Stephon Alexander, Professor of Physics, Department of Physics
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

Articles: Trinidad-born physicist Stephon Alexander heads City College-backed program prepping young people for high-tech industry jobs, Jared McCallister, New York Daily News (June 2020)
ArXiv (83): The Autodidactic Universe (April 2021)
Book: The Jazz Physics: The Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe, 2016
CV
Homepage: Brown University, Chapman, National Math Festival, Simons Foundation,
inSPIRE^HEP
Twitter
Wikipedia
YouTube: The Jazz of Physics

References to Stephon Alexander within this site:
•  Homepage: June 10, 2022: https://81018.com/idea/#Alexander
•  Homepage: June 20, 2021: https://81018.com/empower/#Stephon
•  Homepage: April 12, 2020: https://81018.com/questions-1/
•  Homepage: July 2020: https://81018.com/conference/
•  Homepage: May 2019: https://81018.com/structure/
•  Homepage: February 2019: https://81018.com/key-question/
•  Reference to your ArXiv article with colleague, Laura Mersini-Houghton (Letter, January 2019)

Most recent email: April 14, 2021 at 8:22 AM

Dear Prof. Dr. Stephon Alexander:

What a sensational group to pull together resources and create a theoretical learning machine. That report reminds me of Bonnie Bassler’s work (Princeton) within cellular communication called quorum sensing. Notwithstanding, the question remains open, “Is there a beginning? How do we explain such concepts and questions to our high school students? How do we respond to James Peebles (Nobel 2019, Princeton)? How do we define our most basic unit of space-time? I thought Planck had answered that question but then John Ralston has asked serious questions about Planck’s formulation of what is now known as the Planck constant.

To learn how to introduce students to your autodidactic universe and put it into perspective with the earliest possible start of the universe, would you answer our hypothetical questions with either a Yes, No, or Maybe? Thanks.

Warmly,

Bruce

Fourth email: July 27, 2020 at 11:22 PM

Dear Prof. Dr. Stephon Alexander:

In the June 2019 KC Cole (Quanta Magazine) writes, “We tend to think of things, not relationships, as the heart of reality. But most often, the opposite is true. ‘It’s not the stuff,’ said the Brown University physicist Stephon Alexander…. it’s the relationship between space and time that always stays the same, even as space contracts and time dilates. Like energy and matter, space and time are mutable manifestations of deeper, unshakable foundations: the things that never vary no matter what.”

The relation is the primary real. And between the Planck scale and wave-particle duality there are no less than 64 notations, all mathematical relations that give rise to the physics of measurable things, that first being quantum fluctuations.

That little chart of 202 notations needs exegesis. May I involve the young minds of your group to analyze it? …to be critical?  …to tell us why Aristotle’s mistake is of no consequence? …to tell us why the big bang cosmology is right?  …and to tell us how space and time are absolute? You’ve got wonderful people working with you!

You are on the top level page of our website today: https://81018.com/conference

And, your page is being updated: https://81018.com/2019/01/28/alexander/

Thank you.

Most sincerely,

Bruce

Third email: Jan 27, 2019

Dear Prof. Dr. Stephon Alexander:

You may remember two years ago, when I wrote that you were the first person in physics who at least acknowledged that logically this universe starts either super hot at the Planck Temperature or superconducting cold at close to zero temperature. Of those choices, I had chosen to explore the cold start.

We haven’t progressed terribly far from that point, yet you might enjoy reading the latest work. And, of course, your comments will always be welcomed. Please be just as pointed as you can be!

Now, I haven’t forgotten that I owe you a session at Snug Harbor, New Orleans with your fellow jazz artist, Donald Harrison with an audience of fellow physicists from around the city, all accompanied by one of their jazz aficionados. It’ll be quite a night. We’ll make it happen.

Warm regards,

Bruce

Second email: Oct 30, 2017, 8:21 PM

ArXiv: On a Relation of Vacuum Energy to the Hierarchy of Forces (PDF), (Sept. 2017)

Thank you, Stephon and Laura!

I’ve gone through your September 1, 2017 article and have highlighted several spots, particularly “We are exploring the possibility of an underlying microphysical mechanism that limit contributions to vacuum energy from phase transitions in the early universe, and furthermore which relates the energy of the vacuum to the coupling constants of nature and their hierarchy, in other words to the the Standard Model, in a fundamental way…”

In the microphysical scale, if you begin at the Planck units and use base-2, you’ll have those 64-to-67 doublings to the CERN scale which define the very-very early universe. Between the 143rd and 144th doubling the universe is just a second old and the length is the distance light travels in a second. https://81018.com/chart/ At the 197th we are within our first 500 million years and at the 202 we are now emergent within the Age of the Universe today.

That simple math and simple logic, of course, is too simple for most. You may be surprised, once you are inside those domains, how complex and open it all is.

Thanks again for your article.
Wonderful collaboration!

Most sincerely,
Bruce

First email: Wed, Jan 11, 2017 at 11:00 AM

Dear Prof. Dr. Stephon Alexander:

Let’s improvise! It looks like I’ll be quoting you more than not!

I have now listened to you play and tell your story about your dear Mr. Kaplan. I have surveyed your website. Hardly irrational thinking; it is meta-rational. Can you hear the harmony of the spheres? Love your rhythm and harmony comments.

Now, I was on your website (wonderful site, thank you) and on it I sent this note through your CONTACT page:

“Wow, how very impressive. When you come to New Orleans, please let me know. My wife and I would love to hear you play live!  Can we get you booked into Snug Harbor, one of our many jazz clubs?”

Now, for those special words of yours that I would like to quote:
“Alexander described two potential ways the universe began. Either it was at the Planck temperature and then inflated and cooled to create what we see today. Or it started off at zero temperature and speeded up as it expanded. So one of two situations could have happened,” he said, “and it would be interesting if, indeed, both situations are really the same underlying phenomenon.”

You are the first person I have found who said the “either-or” on temperature. Do you have colleagues who are so open? Also, I would like to credit the source for that quote if it was from one of your publications. I am looking for it now.  Thanks

I am now surveying your ArXiv submissions. Have you ever thought that the old CMB can be achieved within your OR suggestion? Here’s one way to do it: https://81018.com/chart

Thanks again for all that you do (and I thank Mr. Kaplan, too!).

-Bruce
***********************

---