"Quantum mechanics is our most successful physical theory. Created to account for atomic phenomena, it has a vast range of applications extending well beyond the atomic realm, from predicting the abundances of the light elements created a few minutes after the Big Bang to understanding the properties of semiconductor materials that are the basis of advanced information technologies. Quantum mechanics is also successful in its exquisitely accurate"
"Our best current understanding of the fundamental constituents of matter, the standard model of particle physics, is a quantum theory. And the statement that every physical system is, fundamentally, a quantum system has no known counter evidence. In the case of gravity, however, nearly a century of effort has not resulted in a stable consensus even about the most promising grounds on which to build a theory of quantum gravity."
"Why is quantum gravity proving more challenging than other quantum theories? The reasons lie partly in the lack of definitive observational phenomenology to guide us and partly in the character of gravity, which makes quantum gravity different from all other physical theories. In this article I diagnose, in Albert Einstein's words, "where the shoe pinches" in quantum gravity and describe one way forward based on physicist Richard Feynman's alternative vision for quantum mechanics."
Quantum mechanics provides the framework for atomic phenomena and extends to cosmology and materials, underpinning predictions from Big Bang nucleosynthesis to semiconductor properties. Quantum theory achieves extraordinary numerical precision, exemplified by the electron's magnetic moment predicted to one part in ten trillion. The standard model treats fundamental constituents of matter quantum mechanically, and no counterevidence has been found to the universality of quantum description. Gravity resists quantization: nearly a century of effort has failed to produce a stable consensus on quantum gravity because of limited observational phenomenology and distinctive features of gravity. Heisenberg's notion of atomic transitions outside ordinary three-dimensional motion highlights conceptual tensions that complicate unification.
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