God, Dark Matter and Falling Cats: A Conversation with 2022 Templeton Prize Winner Frank Wilczek

Frank Wilczek, a Nobel Prize–winning theoretical physicist and writer, has been declared as the recipient of the 2022 Templeton Prize, which is valued at more than $1.3 million. The yearly award honors individuals “who harness the electricity of the sciences to discover the deepest issues of the universe and humankind’s area and reason inside of it,” in accordance to a press launch from the John Templeton Foundation. Previous recipients include scientists these types of as Jane Goodall, Marcelo Gleiser and Martin Rees, as properly as spiritual or political leaders these types of as Mom Theresa and Desmond Tutu.

Wilczek’s Nobel-successful get the job done traces back to the early 1970s, when he and two colleagues devised a concept describing the conduct of elementary particles termed quarks—a feat that proved vital for developing the Standard Design of particle physics. He has also proposed the existence of various new particles and entities. Some, this sort of as “time crystals” and “anyons,” have because been found out and look promising for building greater quantum pcs. A different Wilczek prediction—the “axion”—remains unconfirmed but is a top applicant for dark make any difference, the invisible compound believed to comprise the the vast majority of mass in the universe. He is also a prolific creator, and in his new textbooks inbound links his operate as a physicist with his contemplations on the inherent natural beauty of truth, arguing that our universe embodies the most mathematically tasteful buildings.

Scientific American spoke with Wilczek about the interaction amongst science and spirituality, current stories that the Conventional Model might be “broken” and his newest research involving the hunt for hypothetical particles and the physics of slipping cats.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

Congratulations on obtaining the Templeton Prize. What does this award represent for you?

My exploratory, science-based mostly initiatives to tackle inquiries that are normally imagined to be philosophical or spiritual are resonating. I’m quite grateful for that, and I’ve commenced to imagine about what it all means.

A person sort of “spiritual” awakening for me has been enduring how a dialogue with character is possible—in which mother nature “talks back” and at times surprises you and occasionally confirms what you imagined. Imprecise hopes and principles that have been at first scribbles on paper become experimental proposals and often successful descriptions of the environment.

You really do not now establish with any distinct religious tradition, but in your 2021 ebook Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Fact, you wrote, “In learning how the world is effective, we are studying how God will work, and therefore learning what God is.” What did you imply by that?

The use of the term “God” in typical lifestyle is quite unfastened. People today can imply entirely distinct matters by it. For me, the unifying thread is contemplating big: imagining about how the environment operates, what it is, how it arrived to be and what all that signifies for what we must do.

I selected to research this partly to fill the void that was left when I realized I could no for a longer period take the dogmas of the Catholic Church that experienced intended a lot to me as a teenager. All those dogmas contain claims about how issues transpire that are significantly complicated to reconcile with science. But more importantly, the world is a more substantial, older and more alien position than the tribalistic account in the Bible. There are some promises about ethics and attitudes about group that I do come across worthwhile, but they simply cannot be taken as pronouncements from “on large.” I believe I have now collected ample knowledge and life working experience that I can revisit all this with serious perception.

Can you give me some unique illustrations of how the wisdom you have now but didn’t have before in your scientific profession has influenced your outlook?

“Complementarity” suggests that you just cannot use a solitary picture to answer all meaningful concerns. You might will need incredibly various descriptions, even descriptions that are mutually incomprehensible or superficially contradictory. This notion is unquestionably vital in being familiar with quantum mechanics, the place, for instance, you cannot make predictions about the situation and the momentum of an electron concurrently. When I initial encountered Bohr’s ideas about getting complementarity outside of quantum mechanics, I was not amazed. I thought it was borderline bullshit. But I have arrive to notice that it is a a lot more common piece of wisdom that promotes tolerance and brain enlargement. There is also the scientific mind-set that openness and honesty allow for men and women to flourish. It improves the performance of researchers to have a type of loving relationship with what they are doing mainly because the do the job can be discouraging and requires investing in mastering some instead dry content. And then there is the lesson of attractiveness: when you allow oneself to use your imagination, the entire world repays with wonderful gifts.

You gained a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004 for your work on comprehension the robust pressure, which binds subatomic particles within just the atomic nucleus. This function forms element of the spine of the Typical Design. But the Typical Design is of course incomplete mainly because it doesn’t account for gravity or dark make any difference or the “dark energy” that appears to be to be powering the accelerating growth of the universe. Several physicists, together with on your own, therefore feel we will at some point uncover proof that will allow us to craft a successor to or extension of the Common Design. In April physicists at the Fermi Countrywide Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Sick., declared that they had measured the mass of an elementary particle named the W boson to be considerably heavier than predicted by the Common Model. Is this an interesting indication that the Standard Model’s reign is approaching its conclude?

I am skeptical. This is an impressive piece of get the job done, but it’s an endeavor to do a significant-precision measurement of the mass of an unstable particle that decays extremely rapid in unique techniques. And for the reason that the W boson has a finite life time, according to quantum mechanics, it has an uncertainty in mass. Just the fact that the measurement is so sophisticated raises an eyebrow. And then, even much more really serious, is that the end result is not only discrepant with theoretical calculations but also with previous experimental measurements. If there ended up a powerful theoretical hypothesis suggesting that there really should be this discrepancy with the W boson mass but no other discrepancy with all the other checks, that would be excellent. But which is not the situation. So, to me, the jury is continue to out.

One of your most new successes was predicting the existence of a novel quantum state of make any difference that you dubbed a “time crystal” for the reason that its particles show repetitive behavior—like a swinging pendulum—but with out consuming energy. How did you come up with the plan?

Just about 10 a long time ago I was making ready to train a class on symmetry, and I assumed, “Let’s consider about crystal symmetry in a lot more than just 3-D let’s believe about crystals that are periodic in time.” Generally, time crystals are self-arranged clocks, kinds that are not manufactured but occur spontaneously for the reason that they want to be clocks. Now, if you have systems that spontaneously want to move, this seems dangerously like a perpetual-motion device, and that had worried physicists absent. But I have been supplied a number of injections of assurance more than my career, so I was not afraid and jumped in the place angels worry to tread. I initially needed to get in touch with it “spontaneous breaking of time-translation symmetry,” but my wife Betsy Devine claimed, “What the heck?!” So they became time crystals.

Time crystals have now been produced in the lab and in a quantum laptop or computer. How may well they be beneficial?

The most promising application is to make new and superior clocks that are much more moveable and sturdy. Making accurate clocks is an vital frontier in physics [they are] applied in GPS, for example. It is also crucial to make clocks that are friendly to quantum mechanics since quantum pcs will want suitable clocks.

You have a routine of coming up with catchy names. Back again in the 1970s, you proposed a hypothetical new particle that you termed the “axion”—inspired by a laundry detergent—because its existence would clear up a messy specialized difficulty in the workings of particle physics. Considering the fact that then, other physicists have proposed that axions, if they exist, have just the right qualities to make up dark issue. How is the lookup for axions progressing?

Axions are tremendous remarkable. It was absolutely unforeseen to me at the beginning that the concept was correctly built to explain the dim matter, but that likelihood has been getting floor. That is partly since lookups for the other top dim make a difference candidates, so-termed WIMPs (weakly interacting large particles), have turned up vacant, so axions look greater by comparison. And in the very last couple a long time, there have been some certainly promising suggestions for detecting darkish make any difference axions. I came up with one particular with Stockholm University researchers Alex Millar and Matt Lawson that works by using a “metamaterial”—a product that has been engineered to course of action gentle in distinct ways—as a type of “antenna” for axions. The ALPHA collaboration has tested prototypes, and I’m optimistic, bordering on self-confident, that inside of 5 to 10 many years, we will have definitive outcomes.

And “axion” is now in the Oxford English Dictionary. When you are in the OED, you know you’ve arrived.

You also coined the name of an additional new particle, the “anyon.” The Regular Model enables for two kinds of elementary particles: “fermions” (which include electrons) and “bosons” (this kind of as photons of mild). The anyon is a 3rd category of “quasiparticle” that emerges as a result of the collective habits of groups of electrons in specific quantum methods. You predicted this again in 1984, but it’s only been verified in new years. What’s the most current information on anyons?

I assumed it would choose a few months to confirm that you could have anyons, but it took almost 40 years. All through that time, there have been virtually 1000’s of papers about anyons, but incredibly handful of had been experimental. Individuals also realized that anyons could be practical as strategies of storing information—and that this could probably be generated on an industrial scale—giving rise to the industry of “topological quantum computing.” There have now been prototype experiments in China and really serious financial commitment by Microsoft. Last thirty day period Microsoft introduced that they have made the sort of anyon we want to get the quantum-computing apps off the ground in a serious way. So all these hundreds of papers of idea are at last making contact with realistic reality and even engineering.

You plainly have a knack for coming up with groundbreaking concepts in physics. Do you have any other innovative tips brewing?

Certainly, but I really don’t want to jinx them by casually mentioning them here! I’ll inform you a little something amusing I am performing on, even though: there’s an summary mathematical notion identified as “gauge symmetry” that underpins particle physics. It is a strong resource, but it is a secret as to why it is there. An intriguing observation is that gauge symmetry also arises in the description of the mechanics of bodies that are squishy and can propel themselves. Astonishingly, gauge symmetry seems when you test and do the job out how a cat that falls out of tree can deal with to land on its feet or how divers avoid belly flops. I realized this with [physicist] Al Shapere 30 many years in the past, but in recent perform I have been generalizing it in various directions. It’s a good deal of fun—and it might transform out to be profound.

And last but not least, what are your lengthy-time period hopes for the foreseeable future of modern society?

Hunting at massive heritage reinforces cosmic optimism. I like to say that God is a “work in development.” Working day-to-day, you can have backsliding—pandemics, wars—but if you look at the in general tendencies, they are terribly beneficial. Factors could go mistaken, with nuclear war or ecological disaster, but if we are careful as a species, we can have a seriously glorious long term. I check out it as aspect of my mission in the remainder of my life to test and level folks toward futures that are deserving of our opportunities and not to get derailed.