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In the Italian education system, secondary students (ages 14-19) face the foundations of quantum physics during the final term of scientific high school (pre-university year). The Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research…
Gravitational decoherence (GD) refers to the effects of gravity in actuating the classical appearance of a quantum system. Because the underlying processes involve issues in general relativity (GR), quantum field theory (QFT) and quantum…
Gravity plays an important part in the experiments and discoveries of the modern world. But how was it discovered? Surely Newton and Einstein were not the only people to observe it and account for it. It had been a long path before the full…
Modeling the creative mathematical sensemaking that characterizes expert thinking in physics is typically a struggle for new learners. To help students learn to reason this way, we created a set of supplemental activities called Physics…
I give a pedagogical explanation of what it is about quantization that makes general relativity go from being a nearly perfect classical theory to a very problematic quantum one. I also explain why some quantization of gravity is…
A key open problem in physics is the correct way to combine gravity (described by general relativity) with everything else (described by quantum mechanics). This problem suggests that general relativity and possibly also quantum mechanics…
This article describes a set of curriculum modifications designed to integrate gravitational-wave science into a high school physics or astronomy curriculum. Gravitational-wave scientists are on the verge of being able to detect extreme…
Traditionally, scholars in physics education research pay attention to students solving well-structured learning activities, which provide restricted room for collaboration and idea-generation due to their close-ended nature. In order to…
We aim to bring a new perspective about some aspects of the current research in Cosmology. We start with a brief introduction about the main developments of the field in the last century; then we introduce an analogy that shall elucidate…
There is no doubt that both the special and general theories of relativity capture the imagination. The anti-intuitive properties of the special theory of relativity and its deep philosophical implications, the bizzare and dazzling…
This is a brief, popular (non-technical) introduction (in Italian language) to the problem of quantum gravity, to the recent perspective of emergent spacetime and to its (potential) realization in the context of group field theories, in…
One of the main challenges in theoretical physics over the last five decades has been to reconcile quantum mechanics with general relativity into a theory of quantum gravity. However, such a theory has been proved to be hard to attain due…
Conceptual consequences of recent results in loop quantum gravity are collected and discussed here in view of their implications for a modern philosophy of science which is mainly understood as one that totalizes scientific insight so as to…
Large contributions to the near closure of the Universe and to the acceleration of its expansion are due to the gravitation of components of the stress-energy tensor other than its mass density. To familiarise astronomers with the…
An outstanding open issue in our quest for physics beyond Einstein is the unification of general relativity (GR) and quantum physics. Loop quantum gravity (LQG) is a leading approach toward this goal. At its heart is the central lesson of…
The physics that underpins modern technology is based on Einstein's theories of relativity and quantum mechanics. Most school students complete their compulsory science education without being taught any of these Einsteinian concepts. Only…
This essay aims to summarize the main physical features arising from a new supersymmetric theory of gravitation. Based on preliminary discussions about classical field theory, cosmology, algebra and group theory, and taking formal results…
At the beginning of the previous century, Newtonian mechanics fell victim to two new revolutionary theories, Quantum Mechanics (QM) and General Relativity (GR). Both theories have transformed our view of physical phenomena, with QM…
The nascent field of gravitational-wave astronomy offers many opportunities for effective and inspirational astronomy outreach. Gravitational waves, the "ripples in space-time" predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity, are…
Analogue gravity is a research programme that explores analogues of general relativistic gravitational fields within other physical systems, particularly but not exclusively in condensed matter systems, with the aim of gaining new insights…