Baylor Physics Professor Receives International Recognition in Essay Competition
Dr. Bennie F.L Ward, distinguished professor of physics at Baylor University, has received an honorable mention in an international essay competition conducted by the Gravity Research Foundation.
The year-long competition seeks "the most pioneering essays in research on the subject of gravitation, its theory, application or effects."
Ward's paper, "Resummed Quantum Gravity," presents a new solution to the famous problem that Albert Einstein could not solve - the union of the quantum mechanics theory of Bohr and the fundamental general theory of relativity by Einstein.
"I am excited and honored to have been recognized in this exceedingly strong competition," Ward said. "The recognition shows that Baylor's physics department is creating physics on the cutting-edge, something essential for any physics department that hopes to become a top-tier department."
Ward said the difficulty in the union between the two theories shows up as infinite results for physical processes at very short distances. These divergences are known as UV divergences and Einstein could not find any systematic way to treat them. Currently, the two approaches to this problem are the superstring theory and the so-called loop quantum gravity. However both of these solve the problem by modifying Einstein's theory at short distances and have not been proven by experiments.
In Ward's approach, Einstein's theory is not modified at all. Instead, following the work of the late Nobel Laureate Dr. Richard Feynman, Ward calculates the problem processes by "resumming" them into a more accurate representation for a given level of the expansion into powers in the quantum of action h, making his approach unique.
A total of 30 papers were cited for honorable mention.
For more information, contact Dr. Ward at (254) 710-4878.