them gawk at you, recalling their inadequacy in Physics and say that you must be a genius. Some of them ask about the Big Bang, String Theory, and grossly misinterpret Quantum Physics, and you'll have to be the one to explain Physics in layman terms.

That's easy enough. That's what got me into Physics in the first place. That and the beauty that calculations based on simple physical intuition in principle predicts (up to a certain accuracy) how the world behave.

That is all you had in your high school education. Now as you learn the level one Physics modules, it gets a bit tougher. You have to crack your brains, be accurate, right, fast, and understand a lot more. We say physics is a lot of understanding, no need for memorizing.

Once you understand the concept behind the phenomena, you'll be able to derive the equations governing it! It's still true, in essence. In practice, you might find writing important equations on your cheat sheet helps a lot. At least for some modules you don't have to memorize the equations. However, for all modules, you'll have to know how to apply them. Ask yourself: what is the correct situation, correct relationship, correct function? Then apply the equations correctly.

That requires a clear mind. A clear mind comes from being in the present moment during study time. That is not playing with electronic devices and other distractions during lectures. Or if the lecturer's style does not suit you, it means getting the discipline to pick up the books and study for yourself.

Go beyond what is required for you to know. That's how you sustain your interest in Physics. It's not about competition, and it's not about knowing more than your peers. It's about seeing how does this module helps me in understanding the universe, our world better?

Read popular science and science fiction. Too often the physics that we'll learn in university goes straight to the maths and principles without the inspiring motivations behind it. Popular science authors like Stephen Hawking, Brian Greene, Michio Kaku, Carl Segan all seek to make Physics understandable to the masses (that means little or no equations in their popular science books), and thus the concept explained is very clearly and cleverly combined with animations and visuals to make your imagination soar. Science fiction authors takes a further step into unknown areas and takes a little liberty on accuracy to create wonderful stories. Issac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke sometimes wrote fictions that turn into reality.

If you study for your passions, you'll find yourself driven to study and enjoying the process. Your passion may involve wanting to become a teacher, wanting to be a financial banker with a Physics outlook, or a future Nobel-Prize winner, the next Einstein and so forth... be clear of your direction, then aim for it.

If you find yourself in Physics just because you hate biology, can't do proving, dread long lab hours, then you might as well drop it Regardless of if you are a first, or even a second year student. By your third or fourth year, you'll either suffer long enough to make it worth the degree, or you had learned to love Physics. 

The level two modules is quite a big jump of rigor compared to level one modules. It is the basis of the Physics that most stuffs in PhD. level qualifying examinations is based on. And once you had completed the level two physics modules, you are much more capable and stronger than those who participated in the International Physics Olympiad. You understand now most of the basics of Physics.

Note the word basic, from now on, it's applying your knowledge to help you understand the world better.

Referring to the module mapping somewhere else in this magazine, there are a few avenues for you to go into for the third and fourth level modules.

For the more theoretically inclined: Mathematical Methods are essential. Relativity, Cosmology, Particle Physics, Electrodynamics, along with their prerequisites are also important for the background knowledge to further study on about Quantum Field Theory, Standard Model, String Theory, and Beyond.

For the ones pursuing a more industrial path, do take those that the NUS Physics website recommends for the specializations for Physics in Technology.

Other than those, for the multidisciplinary inclined, biophysics is a good path to go. Or Nano-physics, go for the minor in nano-science too. 

For me, the specializations are not worth it to take if you feel that you'll have to constrict your honours project to fit it in. However, if you feel that you've been passionate in the field, then by all means do it!

If you think you want to learn faster or want to clear modules ahead for the Final Year or SEP, do welcome to take level three modules in your second year and do the advanced ones. It's not much harder as long as you have the prerequisites taken.

Do take some level five modules too if you can fit it in and then realize the level of spoon-feeding you guys are being spoiled at lower level modules.

For the detailed review of each of the modules, do refer to module-review.com.

Finally, do take your GRE and apply for the PhDs at least one year before graduation if you plan to go for higher studies straight after. That's all I have now. Meanwhile, keep being inspired. Remember, we are the ones dealing with Time Travel, Multiverse, Nanoscience, and the working knowledge of the universe.

Preface to My Final Year Project

Thomas Precession: A Fibre Bundle Approach

The understanding of fibre bundles is essential for any theoretical physicists who are serious in thinking about the Standard Model, String Theory and beyond. That is my main motivation in choosing this project. At the end of this project, after applying fibre bundles to describe Thomas Precession, I started to wonder if this can be the start of a simple way of teaching young budding Physicists about fibre bundles. It would be one of the first few steps before progressing into quantum eld theories of gauge invariance. And yet, before
taking on this project, I had no idea that there is such a thing as Thomas Precession. So maybe it would be simple, provided that undergraduates can read this thesis and understand it.

If you need to brush up on Differential Geometry, Lie Groups, Coset Manifolds and Fibre Bundles, by all means do skim through the appendix, as it will be heavily referenced in the main paper. I would like to take this page to acknowledge the unfailing, dedicated, patient care of Dr. Kuldip Singh towards making sure that I understand this relatively di fficult branch mathematics and seeing me through the project. I had learned in this one year what most undergraduates will not: the foundations for theoretical and mathematical Physics. In this project also, I learn to see the motivation for solving a problem from the mathematical point of view instead of always asking for a physical connection. As well as the way a mathematical Physicist work.

My gratefulness extends to the Special Programme in Science (SPS), for providing such a nice and comfortable environment, both physically and socially not only for the duration of the writing of this thesis, but also for the whole of my four years being an undergraduate. Not to forget is University Scholars Programme (USP) for providing the opportunity during my final year to stay in the same building as my supervisor, making it easy to ask for guidance.

A special mention to the NUS Physics Department for having such a wide and interesting range of topics for research, and to Prof. Valerio Scarani for arranging for the Physics Honours Projects of the academic year 2011/12. Also thanks to the whole National University of Singapore for providing my undergraduate education, in one more step towards the expansion of the human knowledge, starting from the expansion of one individual.

My Undergraduate Physics

I'm here just to see what I would write, a random post that you mostly will not get too often.

So what's up? Physics has just became an important part of my life. Again. After so long. Haha. Maybe I wasn't too unhappy with the marriage with Physics. It's been 4 years since I started my undergraduate life, and although I learned a lot of Physics, I still find that the things I truly want to work on is still far out of reach.

Those things that you read on a popular science book, like a Brief History of Time, or the Elegant Universe, and most recently, the Fabric of the Cosmos (a documentary being screened in Utown in these weeks), those amazing stuffs, I only got a slight glimpse of the mathematics of it, even after knowing the concepts for so long.

It's just that before knowing the mathematics, I can fool myself into thinking that the concepts are fully explained by those popular science books or documentaries. But I know it is not true. Most of the subtleties are in the mathematics.

Now doing my final year project, I still don't understand most of the theorems that I got from the mathematics. There are just too many abstract proving to do, and that had been done by mathematicians. We physicists just look at the equations, the concepts behind the mathematics, see which part of Physics it can describe, and link them together. Or rather that is the job of a mathematical physicist. I'm kinda looking at that now. Amazing how it is done, amazing how much calculations that mathematicians leaves out after identifying the structures. Even more amazing is that after we described the phenomena using the mathematics developed by mathematicians, the engineers would have to put in the actual numbers and lots of detailed calculations for things to really work.

Well, back to the physics I learned in NUS... I did touch on cool subjects I am interested in early on. Nuclear Astrophysics, Particle Physics by 2nd year, Cosmology by 3rd year, but some of the most interesting stuffs are from the special programmes that I took like time travel in General Relativity by 2nd and 3rd semester, Black Hole information Paradox by 3rd year, and even a bonus quantum information of which I only knew about EPR and Bell's inequality before coming to NUS on my 4th, 5th and 6th semester. I have been doing amazing stuffs all along during my undergraduate years! Partly thanks to SPS and USP, mostly to Physics department of NUS, and some to Mathematics department.

Now, continuing from the studies of my 6th semester on Mathematical Methods 3, I am working on Thomas Precession, a Fibre Bundle Approach. Both terms were foreign to me before this year, and now I am half-expert on them. Half because there is just too many stuffs to read up and study before understanding either of them! It's crazy just how much I wrote for my thesis up to now. I didn't expected it to be that long! 50 pages now, and going strong, I think it might hit 70 pages. With Monday as the deadline, I better work on it now. See ya then. Now the title will be changed to My undergraduate Physics.

So overall, if you want to do Physics in NUS, not only it's not a bad choice, it's an excellent choice! Provided you're in SPS.

Multiverse Part 1: Hell, Heaven, Pure Land

It can be depressing to think that if the multiverse is infinite, then all possibilities, no matter how small, no matter how bleak, as long as it is allowed by the laws of physics in that universe, will happen in a universe.

Plus this to the fact that multiple universes does not need to remain at the same time as our universe. Some universe out there are just a microsecond slower than us, or a picosecond, or any number of time one step beyond us, all people and events happening in the exact same way as our universe.

In fact, one can think of time moving forward faster as the mind moving from one of these slower universe to another faster one. Not faster in term of time moving, but in terms of phase. And one can think of all sorts of universes out there, one with good things happening to you, and one with all sorts of bad stuffs happening to you. And it all exist and some you in some universe will experience the worst thing that can happen that is possible. While some of you in some universe will experience the best joy in the world that can happen to you.

And which universe you'll go into, which one you'll transform into, which of these future universes (that already exist, mind you) will you guide your universe into all depends on your actions right now.

That's a scary thought. And an unfair one. Why do one of you have to suffer the worst of sufferings? Can I in good conscience direct myself to the best of all possible worlds knowing some other part of me will end up in the worst of universe? Who am I to compete with myself? Albeit the me from other universes, but still, me who shares the same memory, the same feelings, the same perception, the same consciousness, just not the same choice. For it is choice that breaks the universe apart, at least in the quantum physics version of the multiverse, assuming that some how it is quantum randomness that allows for non-deterministic free will to exist in the world.

Having that kind of thought, it is easy to lose track of the meaning of life, contemplating while you may work towards the best of universes, there exists the worst of universes somewhere out there. Some where out there, someone, maybe the alternate you, is suffering the worst that can happen to a person.

Yet, had not the religions told us that hell exist? The land where no happiness ever befell anyone who is in it. If the multiverse is true, then hell is true. Not only true, but must exist. That is a scary thought. A very scary thought. No wonder some bodhisattva vowed to empty all hells before becoming a Buddha. Such compassion! Well, on the other hand, if hell exist, then heaven must exist too. For in all these multiverse, there are some universe where everyone is good towards each other, maybe even the laws of nature will allow for fruits that come from little or no effort.

If the multiverse exist, then Pureland of Buddhism must exist as well, as it is conceivable that such a place can exist, therefore it must exist, because there are infinite universes. In fact, let's not get this to be for the advantage of Buddhism alone, in some other universe, one being may have complete control over everything in that universe, due to the strange laws of physics and whatnot, so that means in that universe, the Almighty God exist.

Of course, people are rarely satisfied with just one world, some would want God to be the creator over the multiverse and have power over all of the multiverse. Of course, then since evolution make sense, and it is possible to imagine an universe where God is not necessary to create everything or anything at all, and most likely is not all powerful, then those universe must not have an absolute almighty God.

Multiverse then seems fair, it gives everyone what they wanted. What's one universe to satisfy everyone's yearn when you have infinite of them? So what's the point? We are all living conditioned by the fact that we'll all be dead someday. That life is finite, therefore meaningful. If the multiverse exist and all things are possible, can happen, has happened, will happen, what is the point of doing anything at all? Some universe will have complete knowledge of the theory of everything, some will have destroyed itself, most will be lifeless. So what?

So what if we succeed in this universe? How many more are failing in their's? Such suffering it is to have the existence of multiverse to be true that sometimes I think no one wants to think this way when they think about the multiverse, or more likely, people subconsciously still resist this idea for the very foul implications that it brings to the table.

So, tell me if you feel for your alternate selves. If you care for them. If you give a thought about them.

Interfaith Dialogues

Yesterday I went out on a stroll around NUS, being more free than I had been in 4 years and finally willing to just take it easy on myself.

I went and met some of my Physics juniors who are in 2nd year and just decided to sit down and talk to them. Well, it was nice to hear that the President of Physics Society, John Soo Yue Han was inspired by this very blog to take up Further Mathematics and Physics and NUS? (I forgot the details, but he asked to be mentioned here.)

Well, the interesting thing is when they tell me it’s a Christian get-together and then they started to ask me about Buddhism. “How does Buddhism reconcile with Science?” I flexed my fingers and smiled.

For what poor body language reading skills I have, they might think: uh oh, big mistake. If they didn’t think that way, they would as I explained that Buddhism has practically no conflict with Science and… most of them went for tutorials before I ended, saying, “talk to you again.” I kinda learned to keep quiet and be less vocal about this thing to keep from being dominating in these kinda talks.

Next I went up to the Central Library and visited the Islam Appreciation Week, where I happened to talk to someone from there whom I met before last year or the year before for 2 hours!

Well, from the dialogue, I eventually found out that maybe I was not open minded as I thought.

I was looking around and learning more about other religions, and told him that I haven’t read the Quran or Bible yet… so it’s more of curiosity and obligation for I know being more and more of an engaged Buddhist I would be I would meet with Interfaith Dialogues a lot of the time.

He was asking if I had considered other religions. I said, I don’t put all religions on the same footing, Buddhism is the highest footing for me, and I do not need to consider other religions as I am sure of the truths within my own.

“I was born a Buddhist” I said, “our faith is not blind faith, it is faith based on evidences, based on what we see.”

“There is a stage where people who were unthinking and born into the religions that they are in, then they started to investigate the religions, finally finding the truths and settling down.”

“I am past that stage.”

“Past the stage? You haven’t read the other religious texts?”

“Rather than some people who spend a lot of time wasting on searching about the truths, I am practising this so that I can enjoy the fruits.” I said.

“Is it ok for people who know for themselves that God exist and pray for him?”

“Yes, I do believe it is good for them to do so. People are born and taught religions at a young tender age, making them tending towards one religion or another and the faith component is established. That’s how each religions gets to be strong and survive for so long.”

“So there’s no way of getting them to know other religions?”

“Those that need to learn will explore on their own. They will go and find their own truths and up to their inclinations and conditions will stumble upon the evidences that supports their truths.”

Well the guy was asking me what is the way to find out about the truth, an objective truth out there. “Cause if there is One God and another religion claims that there is 2 Gods, they can’t be both true can they?”

I told him about the Kalama Sutta, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalama_Sutta.

“So that’s a working truth? Shouldn’t we look for some evidence like miracles and see which evidence is more compelling to decide which religion is the truth?”

“I think it is a dangerous thing to agree on an objective truth and criteria's for it, especially in an interfaith dialogue, when we agree to it, and argue till the end, one may turn out to be a victor, and what will happen to the rest of the faiths? It is damaging to the people of faiths. Besides, the winner will be the one with the most debating skills, not necessary reflecting which religion reflects the objective truth.”

“Ok let’s say there’s compelling evidences for a certain religion. I’m not trying to convert you here, I’m just interested in knowing what is the truth.”

My answer to that is: “Whichever religion one chooses, there one can find their own happiness when practised fully. This is true of all religion or else it would not be worth it to be in that religion.”

“I agree that we are all explorers on a certain path, and going from birth to death, but then what about after death? Certain path leads to happiness and certain path does not.”

“Which is why you want to know for yourself which religion is true and follow it, to prepare for the afterlife.” I saw his viewpoint.

The discussion there then moved on to the fear of not believing in God might make one go to hell if God is real and then of course they discredit that fear should not be the reason to choose Theistic religions. I mentioned that Buddha gave a guarantee in Kalama Sutta that be it that Karma or rebirth exist or not, as long as one do good, no great suffering will be fall one.

From Wiki:

"The disciple of the Noble Ones, Kalamas, who has such a hate-free mind, such a malice-free mind, such an undefiled mind, and such a purified mind, is one by whom four solaces are found here and now.

"'Suppose there is a hereafter and there is a fruit, result, of deeds done well or ill. Then it is possible that at the dissolution of the body after death, I shall arise in the heavenly world, which is possessed of the state of bliss.' This is the first solace found by him.

"'Suppose there is no hereafter and there is no fruit, no result, of deeds done well or ill. Yet in this world, here and now, free from hatred, free from malice, safe and sound, and happy, I keep myself.' This is the second solace found by him.

"'Suppose evil (results) befall an evil-doer. I, however, think of doing evil to no one. Then, how can ill (results) affect me who do no evil deed?' This is the third solace found by him.

"'Suppose evil (results) do not befall an evil-doer. Then I see myself purified in any case.' This is the fourth solace found by him.

"The disciple of the Noble Ones, Kalamas, who has such a hate-free mind, such a malice-free mind, such an undefiled mind, and such a purified mind, is one by whom, here and now, these four solaces are found." - Kalama Sutta, translated by Soma Thera ^[6]

Then he kept on saying about almost the same thing, to which I realise that there is no point in further continuing the conversation as it was a pretty long one: 6++pm now. And I used up all my ammo. Well, this is when I remember Agree to Disagree. I kept quiet until he politely says, “It’s getting late, I need to go for prayers now.”

I left there and gone back to SPS when I met up with another issue of interfaith.

There is a poster from the Campus Crusade for Christ having the one statement which infuriate anyone with a sound mind. “Thailand is a place of little true joy.” The statement referring to most of the people in Thailand being Buddhist and asking people from Singapore to pay $2000 each for a missionary trip to Thailand to spread the gospel.

The poster went viral on facebook and there was may people who told me about it too. I then posted it on my status saying that I’ll write to Campus Crusade about it.

Poster for the recruitment for the mission to Thailand outside LT15 URGENT AND IMPORTANT!

Hi,

Congratulations of getting the facebook-wide recognition of your poster (attached) which is going viral now. However, I believe it becomes viral for the worst possible reason: infamous. I'm sure this is not what the Campus Crusade for Chris wants: enraged Buddhist in NUS campus which you'll have no chance what-so-ever of converting to Christianity.

To clarify which part of the poster caused the insult to Buddhists is the sentence: "Thailand is a place of little true joy". Please do be more mindful of your sentences on your posters from now on and try not to offend any other religion, intentional or not. I assure you this kind of event/happening will turn neutral people away from Christ.

Here's a humble suggestion for public relations saving: take down the poster, and issue an apology on your website about the insensitive placing of the sentence. This is not apologizing for evangelising, it is showing good form that others would look up to. For the sake of Christianity, please do not leave this matter unattended. Please do so before anyone decides to report to the OSA.

Thank you.

I got some comments that I misspelled “Christ” and was “suan”ing them, writing in anger etc…well, at least I’m writing on behalf of me.

They replied that night itself at 2:09am :

Hi Xin Zhao,
Thank you, we will look into this.

The next day there was an emergency meeting of OSA with the religious societies leaders of NUS and then the provost send out a statement about this issue, saying that NUS CCC has apologized. Meanwhile the news spreads outside of NUS to the whole of Singapore. I got this mail 2 days after the poster first when viral:

Xin Zhao:

We would like to apologise for the distress caused by a flyer developed by one of our student groups. The flyer was one of several used by NUS CCC for internal publicity of available mission trips. We appeal for your kind understanding that it was never our intention to cause hurt to any individual or religious group. We will be reviewing the publicity process for gaps that need to be plugged as soon as we can.

SCCC

To which I replied:

Hi,
It's ok. I'm not distressed much. Good job for the quick action, yet it might be too quick that I don't think the lesson was learn. Allow me to explain, please be open minded while reading these:

I believe that the hurt does not come from the lack of control in the publicity. It is more in the mindset and views that CCC is promoting (and reflected through these words). You may find in some forums about people tearing down your apology word for word and finding that CCC is not apologetic for the way that CCC is thinking but that people are offended by the thoughts.

It is hard to co-exist with the rest of the world if you think that they have little true joy just because they do not believe in Christ. It is self evident that all major religions that promotes good, morality and happiness do pave the way to happiness by their own paths, and once the followers of each religion walk on those path, they will find the happiness to be found in each religion too. This has to be true, or else that religion would crumble pretty fast and not last for centuries. Just look at the top figures or practitioners of each religion and see if they are happy!

I believe it is a very good and noble cause and feeling to get people to follow in your footsteps when you first follow in the footsteps of Christianity and found your happiness there. However, some people already has found their happiness in their own religion, therefore it is cruel to rid them of their faith. As I am sure if anyone from outside Christianity tries to evangelize you, you'll feel strongly offended because they try to take you away from your faith in Christ.

Do not on to others what you do not wish others to do onto you.

This is also the reason that most people hate strong evangelical people from any religion. I believe evangelism do help some people, by all means help them. But for others whom they do not wish to be separated from their own faith, please leave them alone. Be moderate and wise in your evangelism.

Of course you are free to stick to your views. Just offering the view from outside CCC.

Finally sorry if all I said is just whatever that you would had known all along, and sorry for any offense that I have caused. Thanks for taking the time to read and reply!

Just on Saturday night I went for Tzu Chi’s sharing. There I learn this phrase in relation to interreligious views:

大同小异：心大则同，心小则异

It says: Much of them are the same. The magnanimous heart sees the similarities. The narrow mind sees the difference.

That’s about it on my interfaith adventure, other than Wai Kit making an interfaith interest group in USC itself and I was one of the members who support the group! Ven. Chuan Guan is coming on Monday night March 12, 2012 7:30pm until 9:30pm Cinnamon South Learn Lobe, Seminar Room 1, University Town (NUS) for the talk on Buddhism! It’s open to all in NUS and outside too! I think.

Signing off here!

Meditators are the real Psychologists

Venerable Bodhi and Debbie was fetching me to NTU to visit their exhibition and talk that night after the Clearing Misconception talk with her in NUS. They were generous to let me tag along and even got dinner for me too! I was reading Shadow of the Hegemon, http://vivien23.uw.hu/, http://xkcd.com/635/ (Read Ender's game to see the joke) and was excited about writing a science fiction book with an active engaged Buddhist in it.

On the way, we were talking about Physics and Buddhism, interpretations of Quantum Physics, many world theories, the search for the theory of everything.

Despite whatever we think Physicist meant when they say everything, it's not everything. It meant that everything fundamental, one master equation from which you could derive all the other laws from it and learn how the world works. Because from a reductionist point of view, http://xkcd.com/435/ everything can be reduced to Physics. Maths doesn't count, as you need to have experimental observation to know which mathematics is the right one to describe nature.

According to Buddhism, there are five orders or processes (Niyamas) which operate in the physical and mental realms:

1. Kamma Niyama, order of act and result, e.g., desirable and undesirable acts produce corresponding good and bad results.
2. Utu Niyama, physical (inorganic) order, e.g., seasonal phenomena of winds and rains.
3. Bija Niyama, order of germs or seeds (physical organic order); e.g., rice produced from rice-seed, sugary taste from sugar cane or honey etc. The scientific theory of cells and genes and the physical similarity of twins may be ascribed to this order.
4. Citta Niyama, order of mind or psychic law, e.g., processes of consciousness (Citta vithi), power of mind etc.
5. Dhamma Niyama, order of the norm, e.g., the natural phenomena occurring at the advent of a Bodhisatta in his last birth, gravitation, etc.

I'm sure you can link which science is which, while Citta Niyama includes psychology, and Kamma is just not able to be tested by science, only the Buddha can know the full workings of Kamma. For us, if we try to think too much about it, we would go crazy at the complicated details. Well, there are books about understanding of Kamma, and these are good for the spiritual path. The full workings that I meant is like perhaps trying to figure out if there is a (local?) hidden variable model for the otherwise intrinsic randomness of quantum phenomena. (Just guessing here, but since Kamma rejects that things happen by chance, could it be that the hidden variable model itself is influenced/determined by Kamma?)

I think Physicists left out a lot of things unexplained. So first, the realm of Kamma is out. Next, we can only claim to know the other 2 Sciences if we are serious in ignoring the complexity effect, of the sum is greater than it's parts (that's why they needed to be studied separately). http://xkcd.com/659/ Finally, Psychology is still a soft science, not being able to predict stuffs with total accuracy. Sure, it makes sense most of the time and helped some people from counseling and psychotherapy, positive psychology etc... but it is still way primitive compared to what meditators already know about their own mind.

I wouldn't call Psychology a science as what I would call Physics, Chemistry and Biology sciences. Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Medicine are all proves of just how applicable and reliable those sciences are. While we can't put the same credentials to counselors, psychologists, or people who manipulate others into positions of power etc... http://xkcd.com/808/

However, each meditator, with mindfulness well trained are able to see how their mind works and therefore from there, catch what they are doing, and then direct their efforts and energy to do something better. That's a true application of the workings of the mind, that's the way the mind works that makes me say: Meditators are the real Scientists!

Of course, we are still being subjected to greed, anger, and delusion, therefore unable to perfectly follow the model above. http://xkcd.com/793/

SP2171 and 72: Time travel, is it possible?

In the year 2009, three SPS (Special Programme in Science) students investigated the previous research of time travel and made a small discovery of their own. They found that time travel, allowed by the General Theory of Gravity (GR) because of curved spacetime, is self consistent in curved space time itself!

The tale of time travel may seem absurd and discarded by most as impossible due to the Grandfather Paradox (you can go back in time to prevent your own existence if time travel is possible). However, there are solid Physics behind time travel. It started when Willem Jacob van Stockum first showed that one solution of the GR equation by Einstein allows for time travel. The whole van Stockum Universe was just an infinitely long rotating cylinder whereby the spacetime outside is so curved that the light cones tipped and allows one to move back to where one started by travelling around the cylinder.



The vertical axis is time. An observer in any point in spacetime can only travel to the future of his or her light cone (as no one can travel faster than the speed of light), and thus when the light cones tipped sufficiently, one can travel around the cylinder back to the exact point in time and space where one started.

This provides a way to create a Closed Time-like Curve (CTC), a physicist way of saying time travel. With GR producing potential time travel paradoxes, there are four ways that the physics community are dealing with it.

1. The Radical Rewrite Conjecture: from multiverse to saying time can be rewritten, this is the radically rewriting the laws of physics and causality conjecture. (Science Fiction series Doctor Who falls under this category)
2. Self-Consistency Principle: the basic tenet is that whatever is recorded down in history cannot be changed. So if one travelled back in time, one would have already done it. It also means either restricted free will or no free will.
3. Chronology Protection Principle: all the ways of allowing time travel cannot yet work in our universe because of the impossible requirements like: infinitely long cylinder, negative energy etc... there maybe a deeper law, like quantum gravity that will protect causation and prevent all forms of time travel.
4. Boring Physics Conjecture: time travel has not been shown to be practical or possible yet with 100% certainty, so there are better things to worry about.

Obviously Science fiction writers has explored the first way, physicists like Novikov had proposed the self-consistency principle using wormhole as the time machine (in flat space-time background), while others likeStephen Hawking had proposed the Chronology Protection Principle and most of the rest of us chose to adopt the boring physics conjecture. However, until 2009, no one has yet tried to see if the self-consistency principle could work in fully curved spacetime itself.

There comes our three students, Han Weiding, Jani Hariom Kirit, and yours truly who investigated this case for the van Stockum Universe. What we had found was that there exist at least one self consistent path for a billiard ball inside the van Stockum Universe to go back in time and hit its past self so that the past self can go around the cylinder, back in time, to become the future self that did the hitting in the first place.

Therefore, we concluded that time travel is still possible under the self consistency principle and that GR has not contradicted itself.

This however does not tell us in absoluteness if time travel is possible or if it is, will it require the radical rewrite conjecture or self consistency principle. The search for an answer goes on.

Note: at the time of literature review and research, the three students were in their 2nd and 3rd semesters in NUS.

Extreme

Ok now, too much playtime.

This is perhaps one of the ways I realign myself after going too extreme in one direction or another. Blogging.

I always tend to go to extreme measures of what I believed in. (Extremely long post too.)

First thing off my head is going Vegetarian. Back in my early secondary school, I've read a book about how humans can choose to not eat meat for the sake of compassion for the animals that were killed for the meat. I've gone cold turkey vegetarian then. If it wasn't some resistance plus persuasion that I need meat during this period of physical growth, I would have been vegetarian for a long time by now. Update: currently, I'm pro-vegetarian (for environmental reasons plus compassion), that means I mostly eat vegetarian food, but I do not forbid myself from eating meat. By the way, London is a very good place to be a vegetarian, lots of choices for vegan food here (compared to Singapore).

A few years later I had known Buddhism. Read the books, gone so deep so fast into the theories and accepted what I see as obvious truths, that I decided to have "monk" in my email. As usual, the teachings preach of the middle way, not the extreme way. And I took the extreme way. I decided to be a monk, no I swore to be a monk. A vow, without regard that I have not yet even tasted most of what lay life can give me. If it isn't for the lack of spiritual friends and wisdom, I would not have been out of touch with Buddhism for a period of my life. Of course, it took me years later on to see that the way to Enlightenment is not the extreme way that gets you there faster. It is not a intermediate goal to achieve and get rid off so that I can get on with life. It is rather to realise that life itself is impermanent (still don't realise it, just putting it here to say I don't realise it). Update: Currently I am the Vice President of National University of Singapore Buddhist Society for the academic year 2010/11, going back into Buddhism, gently, calmly, (sorry I still won't use slowly), practising it step by step.

The period of my life that I was out of touch with Buddhism comes Physics. Or should I say science fiction? I've been inspired by the science fiction authors, Asimov, Clark, Leinster, whose (some) stories predicted the future of technology and in some cases science itself! Inspired to be one of the science fiction writers, I took to the science part seriously and took some non-fiction science (physics) books to read and enjoy. My interest in Physics paid off when I got selected to represent Malaysia for the International Physics Olympiad 2007 and 2008 (ya, twice). It was the highlight of my life (up to that point) and it determined my university degree choice. Although I have yet written a science fiction book nor published any short stories in a science fiction magazine, I still do know that part of the reason I took to physics is that I want the science in my science fiction stories to be foolproof, to be real and not discredited by future knowledge and not to mislead the majority of the world who doesn't know the intricacies of consistency of physics (example, any stories that have wormhole, faster than light travel technologies must have a way of explaining away the grandfather paradox. Ya, faster than light means time travel, most science fiction disregard that, and it is not right.)

Let me take another paragraph (or two) to tell you why it is not right. If there is a proof (due to the ultimate quantum gravity theory) that time travel of all sorts are impossible, or at least chronology is protected. Then it is a guide for how much can humans hope to conquer the stars. If time travel are impossible, we will have to stick to the hope that we can go close to light speed and use the time dilation as a practical means of space travelling (like Orson Scott Card's Ender series). If not, then we will have to stick to building a whole world for generations to live in for a trip to the next star system (like Rendezvous with Rama, only the first book, by Clark). And all science fiction stories should follow their example to set a realistic outlook for the general public to know that the future is going to be much harder than we thought. Therefore we need to stick together and aim for a bright future for humanity, and not frown upon petty disputes, wars, allow our planet to warm up too much too fast, and concentrate on what matters to the survival of the species (least we meet the same fate as the Earth in Asimov's End of Eternity).

So in a larger sense, theoretical physicist, even mathematicians are contributing to the world. In fact, when humanity turn back and look upon this period of time, they would credit them most for being the base and the backbone for space-travel to be real.

Ok, back to the issue, so Update: I am still reading up on science fictions (after a break, recently read the main Dune series) and knowing what do I want to write about. By the way, Imperial College London has a great Science Fiction Library! It's cool to hang out there!

After getting into NUS and studying what I wanted to study, two important changes came into my life: Laptop (with high speed internet) and living away from parents. This brings us to extreme entertainment. (Maybe I should include the relief of having gone through so many exams and test to come to University only to repeat it every semester.) I had seen so many series, superhero cartoons, played so many video games that I was gradually getting my laptop to be free from computer games and try not to get hooked up to more than one series (of drama/anime/comedy/etc) per semester. Update: I just brought Pokemon Black with a special edition of Nintendo DSi, and I have been on it for about 30 hours now. By the way, in London, the game looks cheaper, and lots of pokemon events are in United Kingdom! Including a National Video Game Championship!

With the lowering down my concentration on games and getting back on my feet with Buddhism and Physics, I've stumbled upon the thing that most songs, movies, layperson, books mentioned or based upon. It is the single essential thing for the continuation of the human species and for most people the meaning of their lives. It is love, Boy-Girl Love. Initially I didn't started out extremely in love, in fact, I was the extreme not eligible single guy out there (read the post about how I used to repel girls).

However, in front of her, in her presence, I automatically get a hold of myself and stop pretending to be weird and kiddish. I made sure I undo all the undesirable things in me that I've made into part of my habit. I was not behaving naturally as me. Soon I found that I was trying hard to change myself (this is part of the reason, there are other reasons not to be too weird). Soon it became obvious that I was much happier with her around, I enjoyed thinking about her every single time free time that I had. And I also faced a great battle within me, one that I had to choose which future path to take. One that is essentially captured in the movie Samsara. I had tried and tried, so.... hard to forget about her and remember impermanence, non-self, and suffering, but every single time I see her, I cannot help but fall in love again.

I guess in terms of being extreme, I did this: I broke off the vow of being a monk in order to chase her (this is just basic requirements), and when I did it, I inadvertently put her as the meaning of my life. That is extreme. Extreme is also not thinking this through, what if she rejects me? What if we were not meant for each other? I didn't think that through when I changed the meaning of my life so suddenly. I didn't know that there is only one of two roads to head for when saying "I love you" to a girl: you either get rejected/break up eventually or you get married. All I could think of then was that I was prepared to get committed, to overcome my repulsion towards the idea of settling down with another human being, sharing everything. And I certainly did not know how painful it was when someone rejects you. Maybe it was not as painful if I had not been too extreme (again), if I had stayed back, held back and see, really see without attached love blinding me, what chances have we together, before pouring out so much emotions into one person. Perhaps the stupidest thing I had done is to make myself receive multiple rejections, after telling myself each time to lay it off. Gradually it worked, mind training paid off a little, and I am getting more and more neutral, more and more into getting used to being single and not infatuated. By the way, this trip to London helps a lot! I am alone here! Yippie!

I had made it a policy to not include sad, defamatory, personal attack, provocative, and unmemorable things in this blog, or to shorten the painful ones as much as possible. This policy, however, did not force me to say: I am glad I fell in love anyway. It is better to have love and lost than not to have love at all. I had learned much from this experience, how to make friends, how to court a lady, to see just how strongly dedicated am I to my cause, to write this as neutral as possible without any hurtful emotions, to finally appreciate all the love stories and songs, to know how much more I need to train up. Update: currently, not wanting to experience all these again.

So now, back to the theme: Extreme. What had being an extremist taught me? Well, maybe I am a bit too extremely frank about my life here. In this public space, I am sharing the turmoil and thoughts of my personal life. Well, maybe that's just my style. Being too extreme is a way of life. It does not guarantees that you get what you want, but it does guarantees suffering, one way or another, suffering is an essential part of our lives. It teaches us as most people would say. I say it motivates for the practice. The practice to end all sufferings, the Noble 8 Fold-path, the middle way (between extremes).

P.S. Sorry it may look like I'm saying being a monk is the extreme way. I meant that I think of myself as an enlighten one at that time, thus deluded myself into a serious depressed state when I discovered that I was far from perfect. Thus I needed to remove myself from all things Buddhism to regain some sanity back.

Non-Locality and the Foundations of Quantum Physics

Locality is the state of affairs confined to us (at least macroscopically); blame special relativity and the finite speed of light. Oh sorry, you might not have heard of what locality is yet have you? It means anything I do; I can only influence my future up to the fastest influences that we can ever achieve: light speed. Locality is the limit for events in one point of space-time to influence another in a causation relationship.

Whatever that I do now cannot possibly cause the volcanoes of planets light years away to explode immediately (ignoring the possibility to warp space-time using general relativity which is out of the scope of this discussion). So sorry to disappoint you, but all those telepathy stuffs you see in science fiction, they are just that: fantasies.

“Wait a minute,” you said, “hasn’t quantum physics lead us to the discovery of quantum entanglement (which is non-local), so it means that there is a remote possibility that telepathy can happen right?” Well, the answer to that is still, even through you can have non-locality, you still cannot communicate faster than the speed of light. There are various proofs for the impossibility for using quantum non-locality to communicate faster than the speed of light, but it is not in the scope of the discussion here too. The scope of this discussion how the notion of non-locality affects the way we review and research about the foundations of quantum physics.

Now that you know what is locality, non-locality simply means that events influence each other, even when they are so far apart that light cannot reach from one event to another in time! However, there is also the constraint of not able to communicate using non-locality. This means that there is an interesting space in the relationships between any two parties, a space between the usual local region that we are used to and faster than light communication region (signalling region). A space we call the non-local region. Refering to the figure below, one can construct a polytope (essentially a geometrical object representing probabilities) that maps the local region inside the nonsignalling region. The quantum boundary (representing the limits of quantum entanglement) exists and extends beyond the local region but falls short of the non-signalling boundary.

Let me explain more of the figure above, the two parties each can choose one of two inputs into a machine that they share, and the machine (defined by whatever properties that the analysis below requires it to have) gives out one of two outputs at each side. One iron rule is that they cannot communicate. The correlations of the output depending on the input can be quantified and represented in the polytope above. The local region of the polytope consists of the correlations that two parties can have with only preestablished agreement (for the machine). For the quantum region, the two parties share quantum entangled particles in addition to preestablished agreements. However, theorectically speaking, one can still have stronger correlations between the two without the ability to start communication between the two parties. Hence, the Non-signalling boundary is bigger than the quantum boundary. Therefore, although quantum physics is non-local, it is not the most non-local theory allowed by special relativity. Here a clue of how nature works is found and the clue is to ask why?

Before continuing, we shall have a small detour to the current state of quantum physics. You see, the postulates of quantum mechanics as it stands now are just a sequence of abstract mathematical rules to calculate and predict the probabilities of the results of measurements. Confused? Worry not, even the great Feynman said no one truly understands quantum mechanics. Sure, we can calculate and predict and give a very good and consistent picture of the world, but we do not know the underlying “why” of quantum physics. The underlying physical picture that is intuitive in all other areas of physics is not clear at all in quantum physics.

So encountering this clue, researches proposed various theories to be the information-theoretic axiom for quantum mechanics. These theories seek to limit the bound of non-locality any general theory must have and tries to reproduce the bounds of quantum physics using as little axioms as possible.

One of the axioms that do this is the information complexity triviality axiom. It states that to share information from one party to another, one (normally, under locality assumption) has to share all the bits of the information. One example is that one has to download a full movie to enjoy it. With quantum non-locality, the amount of bits sent is reduced; however, it is still a significant amount that needed to be sent. With even stronger correlations above a certain bound (called communication complexity bound) [1], the amount of information sent reduces just to one bit! Imagine watching a movie or for that matter, downloading the whole of internet in just one bit! Computer scientists would say that this is as forbiddened as non-conservation of energy [4]!

Therefore, non-local physical theories cannot be above the communication complexity bound. However, communication complexity bound is not the same as the quantum theory bound. If we can somehow pull down the communication complexity bound down to the quantum theory bound, we have found a physical axiom for quantum physics! And the way to do this is via non-locality distillation [2].

As implied by its name, non-locality distillation makes an existing non-local correlation to become more even more non-local. That is it pushes the point of correlation away from the centre of the polytope. Imagine that the line (collections of points) just above the quantum bound is being distilled. If they can go up to and beyond the triviality bound, the triviality bound is effectively “lowered” down to the quantum boundary.

How the distillation is done is that two (or more) non-local correlation “machines” are brought together and the output of one is wired up or linked up in a certain way to the input of the other to produce one big “machine” with more overall non-locality. We denote each wiring as one protocol. It was shown that two boxes could not be used to achieve this feat [3]. That was where the author's humble attempt comes in. Using three boxes, the author has attempted to achieve this feat. The attempt is aided by aiming to find a protocol to achieve a victory condition that was defined. The result was that two resonable and symmetric victory conditions were ruled out as no protocols are able to statisfy them. A general mechanism is found to allow for the determination of which protocol (amongst all 4.61x10¹⁶ possible protocols) is able to achieve any victory conditions.

In addition, it would seem that it is not worth the effort of pursuing more boxes distillation research as the amount of protocols, terms and conditions will increase exponentially with the number of boxes.

Regardless of this line of research, the story goes on with Stephanie Wehner of Centre for Quantum Technologies who had just recently managed to link the quantum boundary with Heisenberg uncertainty principle. This means that quantum theory is as non-local as it is because of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which is also an empirical fact. So in essence, the mystery of the quantum is still there. Is there any fundamental axiom that fixes quantum physics? Will we ever get an intuitive understanding of it? It is up to you to find out.

Ng Xin Zhao (27^th Jan 2011, year 3 undergraduate student in Physics, NUS)

Bibliography

[1] Gilles Brassard, Harry Buhrman, Noah Linden, Andre Allan Methot, Alain Tapp, and Falk Unger Limit on nonlocality in any world in which communication complexity is not trivial. Phys. Rev. Lett., 96(25):250401, Jun 2006.

[2] Nicolas Brunner and Paul Skrzypczyk. Nonlocality distillation and postquantum the-ories with trivial communication complexity. Phys. Rev. Lett., 102(16):160403, Apr 2009.

[3] Anthony J. Short. No deterministic purification for two copies of a noisy entangled state. Phys. Rev. Lett., 102(18):180502, May 2009.

[4] W. van Dam. Implausible consequences of superstrong nonlocality.

http://arxiv.org/quant-ph/0501159, 2000.