This beautiful language of cosmic vibrations is helping scientists further understand the origins of the Universe
PROF STEPHON ALEXANDER (@stephstem) Stephon is a professor of physics at Brown University, an author and an accomplished jazz saxophonist.
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In the grand tapestry of the cosmos, there exists a hidden language. It’s a symphony of vibrations that orchestrates everything from the motion of particles to the birth of stars – and perhaps even the elusive dark matter that makes up most of the mass centred in all galaxies. This language is known as quantum field theory and it’s one of the most elegant and precise concepts in all of science.
To understand the basic idea, imagine the interaction between two magnets, each exerting a force on the other without physical contact. This ethereal connection can be explained by the existence of a magnetic field – a concept fundamental to our understanding of the world around us.
But delve deeper into the realm of quantum field theory, and you’ll discover that fields give rise to much more than magnetic attraction. Anyone brave enough to navigate the complex labyrinth of equations and calculations is confronted with a vital revelation: all forces and matter are manifestations of the continuous motion of quantum fields. But how can such seemingly abstract concepts exist within the fabric of reality?
To answer this question, we must journey back to the dawn of the 20th century, to a time when physicists first embarked on the quest to unite two of the most successful theories in science – quantum mechanics (the physics of the very small) and relativity (the physics of the very large). When attempting this feat, a number of paradoxes quickly emerged. Among them, is the conundrum that arises when attempting to reconcile Einstein’s famous equation E = mc² with the principles that underlie quantum physics.
For instance, according to the strange tenets of quantum mechanics – where probabilities and possibilities play a bigger role than our everyday intuition – it’s impossible for a lone electron to spontaneously split into a multitude of electrons. An electron may appear to exist in multiple states at once, but this doesn’t mean multiple electrons have been spawned. This mind-bending law is known as the principle of unitarity.
However, according to Special Relativity, matter may change into energy and vice versa, as Einstein’s equation states. This means that the
