The Undecidable Charge Gap and the Oil Drop Experiment

Abstract

Decision problems in physics have been an active field of research for quite a few decades resulting in some interesting findings in recent years. However, such research investigations are based on a priori knowledge of theoretical computer science and the technical jargon of set theory. Here, I discuss a particular, but a significant, instance of how decision problems in physics can be realized without such specific prerequisites. I expose a hitherto unnoticed contradiction, that can be posed as a decision problem, concerning the oil drop experiment and thereby resolve it by refining the notion of ``existence'' in physics. This consequently leads to the undecidability of the charge spectral gap through the notion of ``undecidable charges" which is in tandem with the completeness condition of a theory as was stated by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen in their seminal work. Decision problems can now be realized in connection to basic physics, in general, rather than quantum physics, in particular, as per some recent claims.