An improvising soloist can play any note they want next. At the quantum level, electrons have a similar freedom
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My book, The Jazz of Physics, looks at the ways that concepts and research in theoretical physics parallel jazz improvisation and performance. Playing jazz has shaped the way I approach physics and opened me up to appreciating an improvisational style in my research. And jazz continues to effect my research in uniting quantum physics with space-time and quantum gravity.
It all started from a conversation I had with a jazz legend, which has since grown into a collaboration and a new theory. One autumn day in 2012, while I was a professor at Haverford College in Philadelphia, I received a surprising email from Donald Harrison. To many, including myself, Harrison is a living version of iconic bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker. He has played with hundreds of jazz masters and toured with huge names such as Miles Davis and Art Blakey.
Donald was self-studying quantum mechanics and had an epiphany he wanted to share. Little did he know that I was also a student of jazz, or that he was one of my heroes. So my eyes bulged in delight when I read his email: “I’ve come to realise that you don’t play within the chord changes, but you play through the changes. At every moment there are infinite possibilities available to the improviser. Once a note is played, all these possibilities collapse to a measurement.”
His statement struck at the very heart of quantum physics. At the time, I had been thinking about relating jazz improvisation to my research in quantum mechanics and I felt vindicated by his auspicious message. While it took many years and the writing of my book for things to mature, Donald and I have since moved on to develop a theory of quantum improvisation.
The theory had two effects. One was on the way that Donald and I compose music together and improvise, but we can save that for our performances. Here, I would like to talk about the other effect: on quantum physics.
Quantum mechanics is governed by the famed Schrödinger equation – the fundamental formula that describes the wave-like nature of electrons as they move around an atom’s nucleus. Yet despite its experimental and technological successes, there remains a debate. Started by Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, it boils down to how to relate mathematics to the real world.
A real quantum experiment consists of a microscopic system (a molecule, for example) and a measurement device (an observer). While quantum mechanics is gove
