Eric S Reiter

Eric S Reiter
Born	(1950-03-08) March 8, 1950
Residence	Pacifica, CA, United States
Nationality	USA
Known for	Wave-particle duality, Quantum physics, "unquantum effect", Threshold Model
Scientific career
Fields	Independent researcher, experimental physics

Eric Stanley Reiter (born March 8, 1950) is an American independent experimental physicist and consultant based in Pacifica, California. He is best known for a series of beam-split coincidence experiments and for what he calls the "unquantum effect", which he presents as an experimental challenge to the concept of the photon and to the quantization assumed by quantum mechanics. His interpretation of these results, the Threshold Model (a revised form of the older loading theory), lies outside the mainstream of contemporary physics.

Biography

Reiter studied physics at Sonoma State University from 1977 to 1980 and later studied biology at San Francisco State University. Before turning to physics research, his technical sculptures, including the Sun Harp and Solar Living Pod, were exhibited at the Exploratorium in San Francisco between 1969 and 1974.

From 1980 to 1995 he operated a business called Computer Continuum, which produced laboratory and automation circuits and software for personal computers. His products from this period included early PC-based digital oscilloscopes with spectral analysis and automation kits for controlling machine tools. He subsequently worked as an independent researcher and consultant.

According to his own account, the ideas that led to his later work arose around the year 2000, when he came to believe that foundational experiments in modern physics, such as the photoelectric and Compton effects, do not measure Planck's constant in isolation but instead measure ratios of physical constants.

Scientific contributions

Reiter's work centers on beam-split coincidence tests. In such an experiment, radiation is divided by a beam splitter and sent to two detectors, and the measured rate of simultaneous ("coincident") detections is compared with the rate expected from chance alone. Under the standard quantum-mechanical view, a single indivisible photon should trigger only one detector, so the coincidence rate should not exceed the chance rate.

Beginning with gamma-ray experiments around 2002, and later with alpha-particle experiments around 2005, Reiter reported coincidence rates that he says substantially exceed the chance rate. He calls this result the "unquantum effect" and interprets it as evidence that radiant energy is not delivered in indivisible quanta but instead accumulates in detector atoms until a detection threshold is reached. His method typically uses gamma rays from radioisotopes such as cadmium-109 (about 88 keV) or cobalt-57 (about 122 keV), detected with sodium iodide or high-purity germanium detectors.

To account for these observations, Reiter revived and modified the historical loading theory (also called the accumulation hypothesis), which was largely abandoned in the early twentieth century after the acceptance of the photon. In his framework, a fraction of the energy required for a detection is "pre-loaded" in the detector before an incoming classical wave pulse arrives. He calls his revised version the Threshold Model and argues that the apparent quantization observed in experiments is a threshold effect rather than a fundamental property of nature, treating constants such as h, e, and m as maximum thresholds for wave accumulation rather than as evidence of discrete particles. He refers to the associated experimental techniques as photon and particle violation spectroscopy.

Reiter's conclusions are not accepted by the mainstream physics community, which regards the photon and energy quantization as well established. His work has been published in venues including Progress in Physics and Physics Essays, and presented at SPIE conferences.

Experimental Work

Reiter's work reflects his progress in understanding of light in quantum mechanical experiments.

Loading Theory (LT)

In 2002 his gamma-ray beam-split coincidence experiments defied the photon model and the Born rule, which he interprets as resolving the wave-particle paradox. In 2005 his similar experiments splitting alpha-rays suggested to him that an atom can be split like a wave. On this basis he argues that matter has two states: the contained wave of the atom can unravel and act like a wave. He characterizes these as experiments that challenge quantum mechanics, and explains them by the long-abandoned Loading Theory (LT). His writings argue that past experiments were misinterpreted and present an enhanced Loading Theory.

Threshold Model

Reiter later developed a revised model which he calls the Threshold Model.

CNPS talks

He has presented in the CNPS online seminar and livestream series:

• "Quantum Mechanics: Evolving Perspectives on the History of Science" (29 January 2022)
• "How Quantum Mechanics Fails — Threshold Model" (8 May 2021)

External links

• Homepage

Abstracts

• 2017 - "Experiment and Theory Removing all that Quantum Photon Wave-particle-Duality Entanglement Nonsense" (Read in full)
• 2012 - "A Challenge To Quantized Absorption by Experiment and Theory" (Read in full)