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Physics

Quantum disorder is dependent on who is looking for it

A new understanding of how an observer can change the disorder, or entropy, of a quantum object could help us probe how gravity interacts with the quantum realm

By Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

5 March 2025

In a curved space-time like the one we’re in, the entropy of a quantum object depends on how you’re travelling when you measure it

Rostislav Zatonskiy/Alamy

Our two best theories of the physics of the universe – quantum mechanics and general relativity – often fail to agree. Physicists have been trying to unite them for over a century, and now, researchers have found one place where they don’t seem to clash. Working out from this one example may open the doors for building a more general, universe-wide theory.

It…

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