Scholarly Colloquia and Events

  • 10/24 Katzenstein Distinguished Physics Lecture

     

    Katzenstein Distinguished Physics Lecture

     

    “Superposition, Entanglement, and Raising Schrödinger’s Cat”

     

    David Wineland

    Nobel Laureate 2012

    NIST, Boulder, CO

     

    In 1935, Erwin Schrödinger, one of the inventors of quantum mechanics, illustrated his discomfort with the theory by pointing out that its extension to the macroscopic world could lead to bizarre situations such as a cat being simultaneously alive and dead, a so-called superposition state. Today, we can create analogs of this situation, although on a small scale.  Superposition states have various applications, for example to make clocks.  Here, a superposition state of two energy levels creates an oscillating dipole, much like the oscillation in a pendulum clock, but much more precise.  Superpositions are also potentially useful for computation, where a bit, composed of two energy levels in an atom, can store both states of the bit simultaneously.  This property leads to a memory and processing capacity that increases exponentially with the number of bits. This and a related property called entanglement would enable a quantum computer to efficiently solve certain problems that are intractable on normal computers, and would realize a macroscopic version of Schrödinger’s cat.  I will briefly describe experiments on quantum computation and atomic clocks that employ trapped atomic ions.  This talk will in part be the story of my involvement in these topics, which I described at the 2012 Nobel Prize ceremonies.

    Friday, October 24, 2014

    4:00 p.m.

    Gant Science Complex

    Room P-36

     

    Refreshments will be prior to the talk at 3:00 p.m.,

    in the lobby outside of Gant Complex, Room P-36.

    For more information, contact: Dawn Rawinson, Physics at 486-4916