Heim theory, first proposed by German physicist

Burkhard Heim Burkhard Heim (; 9 February 1925 – 14 January 2001) was a German theoretical physicist. He devoted a large portion of his life to the pursuit of his unified field theory, Heim theory. One of his childhood ambitions was to develop a method of s ...

publicly in 1957, is an attempt to develop a

theory of everything A theory of everything (TOE or TOE/ToE), final theory, ultimate theory, unified field theory or master theory is a hypothetical, singular, all-encompassing, coherent theoretical framework of physics that fully explains and links together all asp ...

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experim ...

. The theory claims to bridge some of the disagreements between

quantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics that provides a description of the physical properties of nature at the scale of atoms and subatomic particles. It is the foundation of all quantum physics including quantum chemistry, ...

and

general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...

. The theory has received little attention in the scientific literature and is regarded as being outside mainstream science but has attracted some interest in popular and fringe media. In his book ''"Deep Space Propulsion: A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight"'' aerospace engineer and physicist Kelvin Long, co-founder of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies, describes the theory as an idea "that could represent some element of a future breakthrough in propulsion physics" but states that he has "no opinion for or against" this theory.

Development

Heim attempted to resolve incompatibilities between

quantum theory Quantum theory may refer to: Science *Quantum mechanics, a major field of physics *Old quantum theory, predating modern quantum mechanics * Quantum field theory, an area of quantum mechanics that includes: ** Quantum electrodynamics ** Quantum ...

and

. To meet that goal, he developed a mathematical approach based on quantizing

spacetime In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why differen ...

. Others have attempted to apply Heim theory to nonconventional

space propulsion Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. In-space propulsion exclusively deals with propulsion systems used in the vacuum of space and should not be confused with space launch or atmospheric e ...

and

faster than light Faster-than-light (also FTL, superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero ...

concepts, as well as the origin of

dark matter Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter thought to account for approximately 85% of the matter in the universe. Dark matter is called "dark" because it does not appear to interact with the electromagnetic field, which means it does not ab ...

.List of Publications
HPCC-Space GmbH. 2006. Heim claimed that his theory yields particle masses directly from fundamental

physical constants A physical constant, sometimes fundamental physical constant or universal constant, is a physical quantity that is generally believed to be both universal in nature and have constant value in time. It is contrasted with a mathematical constant, ...

and that the resulting

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

es are in agreement with experiment, but this claim has not been confirmed. Heim's theory is formulated mathematically in six or more dimensions and uses Heim's own version of

difference equation In mathematics, a recurrence relation is an equation according to which the nth term of a sequence of numbers is equal to some combination of the previous terms. Often, only k previous terms of the sequence appear in the equation, for a parameter ...

References

External links

Chronological Overview of the Research of Burkhard Heim
(5 pages, English translation by John Reed, Feb 2011)

Next Big Future. 1 July 2011. This article posts John Reed's comments.

Heim Theory. The Physics Forum. 2013-03-26.
Heim Theory Translation
Borje Mansson and Anton Mueller. 2006. * Discussion abou
Burkhard Heim's Particle Structure Theory
Physforum. May 2011. {{DEFAULTSORT:Heim Theory Faster-than-light travel Fringe physics Quantum gravity