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The S-matrix is the oracle physicists turn to in times of crisis
Particle physicists in search of the next theory of reality are consulting a mathematical structure that they know will never fail: a table of possibilities known as the S-matrix.
The S-matrix wasn’t Heisenberg’s invention: Paul Dirac first explored the concept, and John Wheeler, who coined the terms “quantum foam” and “wormhole,” came up with the name. Geoffrey Chew, a physicist at the University of California, Berkely, attempted to describe a bonanza of newly discovered particles by guessing their S-matrix from logical requirements. Others, like Sebastian Mizera, a physicist at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, see renewed hope in Chew’s original dream: bootstrapping a single S-matrix capturing the behavior of specific particles.
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