(July 5, 2017 at 6:13 am)ignoramus Wrote: OK, ta. Last ignoramus q. In QM, are there different fields of study which are independent/separate from each other and making progress in one field doesn't affect the other?
I'd imagine that QM is a big area of study for physicists? Or do advances in one area affect other theories, eg: string theory? (is that even a thing these days?) Sorry for the dumb q.
The ongoing research dealing with foundations of quantum physics mainly focuses on checking the weird predicitons of standard quantum mechanics in new ways and configurations, hoping to uncover devitations which would then maybe lead us to more satisfying explanations of the quantum weirdness such as the double slit. So on the one hand you have theorists like the late J.S.Bell who has famously worked out a theorem telling us how to demonstrate experimentally that quantum reality cannot be a local phenomenon, and experimental physicists such as Alain Aspect, Anton Zeilinger or Theodor Hänsch to name the big shots, who carry out these tests and check whether reality actually agrees with standard quantum mechanics. Other theorists work on alternatives to quantum theory. Some mathematicians such as Detlef Dürr are trying to better understand how the various interpretations of quantum mechanics actually tick.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
