Torsion fields

The theoretical possibility of the existence of torsion fields served as the basis for various pseudoscientific speculations using the term “torsion” in a mass of sources ^[4] .

The so-called "theory of torsion fields" of the members of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences Shipov - Akimov , which was not recognized by the scientific community, gained great fame.

Key Points

The main provisions of the pseudoscientific theory are described in the book by G. I. Shipov, “The Theory of Physical Vacuum” ^[5] . According to G. I. Shipov, there are seven levels of reality:

1. Absolute nothing
2. Torsion fields - non - material information carriers that determine the behavior of elementary particles
3. Vacuum
4. Elementary particles
5. Gases
6. Liquids
7. Solids

In the interpretation of Shipov and Akimov, “torsion fields”, unlike physical fields , do not have energy , for “they do not have the concept of wave or field propagation”, but at the same time they “ transfer information ”, and this information is present “immediately in all points of space -time ” ^[6] .

In a number of publications, there were indications of the numerous properties of the effect of torsion fields on matter - from a sharp increase in the conductivity of metals ^[7] to a therapeutic effect in medicine and up to interaction with a certain wave genome ^[8] , moreover, as measurement methods in publications devoted to experimental confirmation the existence of torsion fields and the effects caused by them, such esoteric and occult methods and materials as biolocation and “ water structured by human thought” were used ^[9] . On this basis, commercial structures quickly appeared offering torsion services of various kinds ^[10] .

Research

From the mid -1980s, a program was launched in the USSR for the experimental study of “torsion fields” under the guidance of the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology ^[11] : first in closed mode (with the active participation of the KGB and the Ministry of Defense ), then - from 1989 to 1991 - in the open . The lead organization of open research was first the Center for Alternative Technologies (from 1989 to 1991), then the ISTC “Vent” (the head of these centers was A. E. Akimov ^[11] ). The concept of torsion fields was used by A. E. Akimov in the phenomenological concept of “EGS states”, G. I. Shipov in his “Theory of physical vacuum” and V. L. Dyatlov in the development of a “polarization model of physical vacuum” ^[12] . Under the direction of A.E. Akimov, in 1989 a group was founded that began research as the State Center for Alternative Technologies (CST) under the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology.

Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Evgeny Borisovich Alexandrov pointed out that for many years Akimov successfully “pushed” the “new physical field” among secret military factories, and even “broke through a government decree, which included dozens of industry institutes and several academic ones. Under these programs, he requested 500 million rubles from the state budget! This is almost 800 million dollars at the rate of that time ” ^[13] :

How did this man, no scientist who arbitrarily appropriated the title of Doctor of Sciences, make his way upstairs? Who did you promise to share with? One can only guess about this. Kickbacks - after all, they were not invented by officials ^[13] .

In July 1991, shortly after the formation of the ISTC "Vent" (June 1991) and the assignment of duties to it to conduct a torsion research program, at a meeting of the Committee on Science and Technology under the Supreme Council of the USSR, this research program was qualified as pseudoscientific and ended soon with the collapse of the USSR ^[11] .

CST, and then specially designed for the torsion topic of research, ISTC VENT collaborated with many scientific institutions, including academic ones. In 1991 , after a scandal initiated by allegations of falsification of results and embezzlement of public funds, an investigation was carried out by the Committee on Science and Technology, which, by a resolution of July 4, 1991, unambiguously described the research as pseudo-scientific and unscientific, the statements of Akimov and his associates as “contradictory concepts unambiguously established by modern science, and despite the quasi-scientific terminology used, are unproven, logically and scientifically unjustified, ”noted that at millions of rubles were spent supporting research on torsion fields (according to Akimov himself, 500 million), however, at the same time, “the scientific community has not been acquainted with these discoveries through any channels of open publications or closed channels (there is only one private publication, currently disproved) ”, and in this regard made a recommendation to stop funding research ^[14] .

According to the statements of Shipov, Akimov and their supporters, “acting” so-called torsion or vortex generators , which, allegedly, gave a real increase in energy “out of nowhere” (for example, when burning coal , with turbulent mixing of water and the like).

According to Academician E.P. Kruglyakov in a report to the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the group was disbanded and Akimov was fired, after which Akimov “ organized a small enterprise with the sonorous name of the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics at the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences ” ^[15] . According to A.E. Akimov’s version, however, no one dismantled the Central Scientific Center or the ISTC Vent in connection with this scandal, and the International Institute of Theoretical and Applied Physics , later transformed into a private company YuVITOR, is a direct continuation of this group ^{[ 16] [17]} . Within the framework of these organizations, A. E. Akimov and G. I. Shipov continued independent work on the development of their concepts of torsion fields.

Criticism

The theory of “torsion fields” by Akimov and Shipov is rejected by the scientific community and is characterized as a pseudoscientific concept based on a free and erroneous interpretation of the Einstein – Cartan theory and some unorthodox solutions of the Maxwell equations ^[15] .

The concept of "torsion fields" has been repeatedly condemned by the Commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences to combat pseudoscience . Critics claim that none of the claimed effects of torsion fields on the substance received experimental confirmation, and some of them were experimentally refuted. According to the statements of academicians of the RAS E. B. Alexandrov and E. P. Kruglyakov , studies conducted at the Institute of General Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and others showed the absence of any effects of the studied torsion generators on matter and light. According to the statement of M. S. Brodin , director of the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine , while studying the torsion field generator provided to the institute, the committee that investigated it made an unambiguous conclusion that no new fields were needed to explain the observed effects ^[18] . When studying a metal sample with supposedly increased conductivity under the influence of torsion fields, both the complete absence of the claimed effect and gross methodological errors in previous measurements were found, casting doubt on the scientific and engineering qualifications of the representatives of the ISTC "VENT" ^[7] .

• Biofield
• Pseudoscience
• Anti-Pseudoscience Commission
• DEIR

Theory of torsion fields and their experimental search

• Obukhov Yu. I., Pronin P. I. Physical effects in the theory of gravity with torsion // Itogi Nauki i Tekhniki. Ser. Classical field theory and gravity theory. T. 2. - M .: VINITI , 1991. - S. 112-170.
• Annales de la Fondation Louis de Broglie. Special issue on torsion. Vol. 32 num. 2-3, 2007

Publications of representatives of the pseudo-scientific field

• Torsion fields and spin-torsion interactions (neopr.) . Archived on May 19, 2012. (Bibliography of works on the website of the Department of the State Public Technical Library of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences)
• Akimov A.E., Tarasenko V. Ya. Models of polarized states of physical vacuum and torsion fields. Izv. universities. Physics. - 1992 . - T.35, N 3. - S.13-23. - Bibliography: 48 titles.
• Akimov A.E., Tarasenko V. Ya., Shipov G.I. Torsion fields as a cosmophysical factor // Biophysics. - 1995. - T. 40 , no. 4 (July — August) . - S. 938 .
• Akimov A.E., Kuzmin R.N. Analysis of the problem of torsion energy sources // Applied Physics. - 1996 . - N 1. - S.96-101. - Bibliography: 33 titles.
  (An article with such bibliographic data is not available on the journal’s website [1] )
• Shipov G.I. Theory of physical vacuum . - M .: Nauka , 1997 .-- 450 p.
• Shipov G. I. The theory of physical vacuum in a popular exposition. Development of the Unified Field Theory program put forward by A. Einstein, Cyrillic-1, 2002 , 128 pp.
• Publication of studies on the official website of JUVITOR (last updated May 7, 2012)
• Video recording of the workshop by Shipov G.I. and Akimov A.E. “Consciousness and the Physical World: The Hypothesis of Torsion Fields” (Penza 09/08/1995) .
• Materials of the conference “Torsion Fields and Information Interactions - 2009”. Sochi, 2009 (electronic version)

Criticism of pseudoscientific theories of torsion fields

• Aleksandrov E. B. Torsion communication - bluff // Telecommunication: journal. - 2002. - No. 3 .
• Aleksandrov E. B. The book is absurd, deceitful and slanderous // In defense of science . - M .: Nauka , 2015 .-- No. 15 . - S. 79-85 .
• Bialko A.V. Torsion myths (Russian) // Nature : Journal. - Science , 1998. - No. 9 .
• Vinogradova E.P. , Volovikova M.L. , Kanishchev K.A. , Kupriyanov A.S. , Kovaltsov G.A. , Tikhonova S.V. , Chubur A.A. A quick reference to the concepts of pseudoscience // Pseudoscience in modern world: media sphere, higher education, school: Collection of materials of the International Scientific and Practical Conference dedicated to the memory of Academician E.P. Kruglyakov, held at St. Petersburg State University June 21-22, 2013 / [editor: S. V. Tikhonova ( ed.) and others]. - SPb. : VVM Publishing House, 2013 .-- 291 p. - 100 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9651-0742-1 . Archived August 26, 2014 on Wayback Machine
• Kruglyakov E.P. So where are we going? or Forward to the Middle Ages! (Russian) // Nature . - Science , 2006. - No. 3 .
• Kruglyakov E.P. On the secret springs of the torsion war // Science in Siberia . - 2000. - No. 7 . Archived on May 19, 2012.
• Rubakov V. A. About the book of G. I. Shipov “The theory of physical vacuum. Theory, experiments and technologies ” (Russian) // Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk : Journal. - Russian Academy of Sciences , 2000. - T. 170 , No. 3 (March) .