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New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics

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Re: New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics

#61

Post by zmgsabst »

maaaaattttt wrote: post #28

This is a question I've been asking myself (probably due to a lack of understanding and knowledge) and this theory seems to hint at something similar: why do we assume spacetime to be homogenous in its nature? Here they seem to say that on some quantum level spacetime could vary drastically. Couldn't then dark matter be explained by some variations on a large scale? Like giant "wrinkles" in spacetime? They would then…

I have a similar question:

What happens to quantum tangles[0] that get inflated? — do they melt or is it possible for them to absorb energy in a hard to interact with state?

Eg, is the reason dark matter looks like a braid that it is? — and inflated foam turned into a foamy-web?

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anyon

Re: New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics

#62

Post by jug »

hoseja wrote: post #47
vore wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not AI generated, there's literally artist credits in the picture captions.

Perhaps they're post-edited somewhat but there isn't a way you're convincing me those are fully handmade. Look at the nonsensically warped tiles. Look at the rods suspending some of the globes but not others in a random fashion, look at the illegible "writing".

Yeah and the style has the default DALLE-3 style written all over them. Isaac Young may be credited but I think Isaac is using DALLE-3 and I hope they are aware they have hired a "prompt wizard". :)

Re: New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics

#63

Post by Widdershin »

sam0x17 wrote: post #20
mvdtnz wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you, a random internet guy, knows this makes me believe that the world's top experts on measuring this exact thing probably thought of it, and if there is a mysterious divergence this probably doesn't account for it.

I find that it saves time to just start by assuming the experts haven't thought of X because of how many times I've seen assuming that they _have_ thought of X turn out to be a poor assumption, across many domains.

Can you give any examples of times you’ve easily anticipated X when a whole field of subject matter experts have demonstrably overlooked it?

Re: New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics

#64

Post by dragoncrab »

szundi wrote: post #19
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #2

> A second paper, published simultaneously in Nature Communications and led by Professor Oppenheim's former Ph.D. students, looks at some of the consequences of the theory, and proposes an experiment to test it: to measure a mass very precisely to see if its weight appears to fluctuate over time. Definitely don't know enough to comment about the overall proposal, but given how many grand physics theories over the pas…

Untestable theories are not theories - I mean, for what purpose and why care?

Not reflecting to this particular theory, but in general history is full of theories which were not testable at their birth, but both engineering and the evolution of the theory eventually found a way to do so, even if it took a century.

Black holes, Higgs bozon and neutrinos are a few popular examples.

Re: New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics

#65

Post by mr_mitm »

szundi wrote: post #19
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #2

> A second paper, published simultaneously in Nature Communications and led by Professor Oppenheim's former Ph.D. students, looks at some of the consequences of the theory, and proposes an experiment to test it: to measure a mass very precisely to see if its weight appears to fluctuate over time. Definitely don't know enough to comment about the overall proposal, but given how many grand physics theories over the pas…

Untestable theories are not theories - I mean, for what purpose and why care?

Some theories are only untestable for practical reasons, like needing a particle accelerator the size of the solar system. That doesn't make them unscientific or "not theories". That is not the kind of falsifiability that Karl Popper had in mind.

Re: New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics

#66

Post by fsckboy »

hoseja wrote: post #54
staunton wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. GR does it and GR gives good descriptions for a lot of observed phenomena.

Except, you know, all the elementary particles. I have this intrusive thought those are just bits of non-smoothly kinked/knotted spacetime but have neither the physics background or sense where to even start to look further into that.

>> Yes. GR does it and GR gives good descriptions for a lot of observed phenomena.

>Except, you know, all the elementary particles.

except, you know, all the elementary particles don't do a good job of explaining what GR explains

Re: New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics

#67

Post by quickthrower2 »

yetihehe wrote: post #55
dataflow wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I figure as much, but that's kinda why I'm asking what made it mysterious. I actually hadn't heard of it being seen as mysterious until today - that comment is the first time I've seen that. Until today I thought it had been was unsurprising for scientists.

> I figure as much, but that's kinda why I'm asking what made it mysterious. You expect simple explanations to VERY complex problems from random internet commenters. I think you expect too much.

Not on HN sometimes some gems of comments are made by experts

Re: New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics

#69

Post by yetihehe »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #67
yetihehe wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I figure as much, but that's kinda why I'm asking what made it mysterious. You expect simple explanations to VERY complex problems from random internet commenters. I think you expect too much.

Not on HN sometimes some gems of comments are made by experts

Sometimes: when you least expect them. Not expecting them is a good strategy here.

Re: New theory claims to unite Einstein's gravity with quantum mechanics

#70

Post by iainmerrick »

satvikpendem wrote: post #12
mvdtnz wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you, a random internet guy, knows this makes me believe that the world's top experts on measuring this exact thing probably thought of it, and if there is a mysterious divergence this probably doesn't account for it.

They're not being arrogant, as it seems like the parent is genuinely curious as to why such weights diverged, as am I. It is still a good question to ask, since I also have not heard a good answer to that question.

Right -- and they're not even asking for the answer, they're just asking what the interesting mysterious phenomenon is.
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