SCIAMA LECTURE: Quantum Mechanics and Reality | SISSA, 16 October, 5 pm

[ICTP/infopoint]

*Quantum Mechanics and Reality: The Schism in Modern Physics, from 1927 
to the Present Day**
*Sciama Lecture by Antony Valentini | SISSA, 16 October 2019, 5 pm

Quantum mechanics is singular among physical theories in that it does 
not make clear statements about what actually exists. Reality seems to 
'depend on the observer'. On Wednesday 16 October at SISSA Antony 
Valentini, Adjunct Professor of Physics at Clemson University, will 
discuss how the uncertainty principle and 'quantum superposition' appear 
to challenge conventional ideas about reality, and how these challenges 
may be overcome by insisting on a consistent notion of reality even at 
the atomic scale. He will describe how such a deeper theory - a theory 
of 'hidden variables' - was in fact already proposed by de Broglie in 
the 1920s, while most other theorists were abandoning the idea of 
objective reality. Revived by Bohm in 1952, work in recent decades has 
shown that de Broglie-Bohm theory contains a wealth of potentially new 
and radical physics, which has been widely overlooked even by the 
theory's proponents. To observe this new physics, however, may require 
to reach back to the early universe.

The Sciama Lecture will take place in the Budinich Lecture Hall at 
SISSA, starting at 5 pm. A reception will follow.

Chiara Saviane