colloquia
This page details all the guest lectures we've got planned. Most of the time these are followed by a drink in the Fenton, so that's another excuse to come along!!
Semester 1 (Wednesdays 2008)
1st October
Prof. Vlatko Vedral, University of Leeds
"Do birds use quantum entanglement to see Earth's magnetic field?"
12th November
Dr. Mike Evans, University of Leeds
19th November
Prof. Michael Kramer
"Was Einstein Right?"
Pulsars are precise comsic clocks that allow a wide range of applications. Among these are tests of theories of gravity and the question whether Einstein's 'general relativity' is our last word in our understanding of gravity. The comparison of astronomical observations and particle physics experiments suggest that this is indeed not the case and hence further experimental tests under more extreme conditions are needed. Pulsars are ideal for this purpose. This talk will describe some of the experiments, in particular the studies of the Double Pulsar and the future discovery of pulsar-black hole systems
26th November
Dr. Jacob Dunningham
"1+1 = 2*sqrt(2): Why the world has to be quantum."
Quantum mechanics is usually taught by highlighting historical glitches in our understanding - things like the blackbody spectrum and photoelectric effect that couldn't be explained with classical physics. Each of these problems were patched up in an ad hoc fashion that many people were uncomfortable with, but have been convinced by over a century of experimental data. I will take a different approach to showing that the world must be quantum by showing that it allows for "better than perfect" correlations due to a strange feature called nonlocality. I will also describe some of the latest results from the Leeds group: the controversial finding that even a single particle can be nonlocal.
Semester 2 (Wednesdays 2009)
18th Febuary 2009
Dr. Mike Ries, University of Leeds
11th March 2009
Prof. Tom Hartquist, University of Leeds
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page last updated: Sunday, 23 Nov, 2008
