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Einstein and the Changing Worldviews of Physics pp 333–345Cite as

The Border Between Relativity and Quantum Theory

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Part of the book series: Einstein Studies ((EINSTEIN,volume 12))

Abstract

Many efforts have been made to fulfill Einstein’s dream of unifying general relativity and quantum theory, including the study of quantum field theory in curved space, supergravity, string theory, twistors, and loop quantum gravity. While all of these approaches have had notable successes, unification has not yet been achieved. After a brief tour of the progress which has been made, we focus on the role played by spinors in several of these approaches, suggesting that spinors may be the key to combining classical relativity with quantum physics. We conclude by outlining one possible generalization of traditional spinor language, involving the octonions, and speculate on its relevance to quantum gravity.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA

    Tevian Dray

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  1. Tevian Dray
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. MPI for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, Berlin, 14195, Germany

    Christoph Lehner

  2. and TOPOI Excellence Cluster, MPI for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, Berlin, 14195, Germany

    Jürgen Renn

  3. and TOPOI Excellence Cluster, MPI for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, Berlin, 14195, Germany

    Matthias Schemmel

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Dray, T. (2012). The Border Between Relativity and Quantum Theory. In: Lehner, C., Renn, J., Schemmel, M. (eds) Einstein and the Changing Worldviews of Physics. Einstein Studies, vol 12. Birkhäuser Boston. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-8176-4940-1_17

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