The Dead-Lock of Modern Physics

The crisis of modern physics is the result of the following dead-lock of the theories of General Relativity GR of gravitation, Quantum Mechanics QM (including Quantum Field Theory QFT) and String Theory ST:

1. GR and QM/QFT are incompatible/contradictory and so do no serve as foundation of modern physics.
2. ST is an extension of QM/QFT to include gravitation.
3. ST is a failed project as extension of QM/QFT. 
4. Does failure of ST as extension of QM/QFT indicate failure of QM/QFT?
5. Incompatibility remains. Modern physics lacks foundation. Crisis.

As long as the dream of ST as extension of QM/QFT to gravitation could be upheld, critique of QM/QFT for lack of gravitation could be managed. But now?  

Nobel Laureates like Penrose and 't Hooft can say that "QM is wrong" but do not really question QM as untouchable foundation. 

Comment by chatGPT:

You pose a bold thesis: that modern theoretical physics is in a “dead-lock” because of the incompatibility between General Relativity (GR) and Quantum Mechanics/Quantum Field Theory (QM/QFT), and that the hope that String Theory (ST) would reconcile them has failed — ergo, “Modern physics lacks foundation”.  Here are a few reflections:

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✅ Strong points

• It is true that GR and QM/QFT are currently not unified in a complete accepted theory, and that raises deep conceptual and technical issues (space-time + quantum, gravitation + fields).

• It is legitimate to question whether the failure (so far) of ST means we should revisit the foundations of QM/QFT and GR rather than simply extend them.

• The call to reflect critically on the foundational assumptions is healthy — science often benefits from re-examining its premises.

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🎯 My take

I find the blog post thought-provoking. It forces us to confront the question: “Are our biggest theories simply incomplete and waiting for extension, or are they fundamentally misguided in some way?” I lean toward the view that GR and QM/QFT are deeply reliable in their domains, but yes — the unification is unsolved. I’m less convinced that the foundations are entirely bankrupt; rather, I see them as incomplete. The term “dead-lock” is strong, but perhaps apt if progress toward unification has been stalled for decades.

PS List of Nobel Prizes to QM/QFT

The importance of QM/QFT as foundation of moder physics is expressed by the Nobel Committee. Who could seriously question this foundation? It is ok to ask about ST but not really about QM?

I. Quantum Mechanics – Foundational Awards

Year	Laureate(s)	Contribution
1918	Max Planck	Discovery of energy quanta (birth of QM).
1921	Albert Einstein	Photoelectric effect (quantum nature of light).
1922	Niels Bohr	Structure of atoms; early quantum atomic model.
1932	Werner Heisenberg	Creation of matrix mechanics.
1933	Erwin Schrödinger & Paul Dirac	Schrödinger equation; relativistic quantum theory.
1954	Max Born	Statistical interpretation of the wavefunction.
1963	Wigner, Goeppert-Mayer, Jensen	Nuclear shell model (quantum many-body concept).

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II. Quantum Chemistry – Electronic Structure & Methods

Year	Laureate(s)	Contribution
1935	Debye	Dipole moments, molecular structure (pre-QC roots).
1954	Linus Pauling	Quantum nature of chemical bonds; hybridization.
1966	Robert S. Mulliken	Molecular orbital theory.
1981	Fukui & Hoffmann	Frontier orbital theory.
1998	Walter Kohn & John Pople	DFT (Kohn); ab initio QC methods (Pople).

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III. Quantum Field Theory (QFT)

(QED, QCD, electroweak theory, Standard Model, Higgs mechanism…)

Quantum Electrodynamics (QED)

Year	Laureate(s)	Contribution
1965	Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger, Sin-Itiro Tomonaga	Renormalized QED – first modern QFT.

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Electroweak Unification & Gauge Theories

Year	Laureate(s)	Contribution
1979	Glashow, Salam, Weinberg	Electroweak theory, gauge fields.
1999	’t Hooft & Veltman	Renormalization of gauge field theories.

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Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking / Higgs Mechanism

Year	Laureate(s)	Contribution
2008	Nambu	Spontaneous symmetry breaking (QFT).
1979	(also relevant)	SSB embedded in gauge theories.
2013	Higgs & Englert	Higgs field and mass generation (QFT → particle physics).

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Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD)

Year	Laureate(s)	Contribution
2004	Gross, Politzer, Wilczek	Asymptotic freedom in QCD (non-Abelian gauge theory).
2001	Cornell, Ketterle, Wieman	BEC experiments (field-theoretic many-body aspects).

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Neutrino Oscillations (field mixing)

Year	Laureate(s)	Contribution
2015	Kajita & McDonald	Neutrino mass & mixing (QFT flavour oscillation).

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IV. Quantum Information Science (QIS) — Modern QM

Year	Laureate(s)	Contribution
2022	Aspect, Clauser, Zeilinger	Bell inequality tests; entanglement; quantum information.

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V. Macroscopic Quantum Systems / Condensed Matter QFT

Year	Laureate(s)	Contribution
1972	Bardeen, Cooper, Schrieffer	BCS theory (many-body QM).
1987	Bednorz & Müller	High-Tc superconductivity (quantum many-body effects).
2003	Abrikosov, Ginzburg, Leggett	Superconductivity & superfluidity (quantum fields in matter).
2016	Thouless, Haldane, Kosterlitz	Topological phases (QFT + topology).
2025	Clarke, Devoret, Martinis	Macroscopic quantum tunneling & quantized circuits.