{"id":516,"count":6,"description":"General relativity is one of the pillars of modern physics. It governs the large-scale phenomena of the cosmos \u2014 from planetary orbits in the solar system to stars and galaxies \u2014 as well as the evolution of the universe as a whole.\r\n\r\nYet another pillar, quantum theory (which governs the properties of matter on microscopic scales), is at least as fundamental. Developed in the early 20th century, it forms the basis of elementary particle physics, governs the behavior of atoms, and lays the foundation of solid state physics. Wherever we go, we meet its applications \u2014 from laser pointers and CD players to the transistors in electronic devices.\r\n\r\nPhysicists have managed to formulate quantum theories describing electromagnetism and the elementary forces responsible for radioactive decay and the stability of atomic nuclei - theories that have been successfully tested at particle accelerators, and which include special relativity as an integral part.\r\n\r\nHowever, a quantum theory of gravity is still missing \u2014 though not for want of trying. There are a number of promising candidate theories that hint at how quantum gravity might look, but so far, none of them solves the problem completely.","link":"https:\/\/www.einstein-online.info\/en\/category\/elementary\/relativity-and-the-quantum-elementary\/","name":"Relativity and the Quantum","slug":"relativity-and-the-quantum-elementary","taxonomy":"category","parent":505,"meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.einstein-online.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.einstein-online.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.einstein-online.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/taxonomies\/category"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.einstein-online.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/505"}],"wp:post_type":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.einstein-online.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts?categories=516"},{"href":"https:\/\/www.einstein-online.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/spotlight?categories=516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}