The Quanum Field Theory

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In standard particle physics, we talk about virtual particles. They are always part particle anti particle pairs tt that are sort of popping into existence in the vacuum for a very short time and then annihilating. But quanterfield theory says there's an infinite number of these virtual particles that are recurring all over the universe. In einstein's equations say, you know, whenever you have energy, you are going to curl up the universe with no gravitational attraction. With that energy, how can the universe not curl up into a tiny ball? And we don't yet know the answer.

It’s not easy, figuring out the fundamental laws of physics. It’s even harder when your chosen methodology is to essentially start from scratch, positing a simple underlying system and a simple set of rules for it, and hope that everything we know about the world somehow pops out. That’s the project being undertaken by Stephen Wolfram and his collaborators, who are working with a kind of discrete system called “hypergraphs.” We talk about what the basic ideas are, why one would choose this particular angle of attack on fundamental physics, and how ideas like quantum mechanics and general relativity might emerge from this simple framework.

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Stephen Wolfram received his Ph.D. in physics from Caltech. He is the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research, and the creator of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Language. Among his awards are a MacArthur Fellowship. Among his books is A New Kind of Science. He recently launched the Wolfram Physics Project.

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