Nobody has observed these laws at work but that hasn’t stopped ‘t Hooft from trying to formulate what they must look like. They say the probabilistic properties of quantum mechanics can all be explained by a set of hidden laws that sit beneath the surface of quantum mechanics. For them, the idea of determinism – that one thing leads to another – is sacrosanct. Indeed, there is little debate among physicists that the foundation of reality is fundamentally and weirdly probabilistic.Įxcept among a small group of theoretical physicists led by the Nobel Prize winner, Gerard ‘t Hooft. This thinking forces physicists to the conclusion that our deterministic experience of the universe is an illusion. At any instant, lots of different things could happen but the thing that actually happens is determined by probability, essentially on the roll of a dice. It is now even exploited in technologies such as quantum cryptography.Īnother uncomfortable conclusion is that the quantum universe is governed by probabilistic behavior. Since then, physicists have studied spooky-action-at-a-distance in detail it is straightforward to observe in a quantum optics laboratory. This occurs when two particles become so deeply linked that a measurement on one instantly determines the state of the other, regardless of the distance between them. For example, it allows “spooky action at a distance” between entangled particles. Every experiment ever done is compatible with its predictions and despite numerous attempts, physicists have never been able to create conditions in which it doesn’t work.īut quantum theory’s success forces physicists to accept a number of uncomfortable truths. One of the great triumphs of modern science is the theory of quantum mechanics, one of the most successful ideas in history.
0 kommentar(er)
