Sean Carroll

It sounds good when you say, well, there was Schrodinger, and he had the non-relativistic thing, and then Dirac came along and he made it relativistic. The relativistic thing is quantum field theory. That's what the relativistic thing is. But even in quantum field theory, you start with the classical field, And Dirac and Klein and Gordon gave us equations for those classical fields.

And then you quantize it. And there's different ways of quantizing the field. And one way is precisely analogous to what Schrödinger did for a single electron, namely to invent a wave function that is a function of the field rather than a function of the particle. And that wave function obeys an equation, and that equation is called the Schrodinger equation.

And then you quantize it. And there's different ways of quantizing the field. And one way is precisely analogous to what Schrödinger did for a single electron, namely to invent a wave function that is a function of the field rather than a function of the particle. And that wave function obeys an equation, and that equation is called the Schrodinger equation.

The Schrodinger equation is completely general in terms of does it describe non-relativistic things, relativistic things? Yes. There are different versions of the Schrodinger equation that apply to any of those individual circumstances. Indeed, there's a version of the Schrodinger equation that applies to a single qubit, right?

The Schrodinger equation is completely general in terms of does it describe non-relativistic things, relativistic things? Yes. There are different versions of the Schrodinger equation that apply to any of those individual circumstances. Indeed, there's a version of the Schrodinger equation that applies to a single qubit, right?

A single degree of freedom that is either spin up or spin down, which is not a field at all. For every quantum system, there is a Schrodinger equation, even for the relativistic ones. Supine Otter asks a priority question, continuing in the spirit of asking someone who doesn't like tattoos about tattoos.

A single degree of freedom that is either spin up or spin down, which is not a field at all. For every quantum system, there is a Schrodinger equation, even for the relativistic ones. Supine Otter asks a priority question, continuing in the spirit of asking someone who doesn't like tattoos about tattoos.

You previously suggested your favorite equations to ink on one's body, but for the visually inclined, can you recommend the physics-related diagrams or images that are most meaningful, satisfying, or beautiful to you and would make a great tattoo? It's a good question, a perfectly legit question.

You previously suggested your favorite equations to ink on one's body, but for the visually inclined, can you recommend the physics-related diagrams or images that are most meaningful, satisfying, or beautiful to you and would make a great tattoo? It's a good question, a perfectly legit question.

I'm going to probably not give you a great answer just because, well, anyone who gets a tattoo shouldn't listen to me about what tattoo to get. And not because I don't like tattoos, because they shouldn't listen to anyone about what tattoo to get. They should... Think of it themselves, right? I mean, do you care about thermodynamics? Do you care about general relativity?

I'm going to probably not give you a great answer just because, well, anyone who gets a tattoo shouldn't listen to me about what tattoo to get. And not because I don't like tattoos, because they shouldn't listen to anyone about what tattoo to get. They should... Think of it themselves, right? I mean, do you care about thermodynamics? Do you care about general relativity?

Do you care about quantum mechanics or whatever? These would all suggest different tattoos you could get. I mean, you could be playful. You could get a tattoo of Schrodinger's cat, right, of being both awake and asleep at the same time. you could get a tattoo of a space-time diagram.

Do you care about quantum mechanics or whatever? These would all suggest different tattoos you could get. I mean, you could be playful. You could get a tattoo of Schrodinger's cat, right, of being both awake and asleep at the same time. you could get a tattoo of a space-time diagram.

You know, there's some very nice Penrose diagrams, like the Penrose diagram for the eternal Schwarzschild black hole is a very nice little diagram, pretty simple. You could shade it in if you wanted to make it look a little more complicated or something like that.

You know, there's some very nice Penrose diagrams, like the Penrose diagram for the eternal Schwarzschild black hole is a very nice little diagram, pretty simple. You could shade it in if you wanted to make it look a little more complicated or something like that.

I mean, honestly, leaf through books and papers by Roger Penrose, because he is not only a great mathematician and physicist, he's a great artist as well. And he always has these amazing diagrams in his papers. So if you're a relativity kind of person, I would definitely recommend looking through Penrose's work for striking images, because they're definitely there.

I mean, honestly, leaf through books and papers by Roger Penrose, because he is not only a great mathematician and physicist, he's a great artist as well. And he always has these amazing diagrams in his papers. So if you're a relativity kind of person, I would definitely recommend looking through Penrose's work for striking images, because they're definitely there.

And you could go either, you know, more whimsical, like the Schrodinger cat thing, or Laplace's demon. Get a tattoo of Laplace's demon. I don't know what Laplace's demon looks like, but you know what I mean. Feynman diagrams, particles interacting, you know, Feynman diagrams can get pretty complicated. They don't have to be simple ones. So I think there's all sorts of different possibilities.

And you could go either, you know, more whimsical, like the Schrodinger cat thing, or Laplace's demon. Get a tattoo of Laplace's demon. I don't know what Laplace's demon looks like, but you know what I mean. Feynman diagrams, particles interacting, you know, Feynman diagrams can get pretty complicated. They don't have to be simple ones. So I think there's all sorts of different possibilities.

If nothing immediately strikes you, I like the idea of leafing through some technical physics papers. Even if you don't understand what the papers are about, maybe you can understand like the area they're in. Are they in quantum cosmology? You know, you can read the papers by Hartle and Hawking. See if there's any images in there that strike your fancy.