Thursday, June 4, 2015

Whither the wave function?

As you can tell from my sidebar, I'm a physics freak. I adore it. So for me, this has been a banner week. There have been so many wildly interesting physics stories in the past seven days. If such things interest you, I suggest you visit phys.org this weekend, when they will reprise the best stories of the week. You won't be disappointed.

Here's a taste. It's an article about a new mathematical discovery which suggests that the wave function does not exist. If so, this is startling. Here's an excerpt:
"So what we have done is to open the possibility that the quantum wave may not exist. It now has only as much right to that claim as do many interacting worlds – no more and no less. This may be as definitive a statement as one can hope to make about a subject that has confounded the best minds of physics for a hundred years and still continues to generate controversy.
No wave function! Additionally, the new theory shows that quantum "weirdness" may be the result of particle interactions among parallel universes. I love this. Seriously, there were so many killer physics stories this week. If science is your thing, do visit phys.org this weekend.