In my first book, The Jazz of Physics, I make the case for the wonderful ways that concepts and research in theoretical physics parallel jazz improvisation and performance.
A few critics and even friends mistook my book as being more about the physics of jazz than the converse. They thought that I was trying to argue that physics and cosmology adhere to the ‘laws’ of jazz music.
I must admit that I did use some metaphors comparing music, improvisation and various aspects of modern physics and cosmology. But most of the book was about how my various music and science mentors impacted the way I approach physics and opened me up to appreciating an improvisational style in conducting my research.
But there was one place where jazz did parallel physics and continues to this day impact my research in uniting quantum physics with space-time and quantum gravity. It all started after a conversation I had with a jazz legend which has since grown into a collaboration and a new theory that’s truly in the spirit of the physics of jazz.
On a sleepy Philadelphia autumn day in 2012, while I was a professor at Haverford College in Philadelphia, I received a most surprising email from jazz legend Donald Harrison. To many, including myself, Harrison is a living version of legendary bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker. He has played with hundreds of jazz masters and toured with huge names such as Miles Davis and Art Blakey.
And in the tradition of bebop jazz, Donald is always expanding his playing and theoretical arsenal. In fact, he was even self-studying quantum mechanics and had an epiphany he wanted to share with me.
Little did he know that I was also a student of jazz and that he was one of my heroes. So, my eyes bulged in delight when I read his email: “I’ve come to realise that you don’t play within the chord changes, but you play through the changes. At every moment there are infinite possibilities available to the improviser. Once a note is played, all these possibilities collapse to a measurement.”
His statement struck at the very heart of quantum physics. At the time I was also thinking about relating jazz improvisation to my research in quantum mechanics and I felt vindicated by his auspicious message. While it took many years, and the writing of my book, for things mature, Donald and I have since moved on to develop a theory of quantum improvisation.
This theory has a dual impact on the way we that we now compose music together and improvise. We can save that for our upcoming performances and recording, but I would like to talk about how the theory impacts quantum physics.
Quantum mechanics is governed by the famed Schrodinger equation – the fundamental formula that describes the wave-like nature of electrons as they move around an atom's nucleus.
Yet despite its experimental and technological successes, there remains a debate. Started by Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, this basically boils down to how to relate mathematics to the real world.
A real quantum experiment consists of a microscopic system (say, a molecule) and a measurement device (an observer). While quantum mechanics is governed by one equation, there are different formulations that lend themselves to a given interpretation of Schrodinger equation to the real world.
Perhaps the most successful formulation of quantum mechanics is the famous physicist Richard Feynman’s idea of the path integral – a theory so successful that it enabled quantum mechanics to mature into the quantum field theory of the standard model of particle physics.
Thanks to the success of this idea, we have a clearer picture of the interpretation of quantum mechanics – and what it says is berserk.
In a nutshell, macroscopic particles – roughly those that are large enough to be visible to the naked eye – move through space on unique trajectories.
For example, an aeroplane traverses a unique path from New York to London, simply because there is one aeroplane involved. But the Feynman path integral describes a quantum particle, say an electron, that instead traverses every possible path between its first and final destination.
Accepting this interpretation forces us to accept that an electron can be many places at the same time!
Here is where quantum improvisation can come to the rescue. The idea is that experienced jazz improvisers consider many possibilities of an improvised melody at a given moment in time. This is happening so quickly that the improviser does not have time to think, but to simply play ‘through’ the development of the harmonic movement.
After many years of practice and committing to memory the countless melodic pathways that occur through chord changes, a bebop musician becomes more and more skilled at playing through the changes.
So, the quantum improvisation interpretation of the path integral is simply that quantum entities improvise their journey through spacetime. They are informed by the quantum rules that govern their interaction with other quantum particles and spacetime itself.
And it’s not only Donald and me on this jazz-physics journey. I received another email from Dr Scott Oshiro, a brilliant young jazz musician and quantum engineer, who just recently earned his PhD from Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.
Scott contacted me a year ago with an email stating: “Your work has inspired me deeply over the years and has actually inspired me to pursue my doctoral degree in Acoustic Sciences”.
Scott has developed an algorithm that runs on a quantum computer that is able to quantum improvise based on input from live instruments.
This all shows that while the power of engaging in crosstalk between fields may at first appear to be disparate and comes with risks, the rare cases when it works out are dumbfounding. Time will tell where the quantum improvisation framework will take us.
But in the meantime, it is providing a great avenue for Donald Harrison and myself to make interesting new sounds and also for us to inspire the next generation of young investigators to forge new directions in their explorations in music and science.
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