2011-2012
8 August 2012, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room
Topic: Chip Sebens: “A laws-first introduction to quantum field theory”
Readings: Please read Chip’s paper beforehand.
26 May 2012, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room
Topic: David Ellerman on delayed choice experiments and retrocausality
Readings: Please read David’s paper on the topic. You can also read his slides in advance, although paper copies will be distributed at the meeting.
18-19 May 2012, UCSD (cross-listed event)
Conference on time and physics
More information can be found at Taking up Spacetime.
14 April 2012, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room
Topic: Gábor Hofer-Szabó: “Bell inequality and common causal explanation in algebraic quantum field theory”
Readings: Please read his recent paper in preparation for the meeting. If you have more time, you may want to read this paper or even that paper as background.
Abstract: In the talk it will be argued that the violation of the Bell inequality in algebraic quantum field theory do not exclude a commmon causal explanation of a set of quantum correlations if we abandon commutativity between the common cause and the correlating events. Moreover, it will turn out that the common cause is local, i.e. localizable in the common past of the correlating events. It will be argued furthermore that giving up commutativity helps to maintain the validity of Reichenbach’s Common Cause Principle in algebraic quantum field theory.
28 January 2012 , 3:00pm, LPS seminar room (cancelled)
Topic: Adrian Wüthrich on locality, causality, and realism in the derivation of Bell’s inequality
Readings: Please read Adrian’s new paper on the topic. As background, you may want to reread his older work which appeared in BJPS.
14 January 2012 , 3:00pm, LPS seminar room
Topic: John Manchak on the relationship between spacetime singularities, holes, and extensions
Readings: Please read John’s paper in advance of the meeting.
3 December 2011, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room
Topic: Jim Weatherall on theoretical equivalence
Readings: Please read his draft in preparation for the meeting.
19 November 2011, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room
Topic: Erik Curiel on connecting surface gravity and temperature for classical black holes
Readings: Please read his draft in preparation for the meeting.
12 November 2011, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room
Topic: Alexei Grinbaum on quantum observers and Kolmogorov complexity
Readings: Please read Alexei’s paper in preparation for the meeting.
17 September 2011, 3:00pm, LPS seminar room
Topic: Yakir Aharonov and Jeff Tollaksen: “Can the future affect the present without violating causality?”
Readings: Please read their recent Physics Today paper in preparation for the meeting.
Abstract: We will discuss properties of pre- and post-selected ensembles in quantum mechanics and the way to observe these properties through the use of a new type of non-disturbing measurement called ‘weak measurement’. A number of these new experiments have already been successfully performed.
We will also discuss another type of measurements which does not disturb the observed quantum system, called ‘measurement of the set of deterministic operators’. The main result of this new approach is the realization that the basic difference between classical and quantum mechanics is the non-local aspects of quantum dynamics.
Theoretical analysis of the outcomes of these experiments have produced several very rich results. First, it has shed new light on the most puzzling features of quantum mechanics, such as interference, entanglement, etc. Secondly, it has uncovered a host of new quantum phenomena, which were previously hidden.