Frontiers of Physics
Any physicists near Perth in November, who are looking for something to do, can meet Carl and me at the conference on Frontiers of Fundamental and Computational Physics at the University of Western Australia. We will both be speaking, and I am looking forward to the beach!
posted by Kea | 1:42 AM
2 Comments:
I see that the opening lecture there will be by Nobel Laureate Gerard 't Hooft, "Gravity and the Quantum: the World may not be what it seems":
"Whenever one attempts to include the gravitational force in our models of quantized elementary particles, a spooky kind of non-locality appears to emerge. In superstring approaches, non-locality comes in the form of the holographic principle, which reduces the number of space-time dimensions. In contrast, the only tested particle theory, the Standard Model, is perfectly local. Different from the Standard Model, Quantum Gravity suggests that physically independent degrees of freedom are denumerable. To get a better intuitive picture of what is going in, it is suggested to reconsider the very foundations of quantum theory. Attempts to understand quantum mechanics in terms of some deterministic underlying theory also seem to require some spooky non-locality. We claim that these two problems are related; they may eliminate each other. Quantum mechanics appears to allow for an interpretation in terms of a local, deterministic model, but only if the gravitational force is included."
That sounds a sensible line of investigation, but it won't get too much praise from the string theorists who prefer a multiverse of speculation.
Hope Carl and yourself enjoy the conference and manage to make a splash with your papers.
The scientific program is now online.
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