Bulletin of the American Physical Society
APS April Meeting 2013
Volume 58, Number 4
Saturday–Tuesday, April 13–16, 2013; Denver, Colorado
Session P1: Plenary Session II: The Quantum 100 Years Ago, the Quantum Today, and the Quantum Tomorrow |
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Chair: Edward Kolb, University of Chicago Room: Plaza ABC |
Monday, April 15, 2013 8:30AM - 9:06AM |
P1.00001: Bohr's Creation of his Quantum Atom Invited Speaker: John Heilbron Fresh letters throw new light on the content and state of Bohr's mind before and during his creation of the quantum atom. His mental furniture then included the atomic models of the English school, the quantum puzzles of Continental theorists, and the results of his own studies of the electron theory of metals. It also included the poetry of Goethe, plays of Ibsen and Shakespeare, novels of Dickens, and rhapsodies of Kierkegaard and Carlyle. The mind that held these diverse ingredients together oscillated between enthusiasm and dejection during the year in which Bohr took up the problem of atomic structure. He spent most of that year in England, which separated him for extended periods from his close-knit family and friends. Correspondence with his fianc\'ee, Margrethe N{\o}rlund, soon to be published, reports his ups and downs as he adjusted to J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford, the English language, and the uneven course of his work. In helping to smooth out his moods, Margrethe played an important and perhaps an enabling role in his creative process. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 15, 2013 9:06AM - 9:42AM |
P1.00002: Quantum computing and the entanglement frontier Invited Speaker: John Preskill Quantum information science explores the frontier of highly complex quantum states, the ``entanglement frontier.'' This study is motivated by the observation (widely believed but unproven) that classical systems cannot simulate highly entangled quantum systems efficiently, and we hope to hasten the day when well controlled quantum systems can perform tasks surpassing what can be done in the classical world. One way to achieve such ``quantum supremacy'' would be to run an algorithm on a quantum computer which solves a problem with a super-polynomial speedup relative to classical computers, but there may be other ways that can be achieved sooner, such as simulating exotic quantum states of strongly correlated matter. To operate a large scale quantum computer reliably we will need to overcome the debilitating effects of decoherence, which might be done using ``standard'' quantum hardware protected by quantum error-correcting codes, or by exploiting the nonabelian quantum statistics of anyons realized in solid state systems, or by combining both methods. Only by challenging the entanglement frontier will we learn whether Nature provides extravagant resources far beyond what the classical world would allow. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 15, 2013 9:42AM - 10:18AM |
P1.00003: Cold Atoms Invited Speaker: Deborah Jin . [Preview Abstract] |
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