Electromagnetic Phase Manipulation
The concept of “phasing” or intangibility—the ability to pass through solid objects—is a captivating and persistent trope in science fiction. From the mutant Kitty Pryde of Marvel Comics, who can walk through walls, to the phase-cloaking devices and plot points in franchises like Star Trek, the idea of rendering matter permeable has fired the popular imagination. These fictional portrayals often raise intriguing questions and expose logical inconsistencies, such as why a character who can phase through a wall does not subsequently fall through the floor to the centre of the Earth. This very query, born from speculative fiction, invites a rigorous scientific investigation: Is it possible to create electromagnetic phase shifts to move through objects?
To address this question, it is necessary to translate the fictional concept into a formal scientific problem. The core challenge is whether any known or theoretical property of electromagnetic (EM) waves, such as their phase, can be manipulated to overcome the fundamental physical laws that make matter solid and impenetrable. The solidity of matter is not a simple property, but an emergent phenomenon governed by two of the most robust pillars of modern physics. The first is the electromagnetic force, which dictates the interactions between atoms and molecules. The second, and more profound, is the Pauli exclusion principle, a quantum mechanical rule that forbids the constituent particles of matter from occupying the same state, effectively giving matter its volume and structure.
We should look at the scientific feasibility of macroscopic interpenetration. The investigation begins by establishing the foundational principles of both the proposed tool—electromagnetic radiation—and the target—solid matter. It will explore the nature of EM waves as described by Maxwell's equations, the quantum mechanical interactions of light and matter across the electromagnetic spectrum, and the critical concepts of wave phase and coherence. Subsequently, the report will deconstruct the physical basis of solidity, examining the roles of the Pauli exclusion principle, intermolecular forces, and the challenges of quantum decoherence at the macroscopic scale.
With this foundation, the analysis will critically evaluate several hypothetical mechanisms for achieving intangibility, including the direct manipulation of matter-wave phase, the inducement of macroscopic quantum tunnelling, and the application of advanced metamaterials. By contrasting these hypotheses with real-world technologies such as non-invasive medical imaging and through-wall radar, this report will delineate the boundary between scientific possibility and fiction. The conclusion will synthesize these findings to provide a definitive physical verdict on the prospect of using electromagnetic phase shifts to walk through walls.
Foundational Principles of the Duality of Light and Matter
Before assessing the plausibility of manipulating matter to pass through other matter, it is essential to understand the fundamental nature of both the proposed tool (electromagnetic radiation) and the objects of manipulation (matter). The physics of the 20th century revealed a universe far more nuanced than the classical view, one where light and matter share a profound, dual nature.
Maxwell's Equations and the Genesis of EM Radiation
For centuries, electricity and magnetism were considered separate phenomena. This changed in the 19th century, culminating in the work of James Clerk Maxwell, who unified them into a single, coherent theory of electromagnetism. His work is encapsulated in a set of four coupled partial differential equations, now known as Maxwell's equations. In their integral form, these equations are:
Gauss's Law of Electricity: This law describes how electric charges create electric fields.
$$ \oint\vec{E}\cdot d\vec{A} = \frac{q}{\varepsilon_0} $$
Gauss's Law of Magnetism: This law states that there are no magnetic monopoles; magnetic field lines always form closed loops.
$$ \oint\vec{B}\cdot d\vec{A} = 0 $$
Faraday's Law of Induction: This law shows that a changing magnetic field induces an electric field.
$$ \mathcal{E} = -N \frac{d\Phi_B}{dt} $$
Ampère-Maxwell Law: This law shows that a magnetic field is produced by both an electric current and a changing electric field.
$$ \oint\vec{B}\cdot d\vec{\ell} = \mu_0(I + \varepsilon_0\frac{d\Phi_E}{dt})$$
Maxwell's most revolutionary contribution was the addition of the second term in the fourth equation, known as the “displacement current.”
$$ \varepsilon_0\frac{d\Phi_E}{dt} $$
Before this, fields were considered tethered to their sources (charges and currents). Maxwell's new term “freed” the fields, revealing that they could become self-sustaining. Faraday's Law showed that a changing magnetic field creates an electric field, and the Ampère-Maxwell Law showed that a changing electric field creates a magnetic field. This creates a self-perpetuating “leap-frog” effect: a disturbance in one field generates the other, which in turn generates the first, allowing the disturbance to propagate through space indefinitely.
This propagating disturbance is an electromagnetic wave. Maxwell was able to calculate the speed of these waves in a vacuum using the constants of permittivity of free space.
$$ c = 1/\sqrt{\varepsilon_0\mu_0} $$
The result, yielded a value of approximately 3 × 10^8 m/s, which precisely matched the experimentally measured speed of light. This was a monumental discovery, proving that light itself is an electromagnetic wave and unifying the fields of electricity, magnetism, and optics. This causal link, where one changing field is the source for the other, is the reason EM waves are unique in their ability to travel through the vacuum of space, carrying energy and information from distant stars.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum and Its Interaction with Matter
Maxwell's equations predicted an infinite number of frequencies for these waves, giving rise to the concept of the electromagnetic spectrum. This spectrum is a continuous range of radiation classified by frequency from very low-frequency radio waves to extremely high-frequency gamma rays. While all are fundamentally the same phenomenon—propagating electric and magnetic fields—their interaction with matter is dramatically different and depends on their photon energy, given by the Planck-Einstein relation where h is Planck's constant.
$$ E = h\nu $$
Low-Energy Radiation (Radio waves, Microwaves): These waves have very long wavelengths and low photon energies. They primarily interact with matter by causing entire molecules to rotate or vibrate, transferring energy that manifests as heat. Most materials, including the human body, are largely transparent to these frequencies, which is why they are effective for communications (radio, Wi-Fi) and for technologies like through-wall radar that can penetrate non-metallic barriers.
Mid-Energy Radiation (Infrared, Visible Light, Ultraviolet): As energy increases, the interactions become more specific. Infrared (IR) radiation has energies matching the vibrational states of chemical bonds, so its absorption also leads to heating. Visible light photons have enough energy to excite electrons from their ground state to higher energy orbitals within an atom or molecule. The specific colours we perceive are determined by the wavelengths of light that an object reflects or transmits; the absorbed wavelengths are converted to other forms of energy and are not seen.Ultraviolet (UV) light is more energetic still. Lower-energy UV can cause strong electronic transitions, while higher-energy UV photons possess enough energy to strip electrons from atoms entirely, a process called ionization.
High-Energy Radiation (X-rays, Gamma rays): These forms of radiation are highly ionizing. Their photons carry so much energy that they can easily overcome the binding energy of electrons in atoms, ejecting them via mechanisms like the photoelectric effect or Compton scattering. Because of their high-energy and short wavelength, they can pass through soft tissues, which have low atomic numbers (low Z), but are more readily absorbed by denser materials like bone (higher Z). This differential absorption is the basis for medical X-ray imaging.
This leads to a critical realization: the transparency or opacity of a material is not an intrinsic, absolute property. Instead, it is a relationship between the material's unique set of quantized energy levels and the energy of the incident photons. A material is transparent to a certain frequency of light if the photon energy does not match the energy required for any allowed quantum transition (rotational, vibrational, or electronic) within that material. For example, glass is transparent to visible light because its electrons require more energy to be excited than a visible photon can provide. However, glass is opaque to much of the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum, where photon energies do match available transitions. For any “phasing” technology to work, it would have to render an object transparent not just to one type of radiation, but to the entire spectrum of virtual photon exchanges that mediate the fundamental forces responsible for solidity—an infinitely more complex challenge.
Phase, Coherence, and Interference and the Essence of a Wave
The user's query specifically mentions “phase shifts.” In physics, the phase Phi of a wave is an angle-like quantity that describes the position of a point in time on a waveform cycle. It tells us whether the wave is at a crest, a trough, or somewhere in between at a specific point in space and time. When comparing two waves, the difference in their phase is called the phase difference or phase shift.
If this phase difference remains constant over time, the waves are said to be coherent. Natural light sources like a lightbulb are incoherent, emitting wave trains with random phase relationships. A laser, by contrast, produces highly coherent light. Coherence is crucial because it enables stable interference, a hallmark phenomenon of waves. According to the principle of superposition, when two coherent waves overlap, their amplitudes add together.
Constructive Interference: If the waves are “in phase” (e.g., phase difference of 0°), their crests and troughs align, and the resulting amplitude is larger.
Destructive Interference: If the waves are “out of phase” (e.g., phase difference of 180°), the crest of one wave aligns with the trough of the other, and they cancel each other out, resulting in a smaller or zero amplitude.
In a simple electromagnetic wave propagating through a vacuum, the oscillating electric fields are perpendicular to each other and to the direction of propagation, and they are perfectly in phase—they reach their maxima and minima at the same points in space and time. This phase relationship can be shifted when the wave passes through certain types of media, particularly those that are dispersive or absorbing.
However, it is vital to recognize that phase is an informational property of a wave; it is not a substance itself. Manipulating the phase of an EM wave alters how it interacts and interferes with other EM waves. For instance, destructive interference does not destroy the energy of the two waves; it merely redistributes it, creating dark fringes in one location and bright fringes elsewhere where the interference is constructive. This reveals a fundamental misunderstanding in the premise of “phasing” an object. The concept of creating an “opposite phase” to achieve cancellation applies only to the superposition of waves. Matter, as will be explored, is composed of fermions, which obey entirely different rules and cannot be made to “destructively interfere” with each other to vanish or become intangible.
The Particle Nature of Light and Matter
The classical wave picture of light, while powerful, was incomplete. Experiments in the early 20th century, such as the photoelectric effect and Compton scattering, revealed that light also behaves as if it is composed of discrete packets of energy called photons. This led to the revolutionary concept of wave-particle duality: fundamental entities exhibit both wave-like properties (like interference and diffraction) and particle-like properties (like discrete energy and momentum), depending on the experimental context.
In 1923, Louis de Broglie proposed that this duality was universal, applying not just to light but to all matter. He postulated that any particle with momentum given by the de Broglie relation: $ \lambda = h/p $. This was experimentally confirmed when beams of electrons were shown to diffract off crystals, just like X-rays. For microscopic particles like electrons, this wavelength is significant. For macroscopic objects like a baseball, the momentum is so large that the de Broglie wavelength is astronomically small, rendering its wave-like properties completely unobservable in practice.
This brings us to a profound and critical distinction. The “wave” associated with a particle of matter, described by its wave function Psi, is not a physical wave in the same sense as an electromagnetic wave. It is a complex-valued wave of probability amplitude. The square of the absolute value of the wave function, Psi^2, gives the probability of finding the particle at a particular point in space. The iconic double-slit experiment, where even single electrons sent one at a time build up an interference pattern, demonstrates this beautifully: the electron travels as a probability wave that passes through both slits simultaneously, interfering with itself, but is detected as a single, localized particle.
Therefore, one cannot simply “phase shift” a matter-wave with an external electromagnetic field to make it intangible. The wave function is a mathematical description of probabilities, not a physical field to be pushed or cancelled. To manipulate an object's wave function in a way that would allow it to pass through a barrier is to alter the probability of its location. This is governed by the Schrödinger equation and the potential energy landscape the particle finds itself in—a concept that leads not to simple phase cancellation, but to the quantum phenomenon of tunnelling.
Why Solid is Solid The Impenetrable Fortress
The everyday experience of solidity—the fact that a hand cannot pass through a wall—feels so intuitive that it is rarely questioned. Yet, at the atomic level, matter is famously composed of mostly empty space. The nucleus is minuscule compared to the volume occupied by its orbiting electrons. Why, then, is matter so robustly impenetrable? The answer lies not in classical mechanics, but in the deep and counter-intuitive rules of the quantum world. Any proposed “phasing” technology must contend with and overcome these fundamental barriers.
The Pauli Exclusion Principle; The Ultimate Gatekeeper
The most fundamental reason for the solidity and stability of matter is the Pauli exclusion principle, formulated by Wolfgang Pauli in 1925. This principle states that no two identical fermions can occupy the same quantum state simultaneously within a quantum system. Fermions are particles with half-integer spin, and they are the building blocks of all ordinary matter: electrons, protons, and neutrons are all fermions.
In the context of an atom, a quantum state is defined by a set of four quantum numbers: the principal energy level . The exclusion principle dictates that if two electrons are in the same atom, they cannot have the same four values. For instance, if two electrons are in the same orbital meaning their
$$ n_\ell $$
and
$$ m_\ell $$
values are identical, their spin quantum numbers must be opposite.
$$ m_s = +1/2 $$
and
$$ m_s = -1/2 $$
This principle has profound consequences. It prevents all of an atom's electrons from collapsing into the lowest-energy orbital. Instead, they are forced to “stack” into progressively higher energy levels, or shells, creating the elaborate electron cloud structure that gives atoms their volume and defines their unique chemical properties. This is the basis for the entire periodic table of elements.
When two atoms are brought close together, as when you press your hand against a wall, their electron clouds begin to overlap. The Pauli exclusion principle forbids the electrons from the atoms of your hand from occupying the quantum states already filled by the electrons from the atoms of the wall. To accommodate the overlap, the electrons would have to be forced into much higher, unoccupied energy states. This requires a colossal amount of energy, which manifests macroscopically as an immense repulsive force. This force, often simplified as “electromagnetic repulsion,” is fundamentally a consequence of the Pauli principle. It is this quantum mechanical gatekeeper that ultimately prevents matter from passing through other matter, making it the primary and most formidable barrier to any form of phasing.Therefore, the classical property of “solidity” is a direct, emergent consequence of this quantum rule.
Intermolecular Forces
While the Pauli exclusion principle governs the integrity of individual atoms and their immediate interactions, the structure and properties of bulk matter are determined by the forces between separate atoms and molecules. These intermolecular forces (IMF’s) are fundamentally electromagnetic in nature, arising from the attractions and repulsions between the electrons and nuclei of neighbouring molecules.
These forces exist on a spectrum of strength :
Hydrogen Bonds: A particularly strong type of dipole-dipole interaction that occurs when hydrogen is bonded to a highly electronegative atom like oxygen, nitrogen, or fluorine. This creates a strong partial positive charge on the hydrogen, which is then attracted to a lone pair of electrons on a neighbouring electronegative atom. These bonds are responsible for many of water's unique properties, including its high boiling point.
Van der Waals Forces: This is a general term for weaker intermolecular attractions. It includes dipole-dipole forces between permanently polar molecules and the ubiquitous London dispersion forces, which arise from temporary, fluctuating dipoles caused by the random movement of electrons in all molecules, even nonpolar ones.
The physical state of a substance—solid, liquid, or gas—is a direct result of the balance between the kinetic energy of its particles (related to temperature) and the strength of the IMFs between them. In solids, IMFs are strong enough to lock molecules into a fixed lattice. In liquids, particles have enough kinetic energy to move past one another but are still held together by IMFs. In gases, kinetic energy dominates, and particles are far apart with negligible IMFs.
This presents a hierarchical structure to solidity. To pass one object through another, one would first have to overcome or negate the collective network of intermolecular forces that hold the object's own molecules together in a stable structure. This would be akin to disintegrating the object. Even if this were possible, one would then immediately confront the far more powerful repulsive force generated by the Pauli exclusion principle at the atomic level. The science fiction trope of phasing incorrectly assumes a single, magical “switch” can disable both of these distinct and powerful layers of defence simultaneously.
The Macroscopic World is a Realm of Decoherence
The final barrier to treating a macroscopic object as a single entity that can be “phased” is a quantum phenomenon known as decoherence. While a single, isolated particle like an electron can be described by a coherent wave function, allowing it to exhibit quantum behaviours like being in a superposition of states, this coherence is extraordinarily fragile.
A macroscopic object, such as a human body, is composed of an immense number of particles (~1027 atoms). This complex system is in constant interaction with its environment—it is bombarded by air molecules, radiates thermal energy, and is permeated by ambient light. Each of these interactions acts as a tiny "measurement," which disturbs the delicate phase relationships between the quantum states of the object's constituent particles. This continuous and unavoidable interaction with the environment rapidly destroys the system's overall quantum coherence, a process called decoherence.
As a result of decoherence, a macroscopic object does not behave like a single quantum particle. It behaves classically. It has a well-defined position and velocity, and we do not observe it in a superposition of multiple locations or states. To make a macroscopic object exhibit collective quantum behaviour, one must overcome decoherence by isolating it almost perfectly from its environment and cooling it to temperatures near absolute zero (-273.15 C). This is the principle behind creating exotic states of matter like Bose-Einstein Condensates (BECs), where a cloud of atoms is cooled and trapped until they all collapse into the same, single quantum state, behaving as one “super-atom”.
Achieving this for a small number of simple atoms like alkali metals is a Nobel Prize-winning feat of experimental physics. The prospect of doing so for a warm, wet, complex, 70-kg biological system is beyond fantastical. The energy required to shield such an object from environmental decoherence, and the computational power needed to track and control the quantum state of every single one of its particles, represents a barrier that is not merely technological but likely fundamental. This moves the problem of “phasing” from the realm of the merely improbable into one requiring a god-like level of control over matter, energy, and information.
A Scientific Assessment of “Phasing” Mechanisms
Having established the fundamental principles of electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, and the nature of solid matter, it is now possible to critically evaluate the hypothetical mechanisms by which “phasing” might be achieved. The analysis will compare three primary hypotheses, ranging from a direct interpretation of the user's query to more sophisticated concepts drawn from science fiction and theoretical physics.
Achieving Intangibility via “Perfect Transmission”
This hypothesis directly addresses the core of the user's query: could one manipulate the “electromagnetic phase shift” of an object's constituent particles to achieve 100% transmission through a barrier? This idea imagines treating the atoms of a person and a wall as waves that can be made to pass through each other without interaction, perhaps by making them perfectly “out of phase.”
The analysis reveals this concept is built on a fundamental category error. It incorrectly applies the principles of wave superposition, which govern bosons like photons, to fermions like electrons and protons, which constitute matter. While it is possible to use thin-film coatings to create destructive interference for light waves, thereby reducing reflection from a lens, this works because photons can be superposed and cancelled out.
Matter does not work this way. The impenetrability of a wall is not due to the “phase” of its atoms being misaligned with your hand. It is due to the Pauli exclusion principle and the resulting repulsive intermolecular forces. These forces are mediated by the exchange of virtual photons, but their behaviour is governed by quantum rules that cannot be circumvented by simple wave cancellation. The “phase” of a matter-wave is an aspect of its complex wave function, which dictates probability; it cannot be inverted or cancelled by an external field in a way that would negate the particle's fundamental properties, such as its charge, spin, and its obligation to obey the exclusion principle.
The verdict is therefore unequivocal: this mechanism is physically impossible. It stems from a conflation of the properties of light waves with the properties of matter-waves. The fermionic nature of matter is irreducible. Unlike photons, which can be created and destroyed with relative ease, the electrons, and nucleons that make up a person are subject to strict conservation laws and the unyielding Pauli exclusion principle. This makes them fundamentally robust. One cannot simply apply an electromagnetic field and expect the particles to become “out of phase” with reality because their very existence and interactions are defined by rules that do not permit such behaviour.
Inducing Macroscopic Quantum Tunnelling
A more scientifically sophisticated explanation for phasing, often invoked in fiction, is quantum tunnelling. This is a real quantum mechanical phenomenon where a particle has a non-zero probability of passing through a potential energy barrier that it classically lacks the energy to overcome. This occurs because a particle's wave function does not drop to zero at the edge of a barrier, but instead decays exponentially inside it. If the barrier is thin enough, the wave function can have a small but non-zero amplitude on the other side, implying a finite probability of the particle appearing there.
The probability of tunnelling is acutely sensitive to three factors: the mass of the particle, the height of the energy barrier, and the width of the barrier. The probability decreases exponentially as each of these factors increases. For a single electron tunnelling through a nanometre-scale barrier, the probability can be significant, an effect exploited in technologies like scanning tunnelling microscopes and flash memory.
However, for a macroscopic object like a human hand attempting to tunnel through a wall, the situation changes dramatically. The object consists of roughly 1026 atoms, the barrier is centimetres thick, not nanometres, and the constituent particles (protons and neutrons) are thousands of times more massive than electrons. The probability of a single atom tunnelling through is already infinitesimal. The probability of all atoms in the hand tunnelling simultaneously is so vanishingly small that it defies comprehension. Calculations suggest that the time one would have to wait for such an event to occur by chance exceeds the current age of the universe by many, many orders of magnitude. The probability is a number so close to zero (e.g., less than 1 in 101028) that it is physically indistinguishable from zero.
Even this astronomical improbability understates the true challenge. The more profound issue is coherence, as discussed previously. For the hand to emerge intact on the other side of the wall, all of its ~1026 constituent particles would have to tunnel as a single, perfectly coordinated quantum entity, maintaining their precise relative positions, momenta, and chemical bonds. This would require the entire hand to be in a single, coherent macroscopic quantum state. The probability of this happening is the already impossible tunnelling probability of one particle raised to the power of ~1026.
Furthermore, even if such a mass tunnelling event could be induced, the outcome would almost certainly be disintegration, not clean phasing. In physics, ordered states are always less probable than disordered states. The number of possible quantum states corresponding to “an intact hand on the other side of the wall” is one. The number of states corresponding to “a disorganized cloud of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen atoms scattered randomly on the other side of the wall” is astronomically larger. Therefore, the overwhelmingly most likely result of a macroscopic tunnelling event would be the complete and instantaneous disintegration of the object. The sci-fi trope of coherent phasing represents a fantasy of perfect order emerging spontaneously from the probabilistic chaos of the quantum realm.
The Metamaterial Paradigm
A third, more technologically grounded approach involves the use of metamaterials. These are not materials found in nature, but are artificial structures engineered with sub-wavelength patterns to exhibit exotic electromagnetic properties.By carefully designing the geometry of their unit cells, researchers can achieve values for electric permittivity ($ \varepsilon)andmagneticpermeability( \mu $) that are not naturally available, including negative values.
When a material has both negative $ \varepsilon $ and negative $ \mu $ over a common frequency range, it exhibits a negative index of refraction. This causes light to bend in a “wrong” or counter-intuitive way at the material's surface.This remarkable property is the basis for transformation optics, a field that seeks to control the flow of light in novel ways. The most famous application is the invisibility cloak.
A metamaterial cloak does not make an object intangible. Instead, it acts as a highly advanced lens that smoothly guides electromagnetic waves around a concealed region, much like water flowing around a boulder in a stream. The waves are then restored to their original path on the far side of the cloak. To an outside observer, the waves appear to have travelled in a straight line, completely unaffected, rendering the object within the cloaked region invisible to that specific frequency of radiation.
This provides a crucial distinction: the object being cloaked is still physically present and entirely solid. It is rendered invisible, not intangible. You could not walk through a wall cloaked by a metamaterial. The technology manipulates the path of light, not the fundamental nature of matter.
The behaviour of acoustic metamaterials offers a powerful analogy. These are engineered structures designed to control sound waves. They can be used to create “acoustic cloaks” that guide pressure waves around an object, making it “deaf” to sonar, or to create perfect sound absorbers. In all cases, they manipulate the propagating wave (sound), not the medium (air or water) through which the wave travels. The cloaked object remains solid and impenetrable. This reinforces the core limitation of this entire technological paradigm. Metamaterials are designed to manipulate fields and waves that propagate through space. They do not, and cannot, alter the fundamental quantum mechanical rules—like the Pauli exclusion principle—that govern the constituent particles of matter itself. To achieve true phasing would require a hypothetical "meta-matter" capable of manipulating the quantum fields of fermions and the strong and weak nuclear forces, a technology that is not just beyond our current capabilities, but beyond our current understanding of physics.
Seeing Through, Not Moving Through
While the prospect of physically moving through solid objects remains firmly in the realm of science fiction, several existing technologies achieve a form of “seeing through” barriers. Examining these real-world systems provides a practical grounding for the discussion and highlights the critical difference between the transfer of information and the physical translocation of matter.
Non-Invasive Medical Imaging
Modern medicine relies heavily on non-invasive diagnostic techniques that allow clinicians to visualize the body's internal structures without surgery. Technologies like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Computed Tomography (CT), and Ultrasound are prime examples.
MRI uses powerful magnetic fields and radio waves to align and then excite the protons in the body's water molecules. When the radio pulse is turned off, sensors detect the energy released as the protons realign, and a computer uses this data to construct detailed images of soft tissues.
CT scans use a rotating X-ray source to take multiple cross-sectional images, which a computer then assembles into a 3D view. They are excellent for visualizing bone, blood vessels, and dense tissues.
Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves that reflect off different tissues at different rates. A transducer detects these echoes to create a real-time image, or sonogram.
In each case, a form of energy—radio waves, X-rays, or sound waves—is used that can penetrate the body to varying degrees. The system does not move matter through matter. Instead, it sends a wave through the body and intelligently interprets how that wave is absorbed, reflected, or re-emitted to create an informational representation of the interior. This is a perfect, practical demonstration of the principle of selective interaction: we can “see through” a person because their tissues are partially transparent to these specific forms of energy, but this provides no mechanism for physical passage.
Through-Wall Radar Systems
Perhaps the closest real-world analogue to the fictional concept of phasing is through-wall radar (TWR) technology. These systems, often handheld and used by law enforcement and military personnel, can detect the presence, location, and even movement of individuals behind solid, non-metallic walls.
These devices typically employ Stepped Frequency Continuous Wave (SFCW) radar operating in the L-band or S-band of the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. They function based on the principle that common building materials like wood, drywall, and concrete are partially transparent to these specific frequencies of EM radiation. The radar emits a signal that penetrates the barrier, reflects off objects inside—including people—and the faint return signal is detected and processed. Advanced systems are sensitive enough to detect the minute movements caused by breathing and even heartbeats, allowing for the detection of stationary living beings.
Once again, this technology highlights the difference between information and matter. TWR systems use EM waves to gain information from the other side of a barrier. They provide crucial situational awareness for rescue teams or tactical units. However, they offer no mechanism for creating a physical passage. The wall remains as solid as ever; it is simply the chosen EM frequency that can partially pass through it.
The Information and Energy Challenge
The physical and quantum mechanical barriers to phasing are formidable. However, viewing the problem through the lens of information theory reveals an equally, if not more, insurmountable challenge. A macroscopic object like a human being is not just a collection of particles; it is a system of staggering complexity and information content.
Consider the human brain alone. It contains approximately 86 billion neurons, connected by trillions of synapses.Studies estimate that the brain's memory storage capacity is on the order of petabytes (PB). One estimate places it at 2.5 PB, which is 2.5 million gigabytes. This is larger than massive industrial data warehouses and represents only the information stored in the neural network's structure and states. The total quantum information required to perfectly describe the state (position, momentum, spin, entanglement) of every single one of the ~ 1027 particles in a human body would be a number that dwarfs this figure.
Any hypothetical process that could enable interpenetration—whether by deconstruction and reconstruction, or by inducing a coherent quantum tunnel—would have to be a perfectly information-preserving process. It would need to scan, store, and perfectly reimpose this petabyte-plus-scale quantum information state without a single error. A single misplaced atom in a strand of DNA or a single faulty connection between neutrons could be catastrophic, resulting in death or a complete loss of identity. The task of managing this quantity of information is a computational problem of cosmic proportions, far beyond any conceivable technology. This reframes the problem of phasing: it is not just a challenge of manipulating energy and matter, but a challenge of manipulating an astronomical amount of information with perfect fidelity. This informational barrier is just as absolute as the physical ones.
The Physical Verdict on Electromagnetic Phasing
The inquiry into whether electromagnetic phase shifts can be used to move through solid objects leads to a definitive conclusion rooted in the fundamental laws of physics. While the concept is a staple of imaginative fiction, its realization is prohibited by the very principles that make our universe stable and structured. The proposition is scientifically untenable.
The analysis has identified two primary, absolute barriers that prevent macroscopic interpenetration:
The Pauli Exclusion Principle: This quantum mechanical rule is the ultimate source of matter's volume and impenetrability. It forbids the constituent fermions (electrons, protons, neutrons) of one object from occupying the quantum states of another. This principle generates an immense repulsive force at the atomic level, which we perceive as solidity. No manipulation of electromagnetic wave phase can override this fundamental tenet of quantum mechanics.
Macroscopic Decoherence: A complex, warm, multi-particle system like a human body cannot maintain a single, coherent quantum state. Constant interaction with the environment ensures that it behaves classically. This prevents the collective quantum phenomena, such as a coordinated mass tunnelling event, that would be necessary for the entire object to pass through a barrier as a single entity. Overcoming decoherence for a macroscopic object is a challenge of such immense energetic and informational scale as to be physically impossible.
Based on these barriers, the various hypothetical mechanisms for “phasing” can be clearly categorized:
Scientifically Real: At the microscopic level, quantum tunnelling is a well-documented phenomenon. In the macroscopic world, we have successfully engineered metamaterials that can manipulate electromagnetic waves to create invisibility to specific frequencies, and we use non-invasive imaging and through-wall radar to gather information from beyond physical barriers. These technologies, however, achieve “seeing through,” not “moving through.”
Theoretically Speculative but Practically Impossible: The concept of a macroscopic object, like a hand, quantum tunnelling through a solid wall is theoretically non-zero but practically impossible. The probability is so infinitesimally small, and the coherence requirements so absolute, that it will never be observed.
Purely Fictional: The idea of a controllable, effortless intangibility, as depicted in science fiction, remains firmly in the realm of fantasy. It requires the violation of foundational physical laws or the invention of new, unexplained forces that can selectively disable the Pauli exclusion principle and intermolecular forces while maintaining the structural integrity of the phasing object.
Ultimately, the investigation concludes not with a sense of limitation, but with an appreciation for the elegance and robustness of physical law. The impenetrability of matter is not a flaw in the universe to be overcome; it is a critical feature that allows for the existence of stable structures, from atoms and molecules to planets and people. The very laws that prevent us from walking through walls are the same laws that hold us together and make a comprehensible, structured reality possible.