Events

Abstract:

Quantum computing is a few decades old and is currently an area where there is great excitement, and rapid developments. One of the daunting challenges in developing a practical quantum computer is the need to scale to a very large number of qubits. Neutral atoms are one of the most promising approaches for meeting this challenge.

Advances in ultrafast lasers, and in technologies to control those lasers, have led to methods which image intrinsic nonlinear optical signatures that were not previously observable in complex materials (such as tissue or Renaissance paintings).  Contrast comes from effects such as excited state absorption, ground state depletion, and cross phase modulation - with much less power than a laser pointer.  An emerging medical application is in melanoma, which presents serious diagnostic challenges today.  More patients die from melanoma after a Stage I diagnosis than after a Stage IV dia

The Faraday Show is UBC’s annual science lecture, designed for children, presented by UBC Physics & Astronomy. This year the show will feature creative and quirky ways a physicist might solve everyday problems! Your alarm clock won’t stop? Lightbulbs don’t work? Recycling pop cans is a chore? No problem! Join us to find solutions to these inconveniences and learn the physics and science behind everyday things - through demonstrations and hands-on activities. This show is for children of ALL AGES, and adults who are young at heart!

Quantum mechanics is a theory of wave functions in Hilbert space. Many features that we generally take for granted when we use quantum mechanics - classical spacetime, locality, the system/environment split, collapse/branching, preferred observables, the Born rule for probabilities - should in principle be derivable from the basic ingredients of the quantum state and the Hamiltonian. I will discuss recent progress on these problems, including consequences for cosmology and quantum gravity.