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Physics

A quantum less quirky

Nature volume 450, pages 1167–1168 (2007)Cite this article

What physicists want for Christmas is a solution to the philosophical conundrums of quantum mechanics. They will be disappointed, but work that dissolves one aspect of quantum weirdness is some consolation.

There is a strange quantum-mechanical phenomenon. A brilliant researcher receives a Nobel prize for work on quantum physics, but then expresses scepticism about the validity of the theory. Albert Einstein started the trend in 1921, and remains its most famous exponent. He received his Nobel for the quantum-mechanical explanation of how electric current can be generated just by shining light on a surface (the photoelectric effect), but for the rest of his life expressed a deep-seated distrust of the quantum. God, as he famously said, does not play dice. Most recently, Tony Leggett, a Nobel laureate in 2003, expressed his belief that quantum physics is at the very least incomplete, and needs to be supplemented by some new physics. Writing in Physical Review A, Wojciech Zurek1 now provides some balsam for these and other pained minds.

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References

  1. Zurek, W. H. Phys. Rev. A 76, 052110 (2007).

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  2. Wootters, W. K. & Zurek, W. H. Nature 299, 802–803 (1982).

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  1. Seth Lloyd is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA. slloyd@mit.edu,

    Seth Lloyd

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Lloyd, S. A quantum less quirky. Nature 450, 1167–1168 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/4501167a

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