Dr. Olaf Dreyer
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Project Title

Quantum Space II

Project Summary

In the beginning of the last century theoretical physics was revolutionized with the emergence of quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of general relativity. These theories have been extremely successful in explaining nature at very small scales and at very large scales. However, two problems have remained open since the inception of these theories. One problem concerns the foundations of quantum mechanics. Although quantum mechanics is so successful it is still fundamentally unclear how to relate the theory to the classical world around us. Quantum mechanics, in principle, allows for states of nature in which the same large object is in two places at once. This means we need a reason why we have not seen such states. In our proposal, we give such a reason by proposing a new relation between the classical world and the quantum world. The other problem concerns the union of quantum mechanics and general relativity. These two theories have been around for nearly a century but we still have no way of combining them. We are lacking a quantum theory of gravity. We propose such a theory by providing a new mechanism for the emergence of gravity. No propagation without gravitation is the basic principle behind our approach.



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