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Physics & Astronomy Colloquium - Professor David Kaiser, MIT

Title: “Testing Bell’s Inequality with Astrophysical Observations”

Friday, March 31, 2017
3:30pm – 4:30pm
Wilder 104
Intended Audience(s): Public
Categories: Lectures & Seminars

Abstract:  Albert Einstein once dubbed quantum entanglement "spooky action at a distance," and the concept remains one of the starkest examples of how quantum theory differs from our usual intutions about space, time, and matter. Physicists have tested Bell’s inequality experimentally for over four decades, and have always found results consistent with quantum theory; today entanglement is at the heart of next-generation devices like quantum computers and quantum encryption. Yet every experimental test to date has been subject to one or more "loopholes," which could possibly account for the results even in the absence of genuine quantum entanglement. This talk describes the latest experimental tests of quantum entanglement, including a new series of experiments that uses some of the oldest light in the universe to address the last major loophole and pave the way for a genuinely loophole-free test of Bell’s inequality.

Bio: David Kaiser (D’93) is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and Professor of Physics at MIT. His most recent book, How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival, was named Book of the Year by Physics World magazine. With Anton Zeilinger, he leads an international collaboration in performing new experimental tests of quantum entanglement. Together with Alan Guth, he also advises a research group at MIT focused on early-universe cosmology. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Kaiser has received MIT’s highest awards for excellence in teaching. His work has been featured in such venues as Science, Nature, the New York Times, and The New Yorker magazine, as well as on NOVA television programs, NPR, and the BBC.

 

For more information, contact:
Tressena Manning
tressena.a.manning@dartmouth.edu
603-646-2854
Permanent URL to this event: https://physics.dartmouth.edu/events/event?event=44210

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