QUANTUM MECHANICS AND THE NATURE OF LIFE

We reexamine the original derivations of quantum mechanics, published 100 years ago, to test the accuracy of the formulations and the logic underlying them, and we find that attempts were not made to describe atomic processes continuously in time. To correct this omission we show that matrix mechanics clearly describes the continuous absorption of thermal energy that causes the hydrogen line spectra, where energy and cause follow the same path. When the same methods are used to inspect the emission process as determined by the wave function we find that energy and cause do not follow the same path. We conclude that failure to follow strict causality is the reason that the wave function is neither physical nor real. Energy-cause superposition is hypothesized to be a universal principle of nature, true not only for atomic systems but for material systems throughout the cosmos and for life as well. It is also equivalent to the action principle, ∫Ldt, which is fundamental to all of physics.