The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 13 letter word STRINGÂ THEORY
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
S
T
R
I
N
G
Â
T
H
E
O
R
Y
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "conjecture of quantum physicists" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case conjecture of quantum physicists = string theory.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.