The Paul Ehrenfest Best Paper Award for Quantum Foundations recognizes outstanding and influential research contributions to the foundations of quantum physics. The award aims to raise awareness for the quantum foundations field and draw attention to new and interesting achievements in this area without delay. It is awarded for the most significant paper in the foundations of quantum physics, theoretical or experimental, published in a peer-reviewed journal in the five calendar years before the prize call (i.e., this year, we accepted submissions published between January 1st, 2018, and December 31st, 2022). Other than that, papers from all areas in the foundations of quantum physics and by authors of any background are eligible for the award. For the detailed rules, please click here.

The Paul Ehrenfest Best Paper Award 2024 has been awarded to: 

We are pleased to announce that this year's award goes to the paper “Quantum Fields and Local Measurements” by Christopher J. Fewster and Rainer Verch, in recognition of its landmark contribution to the foundations of relativistic quantum theory. Drawing on principles from quantum foundations, the Fewster–Verch framework introduces a relativistic measurement theory for algebraic QFT that had been lacking before. While the framework provides a solution to the superluminal signaling problem highlighted by Sorkin, it pushes algebraic QFT to a new operational level, significantly closer to that of standard quantum mechanics.

The 2024 selection committee consisted of:

• Philip Goyal, State University of New York at Albany, USA
• Lucien Hardy, Perimeter Institute, Waterloo, Canada
• Renato Renner, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
• Urbasi Sinha, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India
• Peter Asenbaum, IQOQI Vienna, Austria

Peter Asenbaum coordinated the selection process at IQOQI Vienna. For inquiries, please contact peter.asenbaum(at)oeaw.ac.at.