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In theoretical physics, the problem of time is a conceptual conflict between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Quantum mechanics regards the flow of time as universal and absolute, whereas general relativity regards the flow of time as malleable and relative. [1] [2] This problem raises the question of what time really is in a physical ...
This triggered a counter-reaction of some scientists and scientific laymen who could not accept the concepts of modern physics, including relativity theory and quantum mechanics. The ensuing public controversy regarding the scientific status of Einstein's theory of gravity, which was unprecedented, was partly carried out in the press.
Einstein himself considered the introduction of the cosmological constant in his 1917 paper founding cosmology as a "blunder". [3] The theory of general relativity predicted an expanding or contracting universe, but Einstein wanted a static universe which is an unchanging three-dimensional sphere, like the surface of a three-dimensional ball in four dimensions.
Einstein was the first physicist to say that Max Planck's discovery of the energy quanta would require a rewriting of the laws of physics.To support his point, in 1905 Einstein proposed that light sometimes acts as a particle which he called a light quantum (see photon and wave–particle duality).
The EPR paper has recently been recognized as prescient, since it identified the phenomenon of quantum entanglement, [dubious – discuss] which has inspired approaches to quantum mechanics different from the Copenhagen interpretation, and has been at the forefront of major technological advances in quantum computing, quantum encryption, and ...
Quantum entanglement can be defined only within the formalism of quantum mechanics, i.e., it is a model-dependent property. In contrast, nonlocality refers to the impossibility of a description of observed statistics in terms of a local hidden variable model, so it is independent of the physical model used to describe the experiment.
Albert Einstein presented the theories of special relativity and general relativity in publications that either contained no formal references to previous literature, or referred only to a small number of his predecessors for fundamental results on which he based his theories, most notably to the work of Henri Poincaré and Hendrik Lorentz for special relativity, and to the work of David ...
Although most theories of physics are based on real numbers, quantum theory was the first to be formulated in terms of operators acting on complex Hilbert spaces. This has puzzled countless physicists, including the fathers of the theory, for whom a real version of quantum theory, in terms of real operators, seemed much more natural.