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Whenever we learn more about the connections between GR and the rest of physics, the early corrections are likely to appear as "GR+new stuff" or "QM+new stuff".
by ISL 4y ago
Whenever we learn more about the connections between GR and the rest of physics, the early corrections are likely to appear as "GR+new stuff" or "QM+new stuff". Both theories have enough predictive power that we'll hang on to them as effective theories for the rest of humanity's existence.
That said, the mathematical fundamentals of GR do not directly incorporate notions of the uncertainty principle. That fact alone, I believe, means that GR is an incomplete description of space/time/physics.
- raattgift 4y agoJust to cause trouble, since we're straying far far from today's presentations (except arguably UCL's Z. Younsi in the ongoing ESO Q&A panel). :-) Can we write down the uncertainty principle in covariant form? Maybe! There is active theoretical work ongoing (e.g.) <https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.15951v2 https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.15951v2> ("... a geometric formalism for the generalised uncertainty principle which is covariant and connects features of the underlying geometry with the deformation of canonical commutator relations ... [and] an elegant interpretation for the standard dispersion relation p^2=−m^2: it describes flat spacetime in the Milne coordinates, with rest mass m giving the measure of geodesic length from origin").
- brabel 4y agoAs I understand it, quantum physicis essentially predicts that the randomness of quantum fields effectively disappears at scales of just micrometers, let alone at the scale GR works on. How is the uncertainty principle supposed to affect bodies at the scale of light years?