About the identification of the  Schrödinger galaxy

The latest mystery related created by the observations of James Webb (see this and this).

It has been found that the determination of the redshift 1+ z = a_now/a_emit gives two possible space-time positions for the Schrödinger galaxy CEERS-1749 a_now resp. a_emit corresponds to the scale factor for the recent cosmology resp. cosmology when the radiation was emitted. Note that for not too large distances the recession velocity β satisfies the Hubble law β= HD. The nickname “Schrödinger galaxy” comes from the impression that the same galaxy could have existed in two different times in the same direction.

Accordingly, CHEERs allows two alternative identifications: either as an exceptionally luminous galaxy with z≈ 17 or as a galaxy with exceptionally low luminosity with z≈ 5. Both these identifications challenge the standard view about galaxy formation based on Λ CDM cosmology.

1. The first interpretation is that CHEERS is very luminous, much more luminous than the standard cosmology would suggest, and has the redshift z≈ 17, which corresponds to light with the age of 13.6 billion years. The Universe was at the moment of emission t_emit=220 million years old.

In the TGD framework, the puzzlingly high luminosity might be understood in terms of a cosmic web of monopole flux tubes guiding the radiation along the flux tubes. This would also make it possible to understand other similar galaxies with a high value of z but would not explain their very long evolutionary ages and sizes. Here the zero energy ontology (ZEO) of TGD could come in rescue (see this, this and this).

Could TGD explain the exceptionally low luminosity of z≈ 5 galaxy? Zero energy ontology (ZEO) and the TGD view of dark matter and energy predict that also galaxies should make “big” state function reductions (BSFRs) in astrophysical scales. In BSFRs the arrow of time changes so that the galaxy would become invisible since the classical signals from it would propagate to the geometric past. This might explain the passive periods of galaxies quite generally and the existence of galaxies older than the Universe. Could the z≈ 5 galaxy be in this passive phase with a reversed arrow of time so that the radiation from it would be exceptionally weak. TGD seems to be consistent with both explanations. To make the situation even more confusing, one can ask whether two distinct galaxies at the same light of sight could be involved. This kind of assumption seems to be unnecessary but one can try to defend this question in the TGD framework.

1. In the TGD framework space-times are 4-surfaces in M⁴× CP₂. A good approximation is as an Einsteinian 4-surface, which by definition has a 4-D M⁴ projection. The scale factor a corresponds to the light-cone proper time assignable to the causal diamond CD with which the space-time surface is associated. a is a very convenient coordinate since it has a simple geometrical interpretation at the level of embedding space M⁴× CP₂. The cosmic time t assignable to the space-time surface is expressible as t(a).
2. Astrophysical objects, in particular galaxies, can form comoving tessellations (lattice-like structures) of the hyperbolic space H³, which corresponds to a=constant, and thus t(a) constant surfaces. The tessellation of H³ is expanding with cosmic time a and the values of the hyperbolic angle η and spatial direction angles for the points of the tessellation do not depend on the value of a. The direction angles and hyperbolic angle for the points of the tessellation are quantized in analogy with the angles characterizing the points of a Platonic solid and this gives rise to a quantized redshift.

A tessellation for stars making possible gravitational diffraction and therefore channelling and amplification of gravitational radiation in discrete directions, could explain the recently observed gravitational hum (see this).

These tessellations could also explain the mysterious God’s fingers, discovered by Halton Arp, as sequences of identical look stars or galaxies of hyperbolic tessellations along the line of sight (see this and this. Maybe something similar is involved now. This raises two questions.

1. Could two similar galaxies at the same line of sight be behind Schrödinger galaxy and correspond to the points of scaled versions of the tessellation of H³ having therefore different values of a and hyperbolic angle η? The spatial directions characterized by direction angle would be the same. Could one think that the tessellation consists of similar galaxies in the same way as lattices in condensed matter physics? The proposed explanation for the recently observed gravitational hum indeed assumes tessellation form by stars and most stars are very similar to our Sun (see this).

The obvious question is whether also the neighbours of the z≈ 5 galaxy belong to the scaled up tessellation. The scaling factor between these two tessellations would be a₅/a₁₇= 17/5. Could it be that the resolution does allow to distinguish the neighbors of the z≈ 17 galaxy from each other so that they would be seen as a single galaxy with an exceptionally high luminosity? Or could it be that the z≈ 5 galaxy is in a passive phase with a reversed arrow of time and does not create any detectable signal so that the signal is due to z≈ 17 galaxy.

This option is attractive but is actually easy to exclude. The light arriving from the galaxies propagates along light-like geodesics. Suppose that a light-like geodesic connects the observer to the z≈ 17 galaxy. The position of the z≈ 5 galaxy would be obtained by scaling the H³ of the older galaxy by the ratio a(young)/a(old). Geometrically it is rather obvious that the geodesic connecting it to the observer cannot be lightlike but becomes space-like. If one approximates space-time with M⁴ this is completely obvious.

For more detailed analysis, see the article TGD view of the paradoxical findings of the James Webb telescope or the chapter TGD View of the Engine Powering Jets from Active Galactic Nuclei.

For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD. For the lists of articles (most of them published in journals founded by Huping Hu) and books about TGD see this.