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Quantum gravity

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Black Hole Firewalls Could Be Too Tepid to Burn

August 22, 2018

String theorists elide a paradox about black holes by extinguishing the walls of fire feared to surround them.

Dark Energy May Be Incompatible With String Theory

August 9, 2018

A controversial new paper argues that universes with dark energy profiles like ours do not exist in the “landscape” of universes allowed by string theory.

Black Hole Echoes Would Reveal Break With Einstein’s Theory

March 22, 2018

Gravitational waves have opened up new ways to test the properties of black holes — and Einstein’s theory of gravity along with them.

Why Stephen Hawking’s Black Hole Puzzle Keeps Puzzling

March 14, 2018

The renowned British physicist, who died at 76, left behind a riddle that could eventually lead his successors to the theory of quantum gravity.

Physicists Find a Way to See the ‘Grin’ of Quantum Gravity

March 6, 2018

A recently proposed experiment would confirm that gravity is a quantum force.

Physicists Mourn Joe Polchinski, Developer of Deep Ideas and Paradoxes

February 20, 2018

The theoretical physicist Joe Polchinski, who died February 2, left a tremendous professional and personal legacy, says a friend and collaborator.

How the Universe Got Its Bounce Back

January 31, 2018

Cosmologists have shown that it’s theoretically possible for a contracting universe to bounce and expand. The new work resuscitates an old idea that directly challenges the Big Bang theory of cosmic origins.

Why an Old Theory of Everything Is Gaining New Life

January 8, 2018

For decades, physicists have struggled to create a quantum theory of gravity. Now an approach that dates to the 1970s is attracting newfound attention.

Why Is M-Theory the Leading Candidate for Theory of Everything?

December 18, 2017

The mother of all string theories passes a litmus test that, so far, no other candidate theory of quantum gravity has been able to match.

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