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ARTICLE LIST
Quantum Upsizing
By GRAEME STEMP-MORLOCK • Aug 15, 2008
Pushing the quantum-classical limit, an intercontinental collaboration attempts to build the largest ever quantum object.
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When Worlds Collide
By KATE BECKER • Aug 1, 2008
Will we be destroyed in a collision with a neighboring universe? While investigating, one collaboration made a startling discovery.
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A Perfect Match
By WILLIAM OREM • Jul 18, 2008
How do you tie down the physics of the multiverse? With string. One collaboration investigates the partnership of string theory and cosmology.
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Two for the Road
By MARC KAUFMAN • Jul 4, 2008
Two hardy souls work their way through the mathematical thicket of a new model of quantum gravity.
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Predicting The End
By GOVERT SCHILLING • Jun 13, 2008
How does the universe end? One collaboration works
to find out. The answer may be in the stars.
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A Blackboard at Brunch
By KATE BECKER • May 30, 2008
In the quest for quantum gravity, one collaboration
uses findings from condensed matter physics to take
a fresh look at the geometry of space. Is there any?
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Editor's Choice: The Cosmic Puzzle
By KATE BECKER • May 22, 2008
What is Dark Energy? Are we in a true vacuum
or a false vacuum? Are early inflation and late
inflation related?
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (6 posts)
Readers' Choice: High Fidelity
By THE FQXI EDITORS • May 16, 2008
Is nature fundamentally analog or digital
(continuous or discrete)?
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (4 posts)
Editor's Choice: Wigner’s Gift Horse
By JULIE REHMEYER • May 9, 2008
Is nature completely mathematical?
Download article PDF file (161 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (4 posts)
Reader's Choice: Philosophy of the Multiverse
By GOVERT SCHILLING • May 2, 2008
On what side of the borderline between science and
philosophy are multiverses?
Download article PDF file (226 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (3 posts)
Editor's Choice: Down the Rabbit Hole
By KATE BECKER • Apr 24, 2008
Do any of our capabilities and experiences inform us that we are not in a computer simulation?
Download article PDF file (125 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (11 posts)
Reader's Choice: Shining A Light on a Dream
By MARC KAUFMAN • Apr 18, 2008
What is quantum physics fundamentally about?
Download article PDF file (147 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (4 posts)
Baby Steps
By MIKE PERRICONE • Apr 11, 2008
Why did our universe begin in a low entropy state?
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (1 post)
High Fidelity
By THE FQXI EDITORS • Apr 4, 2008
Is nature fundamentally analog or digital
(continuous or discrete)?
Download article PDF file (174 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (4 posts)
Cosmic Doomsdays:
How Will It All End?
An Guide to Freaky – but Improbable – Cosmic Doomsdays
By KATE BECKER • Mar 28, 2008
AN FQXI APRIL FOOL’S DAY SPECIAL REPORT
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Squishy Bedrock
By JULIE REHMEYER • Mar 21, 2008
Can we apply quantum mechanics to the whole universe?
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (4 posts)
The Next Ultimate Theory
By MARC KAUFMAN • Mar 14, 2008
What will the ultimate theory
(or at least the next one) be like?
Download article PDF file (140 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (1 post)
Despairing Still?
By MIKE PERRICONE • Mar 7, 2008
Are there reasons to believe that standard
quantum mechanics is insufficient?
Download article PDF file (165 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (2 posts)
DoubleThink
By KATE BECKER • Feb 29, 2008
How much information is really there in a quantum state?
Download article PDF file (120 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (2 posts)
Phantasms of Infinity
By JULIE REHMEYER • Feb 22, 2008
Can one define probabilities in an eternally
inflating spacetime?
Download article PDF file (175 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (3 posts)
Down the Rabbit Hole
By KATE BECKER • Feb 15, 2008
Do any of our capabilities and experiences inform us that we are not in a computer simulation?
Download article PDF file (432 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (11 posts)
Shining A Light on a Dream
By MARC KAUFMAN • Feb 8, 2008
What is quantum physics fundamentally about?
Download article PDF file (147 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (4 posts)
Wigner’s Gift Horse
By JULIE REHMEYER • Feb 1, 2008
Is nature completely mathematical?
Download article PDF file (1711 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (4 posts)
Philosophy of the Multiverse
By GOVERT SCHILLING • Jan 25, 2008
On what side of the borderline between science and
philosophy are multiverses?
Download article PDF file (226 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (3 posts)
Searching For The
Golden Spike
By KATE BECKER • Jan 18, 2008
Is there any hope of experimentally testing quantum gravity?
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (8 posts)
As Constant As Polaris
By GOVERT SCHILLING • Jan 11, 2008
Should we expect the “constants of nature” to be constant?
Download article PDF file (536 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (1 post)
The Cosmic Puzzle
By KATE BECKER • Jan 4, 2008
What is Dark Energy? Are we in a true vacuum or a false vacuum? Are early inflation and late inflation related?
Download article PDF file (161 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (6 posts)
Reader's Choice: Surfing the Folds of Spacetime
By SCOTT DODD • Dec 28, 2007
Freelance physicist A. Garrett Lisi may have
figured out the most important shape in the universe
– other than a surfboard.
Download article PDF file (157 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (0 posts)
Editor's Choice: Topos Or Not Topos
By GOVERT SCHILLING • Dec 21, 2007
According to Christopher Isham, rephrasing quantum physics
in terms of topos theory may lead to quantum gravity.
What was the question again?
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (1 post)
Readers' Choice: What Makes Time Tick?
By SCOTT DODD • Dec 14, 2007
Who put the one-way sign on time? Superstring theorist Brian Greene tries to figure out how the universe’s rush from order to chaos gives direction to the fourth dimension.
Download article PDF file (527 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (1 post)
Editor's Choice: Through the Looking Glass
By KATE BECKER • Dec 7, 2007
Markus Aspelmeyer hopes his microscopic mirrors and entangled photons will reveal secrets at the interface of classical and quantum mechanics.
Download article PDF file (274 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (4 posts)
Emergent Theorist
By MIKE PERRICONE • Nov 30, 2007
When it comes to uniting General Relativity with quantum
mechanics, Fotini Markopoulou is looking for space in new
quantum places.
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Punting in Plato’s Cave
By MIKE PERRICONE • Nov 19, 2007
When it comes to really understanding what’s going on
at the microscopic level, Robert Spekkens looks at the
quantum world from a realistic view.
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It’s All Relative
By KATE BECKER • Nov 9, 2007
In the search for quantum gravity, Olaf Dreyer is doing something completely different. Measurement problem, meet internal relativity and space-stuff-time.
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In the Key of Symmetry
By MIKE PERRICONE • Nov 2, 2007
When it comes to the smallest scales, perhaps things aren’t as smooth as they seem. John Donoghue seeks a new tune in the key of symmetry.
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Surfing the Folds of Spacetime
By SCOTT DODD • Oct 26, 2007
Freelance physicist A. Garrett Lisi may have figured out the most important shape in the universe – other than a surfboard.
Download article PDF file (313 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (1 post)
A Deeper Understanding
By MARC KAUFMAN • Oct 19, 2007
For Roderich Tumulka, the old physicists’ nostrum to
‘shut up and calculate!’ is not good enough. Instead, he
wants to understand the reality behind quantum mechanics.
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Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (1 post)
Building a Better Black Hole
By SCOTT DODD • Oct 12, 2007
Listening to Louis Crane might convince you that little black
holes could someday power starships, or that the laws of
our universe were fine-tuned by intelligent beings long ago.
Just leave the math to him.
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Talking Heads
By KATE BECKER • Oct 5, 2007
What do baseball, penny-flipping tricksters and talking mythological serpents have in common? According to Matthew Leifer, quantum gravity. Or not.
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Topos or Not Topos
By GOVERT SCHILLING • Sep 28, 2007
According to Christopher Isham, rephrasing quantum physics
in terms of topos theory may lead to quantum gravity.
What was the question again?
Download article PDF file (216 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (2 posts)
Magic Numbers
By KATE BECKER • Sep 21, 2007
What if the physical constants weren’t? Ekkehard Peik’s ytterbium atomic clock ticks toward a revolution.
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Straightening Out Mind-Bending Measurements
By MIKE PERRICONE • Sep 14, 2007
Measuring time and space on the atomic scale requires quantum rulers and clocks. Gambini and Pullin are up to the challenge.
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Teaching an Old Wave New Tricks
By MIKE MARTIN • Sep 7, 2007
Almost a century ago, Louis de Broglie invented pilot waves – which were soon forgotten. Forty years ago, physicist John Bell resurrected the concept. Today, Antony Valentini’s version may revolutionize quantum mechanics.
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Serious Science. Serious Fun.
By SCOTT DODD • Aug 31, 2007
Hot baths, cold excursions, and stimulating discussions at the Inaugural Conference of FQXi in Iceland.
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Possible Pasts in a Universe of Universes
By JEFF KANIPE • Aug 24, 2007
Is our universe one in an infinite number of pocket universes? Richard Easther plans to apply a new approach to find out.
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The Cat With Two Tails
By WILLIAM OREM • Aug 16, 2007
In the strange world of quantum mechanics, the same tiny object can be in two places at once. Keith Schwab is building a not-so-tiny machine that can do that, too
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Eva Silverstein: The quest to simplify
By MIKE PERRICONE • Aug 10, 2007
String theory predicts there are more than the familiar four dimensions of space-time. But where do those extra dimensions come from? Eva Silverstein is looking.
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Making Waves with Gravity
By JEFF KANIPE • Aug 2, 2007
Xiao-Gang Wen thinks it’s time physicists look outside of Schrödinger’s Box for ways to unify gravity and quantum mechanics.
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Kwiat’s Kwest: Settling – Once and For All – Einstein’s Final Frontier
By MIKE MARTIN • Jul 27, 2007
Paul Kwiat thinks it’s time to close the loopholes and test Einstein’s greatest speculation – the EPR paradox – a difficult task that has never been done successfully before.
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A Dark and Lonely Future
By SCOTT DODD • Jul 20, 2007
Fred Adams can't tell you the score of tomorrow's ballgame, but he can predict where the universe is headed. And it's not an appealing future. Luckily, we've got some time.
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Physicists Reaching Out
By TRUDY BELL • Jul 13, 2007
Today’s physical theories are difficult to understand, even to specialists. Farzad Nekoogar’s Multiversal Journeys takes a stab at explaining them to laypeople.
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Islands in the Sea
By WILLIAM OREM • Jul 6, 2007
The universe around us may be only one of very, very many. If so, how can we test the existence of other universes?
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Deconstructing Everett's Crazy Idea
By STEVE NADIS • Jun 29, 2007
Fifty years ago, Hugh Everett had an idea so crazy it doomed his physics career. Today, Simon Saunders wonders if maybe Everett's idea is crazy enough to be true.
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Not So Local
By TOM SIEGFRIED • Jun 22, 2007
A principle of physics is that what happens here, stays here: “local” events do not influence events far away. Steven Giddings is not so sure.
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To Solve a Cosmic Mystery, FQXi Awardees Think Outside the Box
By MIKE MARTIN • Jun 15, 2007
Justin Khoury and Maulik Parikh dust off an old idea from Ernest Mach – the speed-of-sound guy – to update Einstein’s relativistic view of space and time.
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In Search of Uncertainty
By SCOTT DODD • Jun 8, 2007
Is finding a Theory of Everything an impossible task? For cosmologist Janna Levin, the idea that we might never have all the answers isn't all that depressing.
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Chasing Constant Change
By GOVERT SCHILLING • Jun 1, 2007
Scientists used to think the fine-structure constant, called alpha, was, well, constant. Dmitry Budker races to prove alpha in fact varies � a discovery that would change physics as we know it.
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Eavesdropping On ET
By STEVE NADIS • May 25, 2007
Is intelligent life out there? Avi Loeb looks for leaked transmissions from inhabited planets - not intentional beacons - which broadcast the cosmic announcement: "We are here."
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Mini-Grants, Major Benefits
By JEFF KANIPE • May 18, 2007
Sometimes scientists need just a little bit of money for a small project. But cumbersome conventional grant-review processes can�t always help. Enter the mini-grant lottery.
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Through the Looking Glass
By KATE BECKER • May 11, 2007
Markus Aspelmeyer hopes his microscopic mirrors and entangled photons will reveal secrets at the interface of classical and quantum mechanics.
Download article PDF file (382 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (0 posts)
Charting the River of Time
By WILLIAM OREM • May 7, 2007
General relativity suggests backward time travel is possible, given the right conditions. Now Ken Olum wants to know whether those conditions are possible.
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In Search Of Other Earths
By JEFF KANIPE • May 7, 2007
Is there life beyond earth? To find out, Sara Seager uses
computer models to map possible biosignatures in the
atmospheres of planets lurking close to stars.
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What Makes Time Tick?
By SCOTT DODD • May 7, 2007
Who put the one-way sign on time? Superstring theorist Brian Greene tries to figure out how the universe's rush from order to chaos gives direction to the fourth dimension.
Download article PDF file (539 kb)
Discuss this article in the FQXi Community Forum (9 posts)
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