Quantum interpretations

Columnist Philip Ball thinks the phenomenon of decoherence might finally bridge the quantum-classical divide.

Try as they might, scientists can’t truly rid a space or an object of its energy. But what “zero-point energy” really means is up for interpretation.

Hundreds of physicists (and a few journalists) journeyed to Helgoland, the birthplace of quantum mechanics, and grappled with what they have and haven’t learned about reality.

Experiments that test physics and philosophy "as a single whole" may be our only route to surefire knowledge about the universe.

Physical-collapse theories have long offered a natural solution to the central mystery of the quantum world. But a series of increasingly precise experiments are making them untenable.

By showing that even large objects can exhibit bizarre quantum behaviors, physicists hope to illuminate the mystery of quantum collapse, identify the quantum nature of gravity, and perhaps even make Schrödinger’s cat a reality.

The result highlights a fundamental tension: Either the rules of quantum mechanics don’t always apply, or at least one basic assumption about reality must be wrong.

There are many different ways to think about probability. Quantum mechanics embodies them all.

The new work promises to give researchers a better grip on the core mystery of quantum mechanics.