Matt Strassler

@n_equals_42 So what? Does that justify destroying the science departments in those institutions?

@MattStrassler Nonetheless, prominent institutions need to accept they’ve played a role in someone like Trump getting power

@lalanruski @WitchCelebrity If you can't recognize quality, then you will soon have a has-been-power instead of a superpower.

@WitchCelebrity And here you are, defending the destruction of science in America.

@WitchCelebrity This is completely irrelevant to what the president is doing. He wants to control the university. The intifada and antisemitism claims are spurious, just like the claim that we should annex Canada because of the fentanyl problem.

@WitchCelebrity Then why is he threatening to destroy the university? Why is he calling it a "JOKE". Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Biology, other fields. That is what he is *actually* damaging. People's research is being cancelled. Excellent people are making plans to leave.

@Kartaphilus The problem with this view is that measurement involves a change from one superposition to another via entanglement; and also, measurement can be slow, incomplete, or imperfect. This leaves the claim that "AND becomes OR through measurement" ill-defined.

@MattStrassler It'an AND, becomes OR upon measurement, but indeed the inadequacy of common language is pretty obvious. An Aristotelian may phrase it as potentiality vs. actuality.

Is Superposition Really an "OR"? If a quantum system is in a superposition state "A+B", does it mean that "A AND B" are true, or that "A OR B " is true, or something else? An example of why ordinary language is not easily applied to #quantum physics. profmattstrassler.com/2025/04/14/is-…

@MattStrassler has some fantastic (highly pedagogical) physics articles. profmattstrassler.com/2025/02/27/wha…

@TheApe_Theist But I didn't write a book about *this* subject. I carefully, delicately avoided it.

@MattStrassler You should write a book. Honestly. Oh… wait. 🥳

@catalystmic Quantum logic gates of course include the "OR" of superposition, but classical logic gates do not. And our distant ancestors were talking about "AND" and "OR" and "NOT" and "XOR" long before there were gates of any sort.

@MattStrassler i believe you're talking about logic gates.

Have you ever wondered about what's going on with the double slit experiment? If so, you owe it to yourself to read @MattStrassler's brilliant series of blog posts on the topic. I recommend starting here: profmattstrassler.com/2025/02/17/how…

@AniRhythm @roydherbert Most current AI have learned well from humans; they are excellent BS artists. I have had students who sound just like them. Someday this may improve... or it may get worse. Hard to know.

@MattStrassler @roydherbert I'm going through the review now with Grok, - its reaction is actually quite fascinating, first time I ever see any AI get defensive! heh! ( my own focus is on emulating human thought in AI ) thanks again! 😀

I thought you both might appreciate this, a deep dive into dark energy / dark matter with 3 AIs @roydherbert @MattStrassler x.com/i/grok/share/T…

@AniRhythm @roydherbert True "theory", in science, is math- and logic-based. It is not the same as speculation, despite the word's meaning in colloquial English. "Mostly theory after all" does not cut mustard with a professional physicist; I expect AI to show me the math and get the logic straight.

@MattStrassler @roydherbert thank you for reviewing! Yes, I appreciate what you mean, I tested same idea 2nd time and AI gave me a contradictory response. I still enjoy encouraging the AI to look at data from various angles. it is mostly theory after all and occasionally 1 new meaningful insight is found

@AniRhythm Unfortunately, the AI is, as is almost always the case with advanced physics, completely wrong. See today's post; you'll see it contradicts almost every statement made by the AI, which learned what it knows from people who don't think about it correctly. profmattstrassler.com/2025/04/03/dou…

@MattStrassler love your tweets, you have me deep diving into wave behavior with AI! 🧐

The interference of water waves happens somewhere -- wherever the waves are, obviously. But #quantum interference happens... nowhere. If you try to say exactly where two #entangled particles interfere, you will find yourself lost in space. profmattstrassler.com/2025/03/31/qua…

@VergaraLautaro Even more precisely: waves in the wave functions are interfering --- "parts" or "peaks" of a wave function are interfering with each other --- and of course, that depends on which basis you are in. So it is quite tricky.

@MattStrassler I think I said the same thing as you, but you said it better. Words help to obscure QM. What interfere are wavefunctions in a Hilbert space. This has no direct physical reality.

In the #quantum double slit experiment, the famous #interference pattern disappears if we measure which slit the particle went through. Why does it disappear? It's often described in vague, mystical terms, but in fact it's conceptually straightforward: profmattstrassler.com/2025/04/03/dou…

@SJ_Powers #Quantum interference is very strange. Interference of water waves isn't strange at all... But quantum interference is something quite different, even though at first glance it seems similar.

@MattStrassler Interference is very strange

@VergaraLautaro No, it doesn't. It has measurable consequences in spacetime. But you can't localize the interference to a place in space. Today's post gives very simple examples of why this is impossible.

@MattStrassler Interference occurs (it's measured) in spacetime, does it?