Potential mass interpretation

The potential mass interpretation (PMI) of quantum mechanics was first outlined by Paul A. Klevgard in a Physics Essays article and later expanded in a book . It may be generally described as a semi-realist, objective collapse theory interpretation.
This interpretation (PMI) is founded upon a detailed ontological examination of the entities of physics. But at a simpler level it may be understood as an inquiry into the nature of mass and energy as kinetic entities versus potential entities. Mass and energy are assumed to be the constituents of reality, each will either exist or occur, and each may have kinetic or potential identities, the consequences of which, it is argued, have been generally overlooked.
Basic principles
For PMI, kinetic mass is the formal name for what is known in physics as matter or rest mass. Kinetic mass is “pure” when it possesses no kinetic energy as is the case for quantized matter in an inertial frame of reference for a local observer. Kinetic energy, associated with the projectile but also with the photon, is “pure” when it is free of any rest mass as is the case with radiation energy. Like pure kinetic mass, pure kinetic energy (radiation) is also quantized and in addition it is stationary in time just as inertial kinetic mass is, for a local observer, stationary in space.
Potential entities, for PMI, are always stored by their kinetic opposite number and may at some point be released. Thus kinetic mass stores energy—mechanical strain, thermal motion, electrostatic potential, etc.—for later release. Similarly, kinetic energy stores potential mass (i.e., relativistic mass due to E = mc ) which will also be released as in photon termination.
It is a basic principle of PMI that mass or energy in any guise must have an accompanying form, either wave or field. Thus kinetic mass (matter) and potential energy (e.g., heat) have the field form since they depend upon matter and therefore extend over space. But some things in physics—kinetic energy, potential (relativistic) mass—have always been regarded as quantities without a form and without a presence in a dimension. PMI sees this as a mistake and insists that kinetic energy and potential mass indeed have a (wave) form and a dimensional presence. Specific arguments in support of this cannot be summarized here, although one argument is that of ontological equality of mass and energy: if kinetic mass (matter) and and what it stores (potential energy) are entities with a form, then kinetic energy and what it stores (potential mass) should also be regarded as entities with a form. PMI claims that if this view is accepted, then a number of interpretative benefits follow of which three may be mentioned.
Photon wave-particle duality
The wave nature of the photon is well established from diffraction and interference effects. But photons also terminate at a single space location and this lends itself to a particle interpretation of light. But for PMI this particle interpretation constitutes the application of a classical physics model (photon as projectile) to quantum physics. In its place, PMI suggests that photon termination at a point may be understood from the general principle that any stored entity will always be released/converted at a point in space or in time: potential energy progresses continuously over time until its quantized release at a specific time locale; potential mass (of the photon) progresses continuously over space until its quantized release at a specific space locale. Conversion explains this change: potential mass as an entity is space continuous, but kinetic mass as an entity (which is matter) is always space discrete.
According to this view, a single photon as a wave will travel both paths of an interferometer but will select but a single target upon which to terminate. The relative intensity of the potential mass wave along a path determines the probability of termination upon the endpoint of that path even though the wave travels all paths before termination. Photon termination at a space point does not prove particle behavior; such termination is, according to PMI, an artifact of potential mass release/conversion.
Matter waves
An electron, or any object with rest mass, has, PMI argues, the field form as existing matter extending over space. But if that electron moves relative to an observer then it acquires kinetic energy relative to that observer. PMI insists that kinetic energy is an actual entity that happens to occur so when any rest mass object begins to move it acquires an additional entity (of energy). As noted, this is a departure from the traditional view of energy as simply a conserved quantity that can be added to, or subtracted from, a mass entity.
According to PMI, de Broglie waves are the kinetic energy entity of a moving mass. When a physical object moves relative to an observer it generates de Broglie waves which constitute its kinetic energy. When that object comes to rest the de Broglie waves disappear as does the kinetic energy. Projectiles thus have a mixture of entities and therefore of forms, namely the field form derived from projectile rest mass and the waveform derived from projectile kinetic energy. The field form is dominant for projectiles with significant rest mass and low kinetic energy; the waveform dominates for projectiles with tiny rest mass and large kinetic energy such as high speed electrons. Projectile motion features a mixed-form object residing between two extremes: the pure field of at-rest mass and the pure wave of electromagnetic radiation. Whereas the conventional view is that moving particles somehow generate de Broglie waves, the PMI view is that de Broglie waves are the occurring waveform entity that is kinetic energy. For PMI, kinetic energy is not a mere quantity, it is an entity with a (wave) form and because it is an occurrence it can be added to, or removed from, another entity. The dual wave-field identity of projectiles is a consequence of the mixture of two very different entities, kinetic mass and kinetic energy.
Entanglement
There is general agreement that photons are entities of some sort. Photon entanglement implies that one entity can affect the state of a distant entity instantaneously. This violates the assumption that causal effects propagate no faster than the speed of light and this violation is usually called non-locality.
According to PMI, the photon and its potential mass occur and entanglement is therefore not a case of two separated, existing photon-particle-entities sending/receiving a causal signal and violating non-locality. Instead, correlated photons share, despite their separation, a binding potential mass which can alter instantaneously because such mass, since it is potential, is occurring and occurrence can be present over space intervals just as existence can be present over time intervals. The binding of mass quanta or energy quanta is regarded as a necessary parallel: “bound material particles (atoms, molecules) share potential energy…, whereas bound photons must share potential mass.” In both cases, changing what binds entities changes the entities themselves.

If conjoined photons have different polarizations—one vertical, one horizontal—the conjoined whole does not have a specific polarization property. Only when one of the photons is measured is its polarization defined and this definition will instantaneously affect the unmeasured photon.
Summation
PMI confronts the wave-particle duality of the photon by insisting that the photon is a wave and that photon termination at a space point is the release (conversion) of stored (potential) mass that follows all space paths and not the impact of a space-discrete particle that follows one space path. PMI endorses the wave-particle nature of the speeding electron but argues that all projectiles are a combination, in varying degrees, of a kinetic (rest) mass field and a kinetic energy (de Broglie) wave. And finally, PMI maintains that conjoined photons are never truly space separated because they have an expanding wave of potential mass in common whose release/conversion affects both photons instantaneously.

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