Speaker: Angelo Bassi
University of Trieste
Saturday 4 Feb. (16 Bahman), 3:00-4:00 PM
Ibn Al-Haytham Hall, Physics Department
Abstract:
The title is borrowed from a recent speech of the Nobel Laureate S. Weinberg, whose transcript has been published on the 19th January 2017 issue of the New York Review of Books. I will explain why an increasing number of physicists are troubled by quantum theory, in spite of its tremendous success. The fundamental question, around which the debate revolves, is: what is the role of the wave function? I will review some of the proposed solutions, with a particular emphasis on models on spontaneous wave function collapse. I will also review what experiments have to say regarding the debate on the foundations of quantum mechanics, and on its limits of validity.