A Century of Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

Approximately one hundred years after its formulation, quantum mechanics is the most successful of all the frameworks discovered to describe physical reality. In this paper I review its successes; namely that it works, that it makes sense and that it is hard to modify. Finally, I discuss where, at the frontiers of knowledge, our present quantum mechanical framework might breakdown. [Editors note: For a video of the talk given by Prof. Gross at the Aharonov-80 conference in 2012 at Chapman University, see quantum.chapman.edu/talk-1.]

D.G. is Permanent Member and holder of the Frederick W. Gluck Chair in Theoretical Physics at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Professor of Physics.

D.G. is 2004 Nobel Prize Winner in Physics.

This talk was first presented by Prof. Gross at the 25th Solvay Conference on Physics, “The Theory of the Quantum World,” held in Brussels, October 19–22, 2011.