Big Mysteries Survey: Physicists' Views on Cosmology, Black Holes, Quantum Mechanics, and Quantum Gravity

TL;DR

The Big Mysteries Survey reveals that physicists' views on key topics like cosmology and quantum gravity are more diverse than public consensus suggests, highlighting nuanced perspectives in foundational physics.

Contribution

This large-scale survey provides new insights into physicists' actual opinions on controversial topics, challenging assumptions of widespread consensus.

Findings

Physicists' views on cosmology and quantum gravity are more varied than perceived.

Many positions labeled as consensus are supported by pluralities, not majorities.

The survey offers a nuanced understanding of current debates in physics.

Abstract

We present results from the Big Mysteries Survey, a large-scale survey conducted through the American Physical Society's Physics Magazine on foundational and controversial topics in contemporary physics. The survey provides a snapshot of physicists' views on issues in cosmology, black-hole physics, quantum mechanics, quantum gravity, and anthropic coincidences. A central finding is that several positions often described publicly as field-wide ``consensus'' views are, in practice, supported by much narrower majorities or by pluralities rather than majorities.