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The following is a list of notable unsolved problems grouped into broad areas of physics. [1]Some of the major unsolved problems in physics are theoretical, meaning that existing theories seem incapable of explaining a certain observed phenomenon or experimental result.
For these problems, it is very easy to tell whether solutions exist, but thought to be very hard to tell how many. Many of these problems are #P-complete , and hence among the hardest problems in #P, since a polynomial time solution to any of them would allow a polynomial time solution to all other #P problems.
In addition, some of the proposals are arguably incomplete, because they solve the "new" cosmological constant problem by proposing that the actual cosmological constant is exactly zero rather than a tiny number, but fail to solve the "old" cosmological constant problem of why quantum fluctuations seem to fail to produce substantial vacuum ...
A simple example of an NP-hard problem is the subset sum problem. Informally, if H is NP-hard, then it is at least as difficult to solve as the problems in NP. However, the opposite direction is not true: some problems are undecidable, and therefore even more difficult to solve than all problems in NP, but they are probably not NP-hard (unless ...
In physics, the n-body problem is the problem of predicting the individual motions of a group of celestial objects interacting with each other gravitationally. [1] Solving this problem has been motivated by the desire to understand the motions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and visible stars.
In physics, specifically classical mechanics, the three-body problem is to take the initial positions and velocities (or momenta) of three point masses that orbit each other in space and calculate their subsequent trajectories using Newton's laws of motion and Newton's law of universal gravitation.
In particle physics, the most important hierarchy problem is the question that asks why the weak force is 10 24 times as strong as gravity. [10] Both of these forces involve constants of nature, the Fermi constant for the weak force and the Newtonian constant of gravitation for gravity.
where = is the reduced Planck constant.. The quintessentially quantum mechanical uncertainty principle comes in many forms other than position–momentum. The energy–time relationship is widely used to relate quantum state lifetime to measured energy widths but its formal derivation is fraught with confusing issues about the nature of time.