Seminar_2023-06 The Quantum and the Classical

Fotocredits: Robin Stadler

Zeitraum:21.–27. September 2023

Dauer:7 Tage

Ort:Atominstitut der Technischen Universität Wien

Sprache:Deutsch

Zahl der Teilnehmer/innen:20-25

Wissenschaftliche Leitung: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jörg Schmiedmayer (Atominstitut der Technischen Universität Wien, Forschungsbereich Atom Physics and Quantum Optics)

Kurzbeschreibung: The world we experience is governed by ‘classical’ physics. That is we can observe the physical world around us as ‘objective’ observer, that is a physical process does not change when we observe it. Or to paraphrase Einstein: ‘The moon is there even if we do NOT look’. But on a fundamental level nature is quantum mechanical with all its weird features like superposition, interference, wave-particle duality or even entanglement and the violation of Bell’s inequalities. A Key difference in quantum is that observation in quantum science ( = measurement) impacts the system we observe on a very fundamental level. This in its final consequence leads to Einstein’s original question: ‘IS the moon there if we do not look ??’

In the seminar we will discuss this fundamental difference and what it means for the understanding of our world. It will include discussion and experiment with visits into the labs where one can observe quantum science at work. Fundamental in all or discussions will be the role of information, the role what we can know in principle about our world. Since information processing is a physical process, this implies that quantum science will have a disruptive impact in how we process information.