#SoCaltech: Blake Hawkins

"What fascinates me most about quantum mechanics is the question of whether uncertainty is really out there in the world or just in our heads. Take something as simple as an electron: In a chemistry class, you're shown this ‘cloud’ of electron distribution probability around the nucleus, denser in some places, thinner in others. Nobody quite tells you whether the electron is really spread out like that, or whether it's sitting at one location and the cloud just reflects what we don't know yet.

I find beautiful an idea called Newtonian Quantum Mechanics, developed by my mentor, Professor of Philosophy Charles Sebens: Instead of one universe governed by a mysterious, probabilistic wave, picture an enormous number of complete, deterministic universes, all weakly interacting, each containing nothing but classical point particles. What we call quantum uncertainty is just not knowing which universe we're in.

Professor Sebens built that picture for nonrelativistic quantum mechanics, so my SURF project aims to extend it into relativistic quantum field theory, the more accurate framework where particle number can change (the home of Feynman diagrams). I replace the classical particles with classical fields and derive the dynamics from the equations of quantum field theory to test whether the principles that make Sebens’ picture appealing survive the move to a better predictive theory. We are also finding interesting results about how energy conservation is treated in this setting.

It’s a lot of abstract work, but not speculative. I always start from the equations that physicists already trust and ask what the reality is they are telling us.”

Blake Hawkins (BS ’27) is a David C. Elliot SURF Fellow working with Charles Sebens, Caltech professor of philosophy, on the philosophy of physics, extending Sebens’ Newtonian Quantum Mechanics formulation of quantum mechanics into quantum field theory.

#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.