On the Interplay Between General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics

PIRSA ID: 21030003
Series: Colloquium
Event Type: Seminar
Scientific Area(s):
Other
End date:
Speaker(s):
  • Roger Penrose, University of Oxford

There has been much theorizing on the question of how the procedures of quantum theory might modify general relativity, perhaps leading to a resolution of the problem of the space-time singularities of gravitational collapse. However, I shall argue that these procedures cannot, alone, resolve the space-time singularity issue. Instead, I shall maintain that considerations of relativity, both special and general, could well provide pointers to how the major conundrum of quantum mechanics—the collapse of the wave-function—may eventually be resolved, via curious retro-active aspects of quantum and classical reality.