Burkhard Heim's Unified Field Theory
Burkhard Heim was a German theoretical physicist who devoted a large portion of his life to the pursuit of a unified field theory, an attempt to describe the four fundamental forces and elementary particles as a single field. An explosion in a World War II chemical laboratory left him without hands and mostly deaf and blind when he was just 19, forcing him to undergo a series of at least 50 operations after the accident.
Heim died in 2001, having spent most of his life attempting to couple quantum theory with Einstein’s general relativity. Part of his motivation is said to have been the possible application of space propulsion through a repulsive anti-gravity. By the mid-1950s, Heim had produced the basic principles underlying his theory, and publicly boasted that a so-called 'field-drive' would ultimately prove more effective than the chemical engines still in-use today.
Physicists use the mathematical device called field theory to see how higher dimensions unify the laws of nature. The first successful unified field theory was developed by James Clerk Maxwell in the mid-19th century and by 1905, Albert Einstein had used the constancy of the speed of light in Maxwell's theory to unify space and time into space-time. Later in 1915 he expanded this theory of special relativity to a description of gravity, General Relativity, using a field to describe the curving geometry of four-dimensional space-time. General relativity however, breaks down when it is confronted by the behavior of quantum particles. Quantum theory seems incompatible with the description of space and time that underlies Einstein’s general relativity theory. Thus, one cannot simply bring the two together to construct a single theory.
In an effort to exhibit that all fundamental forces, including electromagnetism, could emerge from a new, different set of dimensions. Heim used a two-dimensional sub-space that combined with the space-time of Einstein. Given the resulting six-dimensions, the forces of gravity and electromagnetism may be coupled together in a unique way.
Sadly, Heim’s work was only ever published in german, and failed to breach mainstream science prior to his death in 2001. However, in a 2006 interview with New Scientist, researchers taking a serious look at Heim’s framework posited that; due to a repulsive gravity characteristic that differs from general relativity, “it would be possible to reach Mars in less than 3 hours and a star 11 light years away in only 80 days” . A feat that would be truly remarkable from the perspective of today’s interplanetary devices, with the duration of a voyage to Mars utilizing our most sophisticated rockets being roughly 6 months.
The same researchers from the New Scientist article had at the time proposed an experiment to test the propulsion hypothesis, citing a huge rotating ring placed above a superconducting coil to create an intense magnetic field. It was suggested that with a large enough current in the coil, and a large enough magnetic field, the electromagnetic force could reduce the gravitational pull on the ring to the point where it floats free. However, these experiments don’t appear to have ever taken place, which is likely due to a set of unresolved engineering problems, not to mention the theory’s weak credibility in the theoretical physics community.
There is little information available online outside of Wikipedia which is comprehensible to the layperson. And it seems the few physicists who are aware of the nearly 70 year old theory still consider it fringe. Though factors such as Heim’s arcane mathematical notation have undoubtedly contributed to its hapless reputation.
In 2006, a theoretical physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, Germany regarded Heim Theory as “largely incomprehensible", and difficult to tie in with modern physics. There are also discrepancies with empirical data, including the prediction of two hypothetical neutrinos, which have been shown not to exist by experiments at the Large Electron–Positron Collider.
Criticisms aside, those who have taken a serious look at Heim Theory did so due to its unprecedented success predicting the masses of certain elementary particles. However, its prediction accuracy has not gone without scrutiny. Physicist John Reed attempted to proclaim Heim Theory invalidated in 2006, and that the particle mass values were inserted obscurely into the theory during the 1970s through a mathematical construct known as the A matrix. Reed asserted that due to the values being pre-inserted, the supposed predictions of particle mass, were not predictions at all. Reed later retracted his statements when a 1989 update without the A matrix was analyzed and shown to remain accurate without the pre-inserted values. Reed noted that the particle mass predictions were not only tolerable but that when applied to 17 test particles were found with few exceptions to be highly accurate.
But that still doesn’t resolve the two non-existent neutrinos. Leaving Heim Theory in a state of conjecture, and considering the amount of time it takes even the most competent researchers to grapple with the depth of details, we’re unlikely to see any breakthroughs in the near future. “Even very good theorists would need to occupy themselves with this theory for at least one year in order to be able to evaluate it.” said a spokeswoman out of the Deutsche Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY – German Electron-Synchrotron).
Over the last decade, assorted revisions have been made to the original theory and new criticisms have emerged that would serve to debunk the anti-gravity propulsion hypothesis. In 2011 Dr. John Reed made the following statement as part of an extended post on PhyForum:
“He (Heim) left out the contribution of the gravitational field mass outside of the observation point. Bjorn (Mansson) shows that including this contribution gives a result that is identical to what is obtained from general relativity. Therefore Heim’s results should only give back the GR solution which does not have a repulsive gravitational character.”
The technical details are beyond the scope of this article. However, for interested readers, a 1992 paper published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration has been cited below, and seems to be the most comprehensive summary of Heim’s original theory available online:
Heim's Theory of Elementary Particle Structures
T. Auerbach, I. Von Ludwiger
Journal of Scientific Exploration. Vol. 6 , No. 3, pp. 217-231, 1992
It’s important to note that over the last half-century the majority of theorists have sought quantum gravity by way of M-theory (string theory) and/or loop-quantum gravity, neither of which are fundamentally field theories. While both M-theory and loop-quantum gravity have been ‘successful’, significantly less progress has been made in the understanding of Heim’s work. And there are no known methods of experimental verification for any quantum theory of gravity, regardless of popularity. Ultimately, the implications of Burkhard Heim’s work may have exerted more influence on science-fiction than actual science, and the likelihood of a breakthrough yielding three-hour ventures to the red planet occurring in this century is still very low.
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