4***@gmail.com
2019-09-07 17:27:54 UTC
Even Physicists Don’t Understand Quantum Mechanics
Worse, they don’t seem to want to understand it.
By Sean Carroll
Dr. Carroll is a physicist.
Sept. 7, 2019
====
Physicists don't understand their own theory
any better than a typical smartphone user
understands what’s going on inside the device.
#
There are two problems.
One is the “measurement problem” of quantum theory.
The other problem is ''wave functions''
#
If nobody understands quantum mechanics,
nobody understands the universe.
. . . . .
Few modern physics departments have researchers
working to understand the foundations of quantum theory.
. . .
Physicists brought up in the modern system will
look into your eyes and explain with all sincerity that
they’re not really interested in understanding how
nature really works; they just want to successfully
predict the outcomes of experiments
. . .
In the 1950s the physicist David Bohm, egged on
by Einstein, proposed an ingenious way of augmenting
traditional quantum theory in order to solve the
measurement problem.
Werner Heisenberg, one of the pioneers of quantum
mechanics, responded by labeling the theory
“a superfluous ideological superstructure,” and
Bohm’s former mentor Robert Oppenheimer huffed,
“If we cannot disprove Bohm, then we must agree to ignore him.”
. . . .
A more recent solution to the measurement problem, proposed
by the physicists Giancarlo Ghirardi, Alberto Rimini and
Tulio Weber, is unknown to most physicists.
. . . .
But they have been neglected by most scientists.
For years, the leading journal in physics had an explicit
policy that papers on the foundations of quantum mechanics
were to be rejected out of hand.
. . . .
The situation might be changing, albeit gradually.
. . .
It’s hard to make progress when the data just keep
confirming the theories we have, rather than pointing
toward new ones.
. . . .
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/opinion/sunday/quantum-physics.html
====
Worse, they don’t seem to want to understand it.
By Sean Carroll
Dr. Carroll is a physicist.
Sept. 7, 2019
====
Physicists don't understand their own theory
any better than a typical smartphone user
understands what’s going on inside the device.
#
There are two problems.
One is the “measurement problem” of quantum theory.
The other problem is ''wave functions''
#
If nobody understands quantum mechanics,
nobody understands the universe.
. . . . .
Few modern physics departments have researchers
working to understand the foundations of quantum theory.
. . .
Physicists brought up in the modern system will
look into your eyes and explain with all sincerity that
they’re not really interested in understanding how
nature really works; they just want to successfully
predict the outcomes of experiments
. . .
In the 1950s the physicist David Bohm, egged on
by Einstein, proposed an ingenious way of augmenting
traditional quantum theory in order to solve the
measurement problem.
Werner Heisenberg, one of the pioneers of quantum
mechanics, responded by labeling the theory
“a superfluous ideological superstructure,” and
Bohm’s former mentor Robert Oppenheimer huffed,
“If we cannot disprove Bohm, then we must agree to ignore him.”
. . . .
A more recent solution to the measurement problem, proposed
by the physicists Giancarlo Ghirardi, Alberto Rimini and
Tulio Weber, is unknown to most physicists.
. . . .
But they have been neglected by most scientists.
For years, the leading journal in physics had an explicit
policy that papers on the foundations of quantum mechanics
were to be rejected out of hand.
. . . .
The situation might be changing, albeit gradually.
. . .
It’s hard to make progress when the data just keep
confirming the theories we have, rather than pointing
toward new ones.
. . . .
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/opinion/sunday/quantum-physics.html
====