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1、姓名：胡思怡学号：S100100022课程标题：Quantum theorys last challenge日期：2010.10.03-Quantum theorys last challenge 量子理论最后的挑战ABSTRACTQuantum mechanics is now 100 years old and still going strong. Combining general relativity with quantum mechanics is the last hurdle to be overcome in the “quantum revolution”.摘要：量子力学
2、至今已经有 100 年了，并且依然强盛。结合广义相对论的量子力学是突破“量子革命”的最后的屏障。正文：This year we celebrate 100 years of quantum theory, and in particular the anniversary of an announcement made by Max Planck at a meeting of the German Physical Society on 14 December 1900. Planck was interested in the nature of radiation emitted by
3、hot objects, and in 1900 he devised a theory that described all of the experimental evidence, but that required a radical new concept: energy is not emitted or absorbed continuously, but in discrete amounts, called quanta. At the time, Planck was not aware of the profound consequences of his work, b
4、ut gradually physicists realized that they needed quantum concepts to understand the structure of all matter and radiation.今年我们庆祝量子理论建立 100 周年，特别是这个纪念日是马克思普朗克在 1900 年 12 月 14 日德国物理学会的会议上宣布的。普朗克对发热物体的热辐射性质感兴趣，并于 1900 年，他发现了一个能解释所有实验结果的理论，但需要一个完整的概念：在离散量里能量不能连续不断的辐射或者吸收，被称做量子。当时普朗克没有发现他的研究的更深远的影响，但是渐渐
5、的物理学家们意识到了他们需要量子的概念去了解所有物质和辐射的结构。Over the past century there have been many successful tests of quantum mechanics (see accompanying commentary by Anton Zeilinger in this issue 1). Experiments have confirmed even some of the most counter intuitive predictions of quantum theory, including “particle-wa
6、ve duality”, the idea that a particle should be treated as a wave. But some physicists still wonder whether quantum theory is a truly fundamental ingredient of the laws of nature, or just a convenient description of some aspects of the microscopic world. It is still possible that quantum mechanics i
7、s an approximation to a more fundamental theory, just as Newtonian gravity is a special case of the more accurate description of gravity and the relationship between space and time provided by Einsteins general relativity theory.在过去的一个世纪里，已经有很多成功的实验证明了量子力学。很多实验已经证实了以前依靠直觉预测出的量子理论，包括“波粒二象性”，即一种应该把粒子看
8、成是波的想法。但是一些物理学家始终对量子理论是否属于自然规律的基本组成或者仅仅是个对微观世界的简单描述表示怀疑。仍然有种可能就是量子力学是一种近似于非常基础的理论，就像牛顿引力就是一种对引力非常精确的特殊描述和爱因斯坦广义相对论对时间和空间关系的假设。The biggest challenge to accepting quantum mechanics as a fundamental theory of nature is that despite 70 years of attempts it has still not been integrated with the classica
9、l theory of general relativity. Most of the time, the subtleties of quantum mechanics can be safely ignored by general relativity: gravity drives the expansion of the Universe and the formation of galaxies, whereas quantum theory reigns supreme at the atomic scale. But there are times when quantum m
10、echanics cannot be excluded. For example, a theory unifying gravity and quantum mechanics is required to understand the “Big Bang” - the first few moments of the universe when gravitational interactions were very strong and the scales involved were all microscopic.最大的挑战是像自然基础理论一样接受量子力学这尽管尝试了 70 年依然没
11、有和经典广义相对论相结合。大多数情况，量子力学的细微之处可以完全被广义相对论忽略了：引力促使了宇宙的膨胀和星系的形成，而量子理论只在原子范围内有很重要的地位。但是有时量子力学是不能被忽视的。比如，要理解“大爆炸”（宇宙最早的那一刻引力作用非常强烈和所有微粒都相互作用）就需要一个理论去统一引力和量子力学Another area of concern is the lack of experimental evidence on the interplay between quantum theory and general relativity. The structure of the two
12、 theories does allow for situations in which neither can be neglected, but it is extremely hard to create the required conditions in a laboratory. This is crucial if we are to test any of the theoretical ideas that propose to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity.另一个备受关注的领域缺少试验论证是关于量子理论和广义相
13、对论之间相互作用的。两种理论的构成在允许的情况下是都不能被忽略的，但是在实验室中是很难搭建出需要的条件的。当我们去验证一些要结合量子力学和广义相对论的理论思想时这是非常重要的。The incomplete revolution. 不彻底的革命The “relativity revolution” and the “quantum revolution” are among the greatest successes of twentieth century physics, yet the theories they produced appear to be fundamentally i
14、ncompatible. General relativity remains a purely classical theory: it describes the geometry of space and time as smooth and continuous whereas quantum mechanics divides everything into discrete chunks. The predictions of the two theories have been confirmed in a large number of experiments, but eac
15、h of these experiments is relevant for only one or the other of the two theories because of the different scales involved. Physicists discomfort with this situation is perhaps best described by Rov- ellis characterization 3 of the 1900s as “the century of the incomplete revolution”, suggesting there
16、 may be a greater revolution to come.“相对论革命”和“量子革命”都属于 20 世纪物理界最伟大的，然而这些理论的提出呈现出来的是根本上的不相容。广义相对论延续了纯粹的经典理论Part of the underlying theoretical incompatibility arises from the way the two theories treat the geometry of space and time. In quantum mechanics, space-time has the role of a fixed arena within which one describes the evolution of various “quantum observables”, such as the position of particles. But in general relativity, space and time are dynamical quantities that can respond to
