[SydPhil] Public Lecture: Anton Zeilinger - "The Foundations of Quantum Mechanics: From Einstein's Critique to Quantum Communication and Quantum Computation"

[Peter Farleigh]

The Centre for Human Aspects of Science and Technology 2012 Templeton
Lecture: 

"The Foundations of Quantum Mechanics: From Einstein's Critique to Quantum
Communication and Quantum Computation"

Professor Anton Zeilinger. 
University of Vienna and Austrian Academy of Sciences


When: Thursday, 8th November 2012, 6:30-8:00 pm. 
Where: Eastern Avenue Auditorium, University of Sydney. 

Admission Free. No bookings required. 
All Welcome. 


In his criticism of quantum mechanics Albert Einstein focused in the physics
of individual quantum systems. For example he criticized the inherent
randomness of individual events ("God does not play dice") or quantum
entanglement of particle pairs as "spooky". He specifically stressed the
difficulties of defining an observation-independent reality. In his
criticism, he turned out to be not correct. Beginning in the 1970s
experiments initially realizing early gedanken experiments led to a plethora
of new phenomena. Surprisingly, these experiments opened up the new field of
quantum computation and quantum communication. The talk will focus on recent
experiments. Also, a few examples will be given of how those fundamental
points which Einstein criticized have become cornerstones of quantum
communication, quantum teleportation, and quantum computation. A most
interesting result in quantum computation is blind quantum computation,
which enables absolute security in a future quantum internet. Finally, the
status of the fundamental questions today will be reviewed and possible
future developments will be discussed.

http://www.quantum.at/zeilinger/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Zeilinger
http://www.chast.org/