Quantcast
  • Register
PhysicsOverflow is a next-generation academic platform for physicists and astronomers, including a community peer review system and a postgraduate-level discussion forum analogous to MathOverflow.

Welcome to PhysicsOverflow! PhysicsOverflow is an open platform for community peer review and graduate-level Physics discussion.

Please help promote PhysicsOverflow ads elsewhere if you like it.

News

PO is now at the Physics Department of Bielefeld University!

New printer friendly PO pages!

Migration to Bielefeld University was successful!

Please vote for this year's PhysicsOverflow ads!

Please do help out in categorising submissions. Submit a paper to PhysicsOverflow!

... see more

Tools for paper authors

Submit paper
Claim Paper Authorship

Tools for SE users

Search User
Reclaim SE Account
Request Account Merger
Nativise imported posts
Claim post (deleted users)
Import SE post

Users whose questions have been imported from Physics Stack Exchange, Theoretical Physics Stack Exchange, or any other Stack Exchange site are kindly requested to reclaim their account and not to register as a new user.

Public \(\beta\) tools

Report a bug with a feature
Request a new functionality
404 page design
Send feedback

Attributions

(propose a free ad)

Site Statistics

205 submissions , 163 unreviewed
5,082 questions , 2,232 unanswered
5,353 answers , 22,789 comments
1,470 users with positive rep
820 active unimported users
More ...

  Negotiable and non-negotiable laws of physics

+ 1 like - 0 dislike
1382 views

Which of the known fundamental laws (axioms / principles / equations / inequalities) of physics are absolutely non-negotiable (cannot be violated without causing major inconsistencies or singularities) and which are negotiable (can be slightly relaxed without blowing up the whole physics) ? For example, violating the equivalence principle within the experimental bounds seems to be fine but violating causality, no matter how slightly, would lead to absurdities.

I think this is an important question to think about especially when we are faced with situations where the laws of physics seem to be incompatible with one another, e.g. when attempting to construct quantum gravity, and we are forced to modify some of them. We need to know which "screws" can be loosened before can even begin molding the relevant parts of physics with the intention of making everything consistent.

The best type of answer that I am looking for is one that lists useful references studying this subject thoroughly. But, my impression is that the literature seems to be lacking studies on the subject. I could find many studies on violations of Lorentz invariance but not so much on others. So, I would also be happy if you could list some fundamental laws of physics and argue what would happen if they are violated slightly. Preferably, the discussions should only be within the established frameworks of physics: QM, GR, QFT, etc. I do not know enough to appreciate arguments based on, say, String theory.

asked Jan 17, 2018 in Chat by emitabsorb (0 points) [ no revision ]
recategorized Jan 17, 2018 by Dilaton

You may find interesting my papers and blog entries like https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.3702 , https://wordpress.com/view/vladimirkalitvianski.wordpress.com , and https://vladimir-anski.livejournal.com/54543.html . There I mention which screws screw our physical laws and how to possibly fix the situation.

Your answer

Please use answers only to (at least partly) answer questions. To comment, discuss, or ask for clarification, leave a comment instead.
To mask links under text, please type your text, highlight it, and click the "link" button. You can then enter your link URL.
Please consult the FAQ for as to how to format your post.
This is the answer box; if you want to write a comment instead, please use the 'add comment' button.
Live preview (may slow down editor)   Preview
Your name to display (optional):
Privacy: Your email address will only be used for sending these notifications.
Anti-spam verification:
If you are a human please identify the position of the character covered by the symbol $\varnothing$ in the following word:
p$\hbar$ysicsOve$\varnothing$flow
Then drag the red bullet below over the corresponding character of our banner. When you drop it there, the bullet changes to green (on slow internet connections after a few seconds).
Please complete the anti-spam verification




user contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

Your rights
...