Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexN
Could that not be easily explained by the uncertainty principle?
You can not predict exactly what will happen when two bodies interact, rather, you can extrapolate a list of likely outcomes with varying probability..
Take two interacting galaxies for example, you could not hope to model exactly how they will interact, however by determining their current trajectory and velocity in space you should be able to extrapolate quite a few likely outcomes. You could not know for certain how it will play out because you do not know the total amount of stars per galaxy or their distribution, black holes and neutron stars who's mass will change the outcome of the interaction, other matter be it dark matter/dark energy/virtual particles etc etc.. There is no certainty in the outcome, however there is many different outcomes of varying probability..
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Hello Alex,
To answer your question requires a brief overview of Quantum Field Theory (QFT) which is the next step up from Quantum Mechanics (QM).
QFT is the interaction of particles in either the electromagnetic, weak or strong fields. Photons are the interaction or carrier particle in the electromagnetic field, W and Z bosons in the weak field and gluons in the strong field.
As you are aware the energy levels of the hydrogen atom are accurately described by QM. If however you stick a hydrogen atom into an external electrical field the energy levels change but remain finite.
Unfortunately QFT predicted the energy levels could become infinite.
To overcome this discrepancy scientists came up with a mathematical sleight of hand known as
renormalization.
Renormalization involves subtracting out the mathematical terms which caused the energy levels to become infinite. While this appears to be mathematical trickery and has been criticized by renowned scientists such as Richard Feynman, it turns out that theory agrees quite well with experiment.
Quantum gravity is a variant of QFT. The interaction or carrier particle is the graviton. When a particle interacts in the gravitational field once again you end up with infinite energies according to theory.
Quantum gravity however is a non-renormalizable theory. There is simply no way to remove the infinite terms in the mathematics.
It's for this reason that other theories have evolved to remove the infinities such as string theory or loop gravity theories.
Regards
Steven