The French scholar Pierre-Simon Laplace crisply articulated his expectation that the universe was fully knowable in 1814, asserting that a sufficiently clever “demon” could predict the entire future given a complete knowledge of the present. His thought experiment marked the height of optimism about what physicists might forecast. Since then, reality has repeatedly humbled their… Continue reading ‘Next-Level’ Chaos Traces the True Limit of Predictability
Category: quantum mechanics
New Maps of the Bizarre, Chaotic Space-Time Inside Black Holes
At the beginning of time and the center of every black hole lies a point of infinite density called a singularity. To explore these enigmas, we take what we know about space, time, gravity and quantum mechanics and apply it to a place where all of those things simply break down. There is, perhaps, nothing… Continue reading New Maps of the Bizarre, Chaotic Space-Time Inside Black Holes
Do We Really Live in the Darkest Timeline?
As memes go, it wasn’t particularly viral. But for a couple of hours on the morning of November 6, the term “darkest timeline” trended in Google searches, and several physicists posted musings on social media about whether we were actually in it. All the probabilities expressed in opinion polls and prediction markets had collapsed into… Continue reading Do We Really Live in the Darkest Timeline?
‘Quantum Memory’ Proves Exponentially Powerful
It’s not easy to study quantum systems — collections of particles that follow the counterintuitive rules of quantum mechanics. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, a cornerstone of quantum theory, says it’s impossible to simultaneously measure a particle’s exact position and its speed — pretty important information for understanding what’s going on. In order to study, say, a… Continue reading ‘Quantum Memory’ Proves Exponentially Powerful
Can Space-Time Be Saved? | Quanta Magazine
Most of today’s leading theoretical physicists have a shared perspective about what the next revolution in physics will look like. They think reconciling Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity with quantum mechanics will require transcending the notion of space-time. Einstein’s theory attributes the force of gravity to curves in the space-time fabric, but beneath this… Continue reading Can Space-Time Be Saved? | Quanta Magazine
Can Thermodynamics Go Quantum? | Quanta Magazine
The principles of thermodynamics are cornerstones of our understanding of physics. But they were discovered in the era of steam-driven technology, long before anyone dreamed of quantum mechanics. In this episode, the theoretical physicist Nicole Yunger Halpern talks to host Steven Strogatz about how physicists today are reinterpreting concepts such as work, energy and information… Continue reading Can Thermodynamics Go Quantum? | Quanta Magazine
The Geometric Tool That Solved Einstein’s Relativity Problem
After Albert Einstein published his special theory of relativity in 1905, he spent the next decade trying to come up with a theory of gravity. But for years, he kept running up against a problem. He wanted to show that gravity is really a warping of the geometry of space-time caused by the presence of… Continue reading The Geometric Tool That Solved Einstein’s Relativity Problem
Vacuum of Space to Decay Sooner Than Expected (but Still Not Soon)
Vacuum decay, a process that could end the universe as we know it, may happen 10,000 times sooner than expected. Fortunately, it still won’t happen for a very, very long time. When physicists speak of “the vacuum,” the term sounds as though it refers to empty space, and in a sense it does. More specifically,… Continue reading Vacuum of Space to Decay Sooner Than Expected (but Still Not Soon)
The (Often) Overlooked Experiment That Revealed the Quantum World
Before Erwin Schrödinger’s cat was simultaneously dead and alive, and before pointlike electrons washed like waves through thin slits, a somewhat lesser-known experiment lifted the veil on the bewildering beauty of the quantum world. In 1922, the German physicists Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach demonstrated that the behavior of atoms was governed by rules that… Continue reading The (Often) Overlooked Experiment That Revealed the Quantum World
Nobel Prize Honors Inventors of ‘Quantum Dot’ Nanoparticles
Imagine a nanocrystal so minuscule that it behaves like an atom. Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov have been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering a category of such minute marvels, now known as quantum dots, and for developing a precise method of synthesizing them. Quantum dots are… Continue reading Nobel Prize Honors Inventors of ‘Quantum Dot’ Nanoparticles