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“The expectation is that quantum field theory does describe classical physics,” Roiban said. “It turns out that it is in this way that it does it, by having zer
by BoiledCabbage 5y ago
“The expectation is that quantum field theory does describe classical physics,” Roiban said. “It turns out that it is in this way that it does it, by having zero uncertainty in some states.”
> The upshot is that classical waves are easier to describe in the language of quantum mechanics than researchers feared. “A gravitational wave, or a wave of any kind, is something big and floppy. It should depend on many little things,” said Roiban. But “once you know the collision plus one photon or one graviton in the final state, then you know everything.”
Isn't this essentially applying QFT in high gravity environments? Something that's long been sought?
Am I missing something?
- ravi-delia 5y agoIt's not actually a quantum theory, just a quantum approach. We use simplifying computational models for both black holes and large (or high energy, or just weird) quantum systems, and these researchers think they found success porting over some of those techniques. We really, really want spacetime to behave like quantum fields do, but in general it just behaves completely differently. In this particular instance though, those differences don't matter enough to make the tools of QFT totally useless. Quantum physicists spend a lot of time integrating lots and lots of tiny effects that may or may not interact with each other in strange ways, which is handy experience for working with colliding black holes. Or rather, solving a subproblem coming from certain simplifying techniques.