JAZZ COULD BE THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING QUANTUM PHYSICS

An improvising soloist can play any note they want next. At the quantum level, electrons have a similar freedom

- STEPHON ALEXANDER

My book, The Jazz of Physics, looks at the ways that concepts and research in theoretical physics parallel jazz improvisation and performance. Playing jazz has shaped the way I approach physics and opened me up to appreciating an improvisational style in my research. And jazz continues to effect my research in uniting quantum physics with space-time and quantum gravity.

It all started from a conversation I had with a jazz legend, which has since grown into a collaboration and a new theory. One autumn day in 2012, while I was a professor at Haverford College in Philadelphia, I received a surprising email from Donald Harrison. To many, including myself, Harrison is a living version of iconic bebop saxophonist Charlie Parker. He has played with hundreds of jazz masters and toured with huge names such as Miles Davis and Art Blakey.

Donald was self-studying quantum mechanics and had an epiphany he wanted to share. Little did he know that I was also a student of jazz, or 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."