In fact, the first law of conservation (that of mass) was found in chemistry and generalized to the conservation of energy in physics by means of Einstein’s famous “E=mc2”. Energy conservation is implied by the principle of least action from a variational viewpoint as in Emmy Noether’s theorems (1918): any chemical change in a conservative (i.e. “closed”) system can be accomplished only in the way conserving its total energy. Bohr’s innovation to found Mendeleev’s periodic table by quantum mechanics implies a certain generalization referring to the quantum leaps as if accomplished in all possible trajectories (according to Feynman’s interpretation) and therefore generalizing the principle of least action and needing a certain generalization of energy conservation as to any quantum change. The transition from the first to the second theorem of Emmy Noether represents well the necessary generalization: its chemical meaning is the generalization of any chemical reaction to be accomplished as if any possible course of time rather than in the standard evenly running time (and equivalent to energy conservation according to the first theorem).
The problem: If any quantum change is accomplished in all possible “variations (i.e. “violations) of energy conservation” (by different probabilities), what (if any) is conserved?
An answer: quantum information is what is conserved. Indeed, it can be particularly defined as the counterpart (e.g. in the sense of Emmy Noether’s theorems) to the physical quantity of action (e.g. as energy is the counterpart of time in them). It is valid in any course of time rather than in the evenly running one. That generalization implies a generalization of the periodic table including any continuous and smooth transformation between two chemical elements.
The problem: If any quantum change is accomplished in all possible “variations (i.e. “violations) of energy conservation” (by different probabilities), what (if any) is conserved?
An answer: quantum information is what is conserved. Indeed, it can be particularly defined as the counterpart (e.g. in the sense of Emmy Noether’s theorems) to the physical quantity of action (e.g. as energy is the counterpart of time in them). It is valid in any course of time rather than in the evenly running one. That generalization implies a generalization of the periodic table including any continuous and smooth transformation between two chemical elements.
Key words: conservation, Emmy Noether’s theorems of conservation, quantum information, periodic table, quantum chemistry
The presnetation also as a PDF, a video, or as slides @ EasyChair
The publshed paper [Chemistry: Bulgarian Journal of Science Education (2019) 28 (4): 525-539] )also @ repositories: @ EasyChair, @ SocArxiv, or @ SSRN
Appendix: Quantum information chemistry: the shift of viewpoint (From quantum chemistry to quantum information chemistry)
Quantum information chemistry investigates how entanglement influences chemical substances, properties, and reactions. Many or all of them can be reduced to quantum physical interactions, first of all, the electromagnetic one among them. As far as entanglement is a quantum phenomenon very well confirmed experimentally, especially as to electromagnetic interaction, it is relevant to chemistry: quantum information chemistry appears.
The relation of entanglement and the Standard model (quantum electrodynamics, first of all) underlies fundamentally the relation of quantum information chemistry and quantum chemistry. As far as the former two are complementary (in Bohr’s extended sense) to each other rather than competitive, the latter two as well.
Entanglement is Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” implied mathematically by the formalism of quantum mechanics. Thus, the “Holy Grail” of quantum information chemistry is the “chemical action at a distance” implied by entanglement. Though electromagnetic interaction (unlike the other two in the Standard model) is not space limited, it refers to to atoms in chemistry, and their stability needs strong interaction (mostly). Thus, all phenomena in chemistry (until now) are “here and now”, though those “here and now” might be very remote as in astrochemistry.
On the contrary, quantum information chemistry investigates remote chemical phenomena happening at a distance arbitrary in general.
Another exciting horizon promised by quantum information chemistry is the direct chemical transformation cherished by “alchemy”: entanglement might transform any given chemical substance into another in principle.
Quantum information mechanics allows for a new fundamental generalization and technics option: information (together with energy and matter) to be considered as a physical substance, even the most fundamental one among them as well as mutually transformable with them. This reflects on quantum information chemistry as determining relevant chemical substances, to which similar transformations would be verifiable experimentally and technically usable ever.
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