A new twist on Schrödinger’s Cat could finally unite quantum mechanics and Einstein's relativity
Joseph Shavit Updated Mon, November 9, 2026 at 7:51 AM GMT-5
A spontaneous collapse model explores how a simplified quantum universe could acquire a definite geometry without an outside observer. (CREDIT: The Brighter Side of News)
Quantum mechanics allows a system's state to combine several possibilities. Yet the universe we observe has a definite large-scale geometry. Explaining how those descriptions fit together remains a difficult question, especially when the system under discussion includes everything, leaving no outside observer to make a measurement.
- A theoretical study applies spontaneous wavefunction collapse to a simplified model of cosmic geometry.
- Its modified dynamics can narrow a superposition toward one definite geometry without an outside observer.
- A study in the Journal of High Energy Physics provides a possible mechanism, not experimental proof or a complete theory of quantum gravity.
A study published in the Journal of High Energy Physics193) explores one possible answer. Matteo Carlesso and José Luis Gaona-Reyes, affiliated with the University of Trieste, worked with Lucía Menéndez-Pidal and Mir Faizal to examine spontaneous collapse models in quantum cosmology.
A new twist on Schrödinger’s Cat could finally unite quantum mechanics and Einstein's relativity
A theoretical study applies spontaneous wavefunction collapse to a simplified model of cosmic geometry. Its modified dynamics can narrow a superposition toward one definite geometry without an outside...www.yahoo.com
Einstein groped for his GUT (Grand Unified Theory).
Even laymen can take some comfort knowing there's a set of scientific rules that govern reality, and even if the layman doesn't know the rules, he knows someone does.
Such laymen may go near as wobbly as Einstein knowing, there is NOT one set of rules that govern reality, but at least 3 sets of incompatible rules.
Sir Isaac Newton's 3 laws of motion are familiar to us from daily experience, billiard cue ownership not required.
Quantum physics applies to the very small, but differs from Newton's 3.
And Einstein's relativity, different from the other two. “Gravity slows down time … speed slows down time ...” astronomer Bob Berman
Uniting quantum mechanics and Einstein's relativity appeals to the human bias preferring closure, completion.
We can understand the allure. For now a will-o'-the-wisp I suspect.
In theory I have a degree in physics, but it was before all that string theory stuff.
I keep hearing about attempts to unify Newtonian, Quantum, and Relativistic physics, but it seems distant to me.
