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Marlan O. Scully4:00 - 5:00 p.m
October 12, 2007
Tech L211
Marlan O. Scully, Texas A&M University and Princeton University
"Quantum Erasure and the Foundations and Applications of Quantum Mechanics" | Physics and Astronomy Colloquia
Abstract:
In quantum mechanics objects behave sometimes like waves and sometimes like particles. These dual, wave-particle, descriptions of nature complement one another and yield deep insights into the micro-cosmos. However, simultaneous observations of such wave and particle behavior is prohibited usually by the position-momentum uncertainty relation. New detectors, constructed with the aid of modern quantum optics, provide a way around this obstacle in atom interferometers, and allow for the investigation of the mechanisms that enforce complementarity, e.g., quantum erasure. These results yield new insights and application of quantum mechanics.
Biographical Sketch:
Marlan O. Scully received undergraduate training in Engineering Physics and Nuclear Engineering from the University of Wyoming and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Ph.D. in Physics from Yale University in 1966. He has held faculty positions at Yale, MIT, University of Arizona, University of New Mexico and the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik. He presently holds a joint appointment between Texas A&M and Princeton Universities. He has been instrumental in many seminal contributions to laser science and quantum optics. These include: The Scully-Lamb quantum theory of the laser, the classical theory of the free electron laser, the theory of the laser gyroscope and especially the theory of correlated spontaneous emission noise quenching in such devices, the first demonstration of lasing without inversion and the first utilization of coherence effects to generate ultraslow light in hot gases. Furthermore Scully’s work on quantum coherence and correlation effects has shed new light on the foundations of quantum mechanics and yielded new insights into quantum thermodynamics. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the Academia Europaea, and the Max Planck Society and has received numerous awards including the Charles H. Townes Award of the OSA, the Quantum Electronics Award of IEEE, the Elliott Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute, the Adolph E. Lomb Medal of the OSA, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Alexander von Humboldt Distinguished Faculty Prize, and the APS Arthur L. Schawlow Prize.
http://cpcc.northwestern.edu/SEMINARS%20ADVERTISEMENTS/Seminar_2007_Scully.html |
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