Are we scientists or quantum engineers?
31/08/14 16:39
I have taught my students about emergent physics, and that every level is fundamental. Condensed matter physics is just as fundamental as particle physics. This was true when the giants like Landau and Anderson opened up this field years ago.
However, so many years have passed, the basic interactions and effective interactions are known, although the problem or material could be complicated. They just manifest the same basic physics once and once again.
What we are doing is when the new materials are created, we try to solve the problem and figure out how these basic physical ingredients work together in a delicate way. We have encountered many surprises, and after we figure them out, it is more or less the same physics, once, twice, and again.
For example, after we figure out the iron-based superconductors, its mechanism is very similar to that of cuprates, while its correlation is similar to that of the manganites. We can have more classes of materials, such as the yet to be solved heavy fermion superconductors. But the truth is that our main endeavor is to understand how these basic rules work. Since it is a many body problem, one cannot exactly solve. As a result, no one can claim we made it, even though we already understand the problem in a qualitative way. When we talk about cuprate superconductivity, there are always details and subtleness, such as the CDW competing order. But these are just noises, since we already understand it. When someone asks me what is the fundamental problem left in cuprate and what will be the smoking gun experiment to answer that? My answer is No and No.
Then this makes me to think that we are more like dealing a quantum complexity, and like a back-tracking engineer of the quantum world. Since there are so many materials, and we have just studied the tip of the iceberg. Fortunately, there will be more and more “surprises”, and we will not lose our job as an engineer. We can even design new interfaces and materials, like the engineers in the semiconductor business. As quantum engineers, we are very successful. But we might have lost our job as a scientist, not even noticed!
It is likely at this stage of the condensed matter physics research, the fundamental side of it, which needs to be thought through. We need to find or create brand new phases of matter or create new concepts, or go to biological (more complex) level of condensed matter, or ................... Well, think hard! Otherwise we are just repeating ourselves, which is like a kid repeatedly working on exercises. We had fun solving puzzles, but they are alike. I am a bit shocked and frustrated about this findings.
The "comforting" news is the particle physicists of today are no better than us, if they just keep colliding. Maybe the true frontier of fundamental physics is on dark matter, dark energy and string theory (a doomed failure in my personal view, but honorable trial though), but how far they can go is questionable, which maybe fundamentally limited by our space and human capability.
Is it possible that physics will be fully matured and there will be nothing left to do after another 100 years ? The pessimistic answer is Yes.
Over 100 years ago, Sir Kelvin had the same frustration as mine... So on the positive side, we will have the next revolution and the next Einstein coming.
Notes added on Oct.12, 2014: This year’s Nobel physics prize is awarded to the blue LED, see, engineers ! In that sense, they fully deserve it. No one should moan about it and complain there is not enough physics!
However, so many years have passed, the basic interactions and effective interactions are known, although the problem or material could be complicated. They just manifest the same basic physics once and once again.
What we are doing is when the new materials are created, we try to solve the problem and figure out how these basic physical ingredients work together in a delicate way. We have encountered many surprises, and after we figure them out, it is more or less the same physics, once, twice, and again.
For example, after we figure out the iron-based superconductors, its mechanism is very similar to that of cuprates, while its correlation is similar to that of the manganites. We can have more classes of materials, such as the yet to be solved heavy fermion superconductors. But the truth is that our main endeavor is to understand how these basic rules work. Since it is a many body problem, one cannot exactly solve. As a result, no one can claim we made it, even though we already understand the problem in a qualitative way. When we talk about cuprate superconductivity, there are always details and subtleness, such as the CDW competing order. But these are just noises, since we already understand it. When someone asks me what is the fundamental problem left in cuprate and what will be the smoking gun experiment to answer that? My answer is No and No.
Then this makes me to think that we are more like dealing a quantum complexity, and like a back-tracking engineer of the quantum world. Since there are so many materials, and we have just studied the tip of the iceberg. Fortunately, there will be more and more “surprises”, and we will not lose our job as an engineer. We can even design new interfaces and materials, like the engineers in the semiconductor business. As quantum engineers, we are very successful. But we might have lost our job as a scientist, not even noticed!
It is likely at this stage of the condensed matter physics research, the fundamental side of it, which needs to be thought through. We need to find or create brand new phases of matter or create new concepts, or go to biological (more complex) level of condensed matter, or ................... Well, think hard! Otherwise we are just repeating ourselves, which is like a kid repeatedly working on exercises. We had fun solving puzzles, but they are alike. I am a bit shocked and frustrated about this findings.
The "comforting" news is the particle physicists of today are no better than us, if they just keep colliding. Maybe the true frontier of fundamental physics is on dark matter, dark energy and string theory (a doomed failure in my personal view, but honorable trial though), but how far they can go is questionable, which maybe fundamentally limited by our space and human capability.
Is it possible that physics will be fully matured and there will be nothing left to do after another 100 years ? The pessimistic answer is Yes.
Over 100 years ago, Sir Kelvin had the same frustration as mine... So on the positive side, we will have the next revolution and the next Einstein coming.
Notes added on Oct.12, 2014: This year’s Nobel physics prize is awarded to the blue LED, see, engineers ! In that sense, they fully deserve it. No one should moan about it and complain there is not enough physics!