Related papers: QCD and Natural Philosophy
I discuss four big questions that can be importantly addressed using concepts from modern QCD. They concern the origin of mass, the feebleness of gravity, the uniqueness of physical laws, and the fate of matter when it is squeezed very…
I bring forward some arguments to support the thesis that nature is fundamentally discrete, and present my own thoughts about the direction in which one could look for a possible, consistent "theory of everything" describing gravitation and…
In attempting to match QCD with Nature, it is necessary to confront the many complexities of strong, nonlinear dynamics in relativistic quantum field theory, e.g. the loss of particle number conservation, the frame and scale dependence of…
It is argued that the occurrence of disproportionately ("un-natural") large (or small) numbers, as well as deep cancellations, are comparatively natural traits of the way Nature is geared to operate in most complex systems. The idea is…
Many of the most familiar features of our everyday environment, and some of our basic notions about it, stem from Relativistic Quantum Field Theory (RQFT). We argue in particular that the origin of common names, verbs, adjectives such as…
The mystery of the origin of the mass of the elementary particles persists despite the success of quantum field theories to the highest level of accuracy. Renormalization program has been the essential part of the calculation of the…
Physical quantities and physical dimensions are among the first concepts encountered by students in their undergraduate career. In this pedagogical review, I will start from these concepts and, using the powerful tool of dimensional…
Ordinary matter is described by six fundamental parameters: three couplings (gravitational, electromagnetic and strong) and three masses: the electron's (m_e) and those of the up (m_u) and down (m_d) quarks. An additional mass enters…
More than a speculative technology, quantum computing seems to challenge our most basic intuitions about how the physical world should behave. In this thesis I show that, while some intuitions from classical computer science must be…
A monistic framework is set up where energy is the only fundamental substance. Different states of energy are ordered by a set of scalar qunatum-phase-fields. The dual elements of matter, mass and space, are described as volume- and…
The possibility of a quantum system to exhibit properties that are akin to both the classically held notions of being a particle and a wave, is one of the most intriguing aspects of the quantum description of nature. These aspects have been…
The classical view of mass is that it quantifies the amount of substance and is a kinematical parameter. All matter has an attribute of mass and is a conserved quantity in any interaction. With the advent of special relativity, mass became…
The quest to identify quantum advantages lies at the heart of quantum technology. While quantum devices promise extraordinary capabilities, from exponential computational speedups to unprecedented measurement precision, distinguishing…
The fundamental physical theories that interpret and explain behaviour of matter in nature are dependent on several unobservables and insensibles in their construction. While a rigorous natural philosophy cannot take them for granted, there…
General relativity describes the gravitational field geometrically and in a self-interacting way because it couples to all forms of energy, including its own. Both features make finding a quantum theory difficult, yet it is important in the…
This is a contribution to a book on quantum gravity and philosophy. I discuss nature and origin of the problem of quantum gravity. I examine the knowledge that may guide us in addressing this problem, and the reliability of such knowledge.…
Many have wondered how mathematics, which appears to be the result of both human creativity and human discovery, can possibly exhibit the degree of success and seemingly-universal applicability to quantifying the physical world as…
Quantum gravity places entirely new challenges on the formulation of a consistent theory as well as on an extraction of potentially observable effects. Quantum corrections due to the gravitational field are commonly expected to be tiny…
The rapidly increasing interest in the quantum properties of living matter stimulates a discussion of the fundamental properties of life as well as quantum mechanics. In this discussion often concepts are used that originate in philosophy…
We discuss the challenges that the standard (Humean and non-Humean) accounts of laws face within the framework of quantum gravity where space and time may not be fundamental. This paper identifies core (meta)physical features that cut…