From God’s Dice to Einstein’s Internet
Aephraim Steinberg
Professor, Dept of Physics and Centre for Quantum Information & Quantum Control – University of Toronto
Co-Director, Quantum Information Science program – Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)
Time: 7:00-8:00 pm, Monday, November 12, 2018
Location: BA1170, Bahen Center for Information Technology
Registration: http://utcaa-quantum-computation.eventbrite.ca/ — registration is required for this event
Abstract
Quantum mechanics is the worldview which underlies all of modern physics and the overwhelming bulk of modern technology. Physicists believe that not only does it explain the structure of the atom and the behaviour of materials from semiconductors to proteins, but that it forces us to a completely different view of reality on all scales, from the microscopic to the human to the cosmic. It pushed Einstein to ask (sarcastically) “Is the moon there when nobody looks?” and Schrödinger to imagine a cruelly infamous experiment with a cat. Thinkers continue to struggle with the implications, which go by buzzwords such as “the uncertainty principle,” “spooky action at a distance,” “entanglement,” and the ominous “collapse of the wave function.”
Even as the philosophical questions remain puzzling, the applications of QM are exploding, as evidenced by billions of Euros being spent by governments and investors the world around to try to get in on the ground floor of technologies that are poised to enable ultra-secure communications, a new generation of precision measurement, and computers which may solve certain problems exponentially faster than any conceivable classical device.
In this talk, aimed at people with or without a physics background, I will try to give an overview of the picture of the world offered by quantum mechanics, and an idea of what “quantum information science” holds in store for computation and communications.