Quantum Physics Is on the Wrong Track, Says Breakthrough Prize Winner Gerard ’t Hooft突破（Breakthrough）奖得主格拉尔德·特·胡夫特称量子物理学走错了方向.pdfVIP

SpecialOffer:$1for90days

April8,2025

17minread

QuantumPhysicsIsontheWrongTrack,Says

BreakthroughPrizeWinnerGerard’tHooft

Afternettingtheworld’shighest-payingscienceaward,preeminenttheoreticalphysicist

Gerard’tHooftrelectsonhislegacyandthefutureofphysics

ByLeeBillingseditedbyClaraMoskowitz

/article/breakthrough-prize-winner-gerard-t-hooft-

says-quantum-mechanics-is-nonsense/

ShidehGhandeharizadeh

June2025SpecialEdition

QuantumPhysics

Inthepantheonofmodernphysics,fewigurescanmatchthequietauthorityofGerard’t

Hooft.Thetheoreticalphysicist,nowaprofessoremeritusatUtrechtUniversityinthe

Netherlands,hasspentmuchofthepastivedecadesreshapingourunderstandingofthe

fundamentalforcesthatknittogetherreality.But’tHooft’sunassuming,soft-spoken

mannerbelieshistoweringscientiicstature,whichisbetterrevealedbythemathematical

rigoranddeepphysicalinsightsthatdeinehiswork—andbytheprodigiousnumbersof

prestigiousprizeshehasaccrued,whichincludeaNobelPrize,aWolfPrize,aFranklin

Medal,andmanymore.

Hislatestaccolade,announcedlastApril,isthemostlucrativeinallofscience:aSpecial

BreakthroughPrizeinFundamentalPhysics,worth$3million,inrecognitionof’tHooft’s

myriadcontributionstophysicsacrosshislongcareer.

Hismostcelebrateddiscovery—theonethatearnedhim,alongwithhisformerPh.D.thesis

adviser,thelateMartinusVeltman,the1999NobelPrizeinPhysics—showedhowtomake

senseofnon-Abeliangaugetheories,whicharecomplexmathematicalframeworksthat

describehowelementaryparticlesinteract.Together,’tHooftand

Veltmandemonstratedthatthesetheoriescouldberenormalized,meaningintractable

ininitequantitiesthatcroppedupincalculationscouldbetamedinaconsistentand

preciseway.Thisfeatwouldchangethecourseofsciencehistory,layingthegroundwor