Zenith Grant Awardee
Lorenzo Maccone
Universita\' di Pavia
Co-Investigators
Seth Lloyd, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Vittorio Giovannetti, Scuola Normale Superiore
Project Title
Quantum Spacetime from Events
Project Summary
Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity are the two theories that best describe our world. Neither has been falsified, but it seems they cannot both be correct: they appear incompatible in regimes where experimental tests have not been performed yet. One of the principal quests of modern theoretical physics is producing a single theory that encompasses both. This project will address a key point of this endeavor by providing a quantization of spacetime. Spacetime is the arena where events happen: it is connected to space and time, and its properties are well described by general relativity. How events happen is, instead, well described by quantum mechanics, as general relativity can do so only approximately (classical approximation). A quantum spacetime is then fundamental to obtain both the “where\'\' and the “how\'\'. We will exploit a new technique (conditional probability amplitudes) that has received up to now little attention because it was widely believed to be useless in this context. Having shown that it is instead viable, we will extend it to attack the quantization of spacetime. It provides peculiar solutions to both the measurement problem and the problem of time that are two major roadblocks in this context.
Technical Abstract
In this project we will provide a quantization of spacetime that employs a technique, conditional probability amplitudes, that has basically not been exploited in this context up to now. It appears particularly promising because it naturally encompasses both reparametrization invariance and a description of a measurement process that does not neglect interactions with the experimenter and its environment. The first is required by General Relativity. The second by a complete quantum description of spacetime, which must encompass also measurement apparatuses, experimenters, and their environments. Both ingredients are typically difficult to achieve.
QSpace Latest
PressRelease: Shining a light on the roots of plant “intelligence”
All living organisms emit a low level of light radiation, but the origin and function of these ‘biophotons’ are not yet fully understood. An international team of physicists, funded by the Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, has proposed a new approach for investigating this phenomenon based on statistical analyses of this emission. Their aim is to test whether biophotons can play a role in the transport of information within and between living organisms, and whether monitoring biophotons could contribute to the development of medical techniques for the early diagnosis of various diseases. Their analyses of the measurements of the faint glow emitted by lentil seeds support models for the emergence of a kind of plant ‘intelligence,’ in which the biophotonic emission carries information and may thus be used by plants as a means to communicate. The team reported this and reviewed the history of biophotons in an article in the journal Applied Sciences in June 2024.