Quantum mechanics (
QM; also known as
quantum physics or
quantum theory) including
quantum field theory, is a fundamental branch of
physics concerned with processes involving, for example,
atoms and
photons. In such processes, said to be quantized, the
action has been observed to be only in integer multiples of the
Planck constant, a physical quantity that is exceedingly, indeed perhaps ultimately, small. This is utterly inexplicable in
classical physics.