From a university student to a chief academician

Chapter 294 The Unification of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity?

Because there is a time difference of nearly twelve hours between Beili Country and Xia Country.

Therefore, when Xia Guo held the academic report meeting, the academic report meeting of North Li Country had not yet started.

Therefore, at this moment, many people around the world are watching the Mordor Academic Symposium in the Metaverse.

For this academic report, the international mathematics and physics circles attach great importance to it.

After all, one is the proof of the Landau-Siegel zero-point conjecture, and the other is Ye Fei's complete and consistent theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity.

These two fields of study are of great importance to mathematics and physics respectively.

North Liguo, in a small villa near Princeton University!
On the sofa against the wall in the study room of the small villa, an old man with white hair and a high hairline is lying.

His name is Edward Witten, a Jewish North American physicist and mathematician, a Fields Medal winner, a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and a top scholar in string theory and quantum field theory.

He was once rated as the sixth most influential person in the world after 1945 by the North American "Life" magazine.

He is also the person with the highest H index in the physics world today.

The H-index is a mixed quantitative indicator that can be used to evaluate the quantity and level of academic output of researchers.

At the same time, it is also called h-factor, high citation count, etc.

Although many scholars are capable, the number of published papers is very small, resulting in the H index not in line with their own abilities.

For example, Ye Fei, Yang Zhenning and others.

They publish very few papers, so the H index is not very high, and among many top scholars, it is at the middle and lower levels.

However, a low H index does not necessarily mean a poor ability, and a high H index does not necessarily mean a strong ability.

As the person with the highest H index in the physics world today, Edward Witten's ability can be imagined.

Someone once divided all physicists in the world into three grades.

Newton, Einstein and Maxwell belong to the first class.

Galileo, Faraday, Bohr, Planck, Heisenberg, Dirac, Schrödinger, Yang Zhenning, and Rutherford belong to the strong second class.

Landau, Pauli, Feynman, Marie Curie, Weinberg, Edward Witten, Higgs, and the other 30 people belong to the weak second class.

Ding Zhaozhong, Gao Kun, Li Zhengdao, Nambu Yoichiro... belong to the third grade.

As for Ye Fei, since Ye Fei has only become famous in recent years, and this ranking was done in 2017, there is no Ye Fei.

Many people in the physics world have said that if Edward Witten's theoretical research is confirmed, then he can enter the first gear, and even compete with Newton for the first place in history.

It can be imagined from this that Edward Witten is very powerful in the physics world.

Of course, the prerequisite is that the theoretical research is confirmed, and if it is not confirmed, he belongs to the weak second grade.

Edward Witten was wearing virtual glasses, lying on the sofa, watching Ye Fei on the stage about to start his speech.

"Zhang Yitang's Landau-Siegel zero-point conjecture was indeed proved successful by him, and the whole proof process is correct."

"Being able to prove the Landau-Siegel zero-point conjecture successfully, it seems that next year's Wolf Mathematics Prize will have him a place, and he will also be promoted to the list of top international mathematicians."

Edward Witten didn't pay much attention to Zhang Yitang's proof of the Landau-Siegel zero-point conjecture.

For the world's top mathematicians and physicists like him, unless the eight conjectures of mathematics can get his attention, the rest of mathematics research will not get his attention.

Edward Witten looked at Ye Fei on the stage, looking forward to it: "I don't know what new research Ye Fei can do in the fields of quantum mechanics and relativity."

Edward Witten attaches great importance to Ye Fei, who has become famous in recent years.

Especially after Ye Fei developed the metaverse, Ye Fei's reputation reached its peak. Many people said that Ye Fei would be the greatest scientist of the 21st century.

For this point, Edward Witten is not convinced.

If Ye Fei wants to become the greatest scientist in the 21st century, he must pass my test first.

If he can't surpass me, he will never be able to become the greatest scientist of the 21st century.

"A complete and consistent theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity!" Edward Witten frowned slightly, and a thought flashed in his eyes.

He has worked on a consistent theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity.

The complete and consistent theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity is actually the basis for the unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity.

The ultimate goal of mathematics is to prove the eight conjectures of mathematics.

The ultimate in physics is the theory of everything, which refers to a formula that can explain all the physical mysteries of the universe.

A theory of everything is a combination of many grand unified theories.

Among them, the unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity is one of the grand unified theories.

"Is he now working on the unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity?"

"This is very difficult. Since Einstein's time, countless physicists have studied it, but so far there is no clue."

"Ye Fei wanted to prove the unity of quantum mechanics and general relativity, which required his whole life to study."

If a physicist can prove one of the grand unified theories, he can be ranked among the world's greatest physicists and become a figure who affects the world.

"However, physics is not mathematics!" Edward Witten shook his head slightly: "You are going well in the field of mathematics, but not so in the field of physics."

"It is much more difficult to make achievements in the field of physics than in the field of mathematics."

Edward Witten thought of his own life. He is a Fields Medal winner and has also won the Einstein Award and the Newton Medal.

But he has not yet won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

It's not that he is poor, but that if he wants to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, he needs to discover something in the field of physics that no one has discovered before.

This is compared with mathematics. Mathematics puts the problem in front of you and asks you to solve it. If you solve it, you can win the Fields Medal or the Wolf Prize in Mathematics.

In physics, there is no problem in front of you, you need to find and explore.

If you discover something new, and this thing has a great impact on the entire physics world, then you can win the Nobel Prize in Physics.

In terms of the difficulty of proof in mathematics and physics, they are equal.

However, in terms of the difficulty of making results, low-level and middle-level physics are easier than mathematics, and high-level physics is more difficult than mathematics.

"Let me see your abilities in the fields of quantum mechanics and general relativity!"

Edward Witten looked at Ye Fei on the stage expectantly.

Shanghai, the International Conference Center!
After Ye Fei stepped onto the stage, he glanced at the audience, then put the microphone in his hand to his mouth, and said, "Quantum mechanics and general relativity are two great theories in physics."

"But a basic concept is that these two theories are incompatible, and in fact they address two different components of the world, space-time and matter."

"The unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity, also known as the quantum theory of gravity."

"The theory of quantum gravity is a hypothetical theory that combines quantum mechanics and general relativity. It can answer some of our deep questions about the physical world. It is well-deserved to call it the Holy Grail of physics."

Offstage!

Many reporters exclaimed in their hearts: "It turns out that the complete and consistent theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity that Ye Fei said is the unified theory of quantum mechanics and general relativity."

Although these journalists did not study physics, as science journalists, they will be exposed to some basic knowledge in mathematics, physics and other fields in their work.

In physics, the most famous is the theory of everything, followed by the grand unified theory.

Quantum mechanics and general relativity are one of the grand unified theories.

Tong Siyu said excitedly: "Sister Yu, Academician Ye Fei actually talked about one of the grand unified theories, the unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity!"

"With Academician Ye Fei's ability, publishing such an academic report on such an occasion must have some research."

"We got big news today."

Tong Siyu was so excited that he never expected to encounter one of the ultimate problems in physics when he participated in Ye Fei's academic activities for the first time.

Such an occasion, many science journalists, may not be able to encounter it in their entire lives.

Yu Mengmeng nodded slightly, looking at Ye Fei on the stage with a smile on her face.

On stage!

Ye Feidao: "Why do we need a theory of quantum gravity?"

"In quantum mechanics, matter and fields are in a preparatory space-time. In this space-time, space-time itself has no physical effect on the field..."

Ye Fei eloquently introduced why we need the theory of quantum gravity.

"We need to introduce a theory of quantum gravity."

"Because all fundamental theories of the physical world should be context-independent, as spacetime under general relativity behaves, this means that the current theory of quantum mechanics is incomplete."

"Because it still needs to presuppose the assumption of space-time, instead of deriving the existence of space-time from itself like general relativity."

"How should the unification of quantum theory and general relativity be unified? Where is the point?"

"That's what I'm going to talk about today."

The scholars present and watching the live broadcast heard Ye Fei's words, and they all raised their hearts.

For any kind of grand unified theory, they are full of keen interest.

If any kind of grand unified theory is proved, they can become celebrities in the physics world, become the top physicists in the world, and can also win the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Ye Feidao: "Newton believed that time and space are eternal and absolute, and they were thoroughly defined as the prerequisites for our existence in the world even before he began to describe force and motion..."

"In general relativity, the only thing that is concerned is the events on the worldline of the object, or its history."

"Events arise as a result of intersections with other objects' worldlines and encode the interrelationships between objects."

"The network structure of these fundamental worldlines contains information describing all events and worldlines whose geometry determines the physical phenomena in the universe."

When everyone heard this, they were puzzled: "World line?"

This is the first time they have heard of the name World Line.

Ye Fei said: "Everyone, please take a look!"

At this time, a grid of human heads consisting of many green lines was displayed on the screens on both sides of the stage.

"Head wireframes simulate the geometry of interconnected worldline constructs."

"The black space does not contain any geometric or spatial information, and any point in it will not interact with any world lines that make up the network."

"This also explains why space is fictional, and the only things that define our four-dimensional space-time are worldlines."

When everyone heard this, they suddenly realized that Ye Fei introduced them to the four-dimensional space in a very concise way.

A theory of quantum gravity must study four-dimensional space, and it is impossible to get around it.

Although there are one to ten dimensional spaces, we are currently mainly studying one to four dimensional spaces.

Quantum mechanics studies space-time, which naturally includes dimensional space, but now it mainly studies four-dimensional space.

Ye Feidao: "The general theory of relativity describes how the geometric structure of these world lines constructs four-dimensional space-time..."

"String theory holds that matter consists of one-dimensional rings, which are defined in ten-dimensional space-time, four of which are the four-dimensional space-time we see, and the remaining dimensions are compressed to define the properties of the object itself through their geometric symmetry , there are still some problems with this theory of quantum gravity..."

Ye Fei pointed out some problems with string theory.

Ye Feidao: "The most wonderful point so far is that the theory of loop quantum gravity leads to the basic principles of string theory."

"..."

"But it also has a huge problem."

"Loop Quantum Gravity Theory..."

"One possible explanation is that these extra dimensions are not really space, but just a tool for physicists to perform calculations that will eventually be replaced by a full four-dimensional string theory."

The scholars in the audience exclaimed when they heard this, they were shocked by Ye Fei's last words.

Many people are surprised: "Is this really the case? Dimensional space is not a real space, but a tool for calculation, and will eventually replace the complete four-dimensional string theory?"

"Using space as a tool for calculation is really a bold idea!"

"This idea has never been mentioned before!"

The idea of ​​using space as a computational tool is very sci-fi.

This is like the wandering earth in the Three-Body Problem, it is very sci-fi.

Ordinary people do not think about letting the earth wander, nor do they think about using space as a computing tool.

Many people shook their heads in their hearts: "It's an unbelievable idea. I don't know how Ye Fei came up with it?"

"Turning space-time into a calculation tool, is this an idea that people can think of?"

When the reporters behind saw these scholars exclaiming, they all looked at them blankly.

What are you exclaiming?What's there to exclaim about?Is there any amazing discovery?

These Muggles are itching in their hearts, and they really want to know what these scholars are exclaiming.

They knew that this must be big news.

"Sister Yu!" Tong Siyu said excitedly, "There must be big news in it, but we don't understand it, what should we do?"

Yu Mengmeng said calmly: "Don't panic, I will take you to interview Academician Ye Fei later, and he will tell us."

Hearing this, Tong Siyu felt completely at ease. Also, with the relationship between Sister Yu and Academician Ye Fei, you can ask Academician Ye Fei directly for the parts you don't understand.

Ye Feidao: "This is about a theory I created recently, called the causal set theory."

"Like loop quantum gravity theory, causal set theory is a context-independent theory of spacetime."

Ye Fei then explained the causal set theory in detail.

Causal set theory was created by Ye Fei when he was studying the unification of quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Of course, this causal combination theory was created only for the convenience of Ye Fei to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity.

In other places, its value is not great.

Ye Feidao: "Quantum space-time also involves the principle of holography and quantum entanglement!"

The principle of holography is what Ye Fei studied when he was studying the Metaverse.

"According to the principle of holography, any information and interrelationships in three-dimensional space are encoded on the two-dimensional surface that surrounds the space, which means that the interrelationships between surface elements reflect the behavior inside the object."

"But according to my research."

"If you use quantum entanglement to connect two points on the surface, the corresponding interior points will be connected to each other as a physical unit."

"If you turn off quantum entanglement on the surface, the correlation of the internal points disappears, and the internal space becomes uncorrelated points."

"The amount of entanglement can be directly related to the physical proximity between points, which is how to connect unrelated points inside a three-dimensional object to form a unified geometric structure through quantum entanglement."

"Return to the world line!"

"Through the study of quantum entanglement, we can find that in order to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity, we must use quantum entanglement as a tool to cross dimensional space and unify quantum mechanics and general relativity."

"And to enable quantum entanglement to cross dimensions, it is necessary to study dimensional space as a computing tool."

"Instead of taking the dimensional space as the research object!"

"Thank you everyone, my speech is over!"

(End of this chapter)