One of the most pressing contemporary problems for the foundations of physics is the seeming incompatibility between our best description of the large-scale structure of reality – general relativity – and our best description of the small-scale structure of reality – quantum mechanics. The broad field attempting to reconcile these descriptions, known as 'quantum cosmology', encompasses a wide variety of research across physics and philosophy, and there remains significant disagreement about a solution to this incompatibility.
As featured in a recent article in the popular science magazine Scientia, Dr Peter Evans sheds new light on this debate by considering a novel angle to the problem: what if the cause of an event could be located in the future of that event? Dr Evans argues that, given a conceptual framework built from the right background assumptions, his ideas could answer some of the most pressing questions posed by quantum cosmology. To justify these claims, he has drawn together a variety of concepts from fields including cosmology, quantum mechanics and philosophy. If correct, his ideas could dispel some of the most puzzling mysteries of quantum theory – a significant step forward in understanding the nature of reality.
About Scientia
Scientia is a series of outreach research publications connecting scientists and educators, policy-makers and researchers, and the public and private sectors. Scientia's goal is to help researchers communicate their findings beyond their speciality and into the wider world by offering researchers significant visibility and accessibility to those both inside and outside the research community. Scientia is reinventing science dissemination to complement traditional academic publishing in a concise, easy-to-understand language for all to enjoy.
Listen to Dr Evan's podcast Unravelling the Mysteries of Quantum Cosmology here, or follow him on Twitter.