A Century of Quantum Theory: Ana María Cetto Discusses the Future of Quantum Physics at HSE University
The Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (HSE MIEM) hosted a talk by Prof. Ana María Cetto titled ‘The First Hundred Quantum Years. What Next?’ The prominent theoretical physicist and contributor to two Nobel Peace Prizes addressed the fundamental problem of the lack of a unified interpretation of quantum theory and the incomplete understanding of its physical foundations. Eduardo Villegas Mejías, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Mexican States to the Russian Federation, attended the event.
The lecture was organised on the initiative of the HSE MIEM Centre for Quantum Metamaterials. Dmitry Kovalenko, Director of MIEM, addressed the audience, noting that 2025 marked the centenary of quantum physics and emphasising the importance of the topic for students, particularly those in the early years of their studies, for whom this talk could be a first step into the world of quantum science.
Why Celebrate the International Year of Quantum Science?
Prof. Cetto, one of the driving forces behind the initiative to declare 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, explained the reasons behind this decision.
The year 2025 marked the centenary of Werner Heisenberg’s famous paper, which laid the foundations of quantum formalism, while in 1926 Erwin Schrödinger published his seminal works on wave mechanics. The International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) launched the campaign, which was later endorsed by UNESCO.
Ana María Cetto is a theoretical physicist and researcher at the Institute of Physics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Her work has been connected with two Nobel Peace Prizes: the 1995 prize awarded to the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs and the 2005 prize awarded to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
According to Prof. Cetto, the initiative to declare 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology was driven by two main motivations. The first was practical: quantum technologies are becoming a major industry with significant economic implications, and countries that develop them can gain a tangible advantage. Yet quantum science remains unevenly developed. While countries including Russia have strong research groups in the field, quantum research is still virtually absent in many parts of the world. The second motivation was fundamental: despite a century of development, quantum mechanics remains a theory whose physical foundations are not fully understood, even by physicists themselves.
The Quantum Tree and Its Roots
The professor offered a metaphor: quantum mechanics can be likened to the trunk of a tree from which the branches of modern physics extend, including high-energy physics, materials science, quantum computing, and quantum communication. But for a tree to bear fruit, it needs strong roots. The fruits are already visible — quantum communication networks, quantum computers, and distributed entanglement. The roots, however—our physical understanding of why quantum mechanics works the way it does—remain weak.
The key issue highlighted in the talk is that quantum formalism successfully describes how nature works but does not explain why it works that way. What is wave–particle duality? How does quantum entanglement arise? What is the nature of the wave function? Why do quantum fluctuations occur? Do particles have real trajectories? There are still no clear answers to these fundamental questions. A 2025 Nature survey of more than 1,000 active quantum scientists found that physicists disagree as to what quantum mechanics tells us about the nature of reality. Even a century after the theory was developed, there is still no single, universally accepted interpretation.
Stochastic Electrodynamics: The Search for a Deeper Level
Prof. Cetto spoke about the field in which her research group works: stochastic electrodynamics. Its starting point is Max Planck’s discovery in 1911–1912 that the electromagnetic field of radiation exists even at absolute zero. This is known as the zero-point field, which permeates the Universe and constantly interacts with particles. In 1963, Trevor Marshall showed that a harmonic oscillator, when radiation reaction and zero-point fluctuations are taken into account, reaches a stationary state that exactly coincides with the ground state of a quantum-mechanical oscillator, without any prior quantisation.
Further research by Cetto’s group showed that the resonant response of particles to specific field modes can explain the emergence of spectral lines. Identical particles responding to the same field mode also become correlated, providing a possible mechanism for field-mediated entanglement. In this view, the apparent non-locality of quantum phenomena may have a local physical explanation.
What's Next
According to Prof. Cetto, subquantum theory, which takes into account the interaction between particles and the zero-point fluctuation field, could restore causality to quantum phenomena, make quantum processes more amenable to visualisation, and open up new, as yet unexplored areas of physics. Modern experiments with time resolutions on the order of 10⁻¹⁵ seconds are already approaching scales at which standard quantum formalism may prove insufficient.
Key Challenges of the Future
On the technological side, a major challenge is overcoming decoherence in large-scale quantum computing. At the fundamental level, physicists need to move beyond formalism—exemplified by the famous 'shut up and calculate' approach—and deepen their understanding of the physical foundations of quantum theory. The professor expressed cautious optimism about the prospects of reconciling quantum mechanics with general relativity, adding that this would be a task for the next generation of physicists.
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