The 2024 news in astronomy and cosmology was very rich as Futura reported recently, but without truly revolutionary discoveries. The news in physics has been much less so, but with some significant events that can be considered as a prelude, because in fact, on June 7, 2024, the United Nations proclaimed 2025 the International Year of Science and Technology. Quantum technology (AIQ). According to the terms used, there will therefore be activities at all levels aimed at increasing public awareness of the importance of quantum science and applications.
Interview with Louis de Broglie, 1967. © INA
From Louis de Broglie to John von Neumann
The years 1924 to 1926 saw the birth of quantum theory and in particular in 1925 with the discovery, first by Heisenberg, then in collaboration with Max BornMax Born and Pascual Jordan, principles of matrix quantum mechanics. At the end of 1925, inspired by the ideas that Louis de Broglie had presented in his thesis almost a year earlier and of which EinsteinEinstein had advertised, Erwin SchrödingerErwin Schrödinger began his work on wave mechanics and, in January 1926, began to publish his founding articles with the equation now bearing his name and which he would show that it made it possible to find matrix mechanics on more physical bases.
However, we will have to wait for the more mathematical work of von Neumann in his famous treatise to have a more rigorous and general understanding and this equivalence a few years later. On the physics side, the treatises which quickly became authoritative during the 1930s were those of Pauli and Dirac. In Soviet Russia, it was the work of Vladimir Fock which played this role during these same years.
By Jean Dalibard, holder of the Atoms and radiation chair at the Collège de France. In 1924, Louis de Broglie hypothesized that each particle of matter has a wave nature. Einstein was enthusiastic and de Broglie won the Nobel Prize in 1929. This discovery today has concrete applications, from electronic components to the future “quantum computer”. In 1924, in his doctoral thesis, Louis de Broglie hypothesized that a wave could be associated with each material particle. Upon learning of it, an enthusiastic Einstein declared that de Broglie had “ raised a corner of the main veil “. Five years later, it earned its author the Nobel Prize in Physics. for his discovery of the wave nature of electrons “. Louis de Broglie’s conceptual breakthrough played a fundamental role in the development of quantum physics, it now governs our understanding of the microscopic world and is the basis of countless applications, from the electronic components we use every day to a hypothetical “quantum computer”. © National Library of France BnF
The quantum information revolution
This is the first quantum revolution, both theoretical and practical since it will lead to laserlaserat theIRMIRM and the electronics of semiconductorssemiconductors. The second quantum revolution is taking place under our eyeseyes with the development of quantum computing and the hopes placed in quantum computersquantum computers.
This second revolution is based in particular on the phenomenon ofquantum entanglementquantum entanglement and the discoveries made on this subject 60 years ago CernCern par John BellJohn Bell. It was magnificently illustrated at the end of 2024 by the announcement of the performance of the quantum chip of GoogleGoogle.
Quantum entanglement is one of the most fascinating phenomena in modern physics. In the 1930s, it was the subject of a heated debate between two giants of physics: Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. For Einstein, entanglement, which seems to magically connect distant particles, is an aberration of quantum theory and proof that it is incomplete. For Bohr, entanglement is very real and pushes us to accept the idea that separate quantum objects can form an indivisible whole. But, due to a lack of experimental evidence and concrete scientific applications, the Bohr-Einstein debate went unnoticed for almost 30 years… First part of a documentary devoted to the history of quantum entanglement. With the participation of: Alain Aspect (Charles Fabry Laboratory of the Optical Institute), Sara Ducci (Quantum Materials and Phenomena Laboratory), Philippe Grangier (Charles Fabry Laboratory of the Optical Institute), Franck Laloë (Kastler Laboratory Brossel), Pérola Milman (Quantum Materials and Phenomena Laboratory). © Twin Photons
Farewell to Peter Higgs and Didier Lauwaert
The work of John Bell, who has since become famous, was published in 1964 while the researcher was stationed at Cern, whose 70th anniversary was also celebrated in 2024. Remarkably, it is also Louis de BroglieLouis de Broglie which played an important role in its foundation which therefore dates from 1954.
Just as remarkably, it was in 1964 that Peter HiggsPeter Higgs proposes the existence of his famous bosonbosonPeter Higgs who unfortunately also left us in 2024 with another Nobel Prize in Physics.
The Cern saga began 70 years ago. Small introduction. To obtain a fairly accurate French translation, click on the white rectangle at the bottom right. English subtitles should then appear. Then click on the nut to the right of the rectangle, then on “Subtitles” and finally on “Automatically translate”. Choose “French”. © Cern
The year 2024 is also a Nobel Prize in Physics at the intersection with the field ofIAIA and the international opening of a competitor or more precisely of a complement, the Russian “ВЫЗОВ” prize.
2024 was also marked by disappearances or opportunities to remember important disappearances and the one that saddened Futura the most was undoubtedly the death of Didier Lauwaert, but 2024 was also an opportunity to remember the departure of Cécile DeWitt-Morette.
