Events List

DateEvent TypeSpeaker
03/03/2025CCPP Brown BagRoman Scoccimarro [ + ]
03/04/2025Astro SeminarJJ Zanazzi [ + ]
03/05/2025HEP SeminarGiorgio Gratta [ + ]
03/06/2025Astro SeminarJanosz Dewberry [ + ]
03/06/2025Physics Dept ColloquiumGiorgio Gratta [ + ]
03/07/2025Oral DefenseCara Giovanetti [ + ]
03/07/2025Hep-Th Discussion SessionCalkins [ + ]
03/10/2025CCPP Brown BagJesse Liu [ + ]
03/11/2025Astro SeminarRichard Anantua [ + ]
03/11/2025office hoursMathew Calkins [ + ]
03/12/2025HEP Journal Club [ + ]
03/12/2025HEP SeminarJunwu Huang [ + ]
03/12/2025office hoursMathew Calkins [ + ]
03/13/2025Physics Dept ColloquiumJacob Barandes [ -- ]

Title: What's Wrong with Quantum Theory, and How to Fix It
Abstract: Does textbook quantum theory suffer from fundamental inconsistencies, like the measurement problem, or do phenomena like decoherence save the day? I will make the case that the problems with the textbook theory are real and significant, and that efforts to address them have produced many practical spin-offs, including decoherence itself. I will then lay out a minimal set of criteria that any consistent axiomatic formulation of quantum theory should satisfy. I will argue that none of the existing options, including the Many Worlds interpretation, clear this bar, so another approach to quantum foundations is urgently needed. I will introduce one new such approach, based on a remarkably simple axiomatic picture in which every system has an old-fashioned configuration in physical space that evolves according to an “indivisible” stochastic process, and in which wave functions and superposition are no longer literal ingredients of reality. I will also present a mathematical mapping between these stochastic processes and the usual Hilbert-space formulation of quantum theory. After describing this stochastic-quantum correspondence, and going through several concrete examples, I will turn to a careful dissection of Bell's theorem, and show how “indivisible quantum theory” points to shortcomings in the theorem's claims about local causality. I will conclude with several intriguing possible applications to physics and to other areas of science. References: https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.10778, https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.16935. (4:00 PM - 5:30 PM, 726 Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar)
03/14/2025Hep-Th Discussion SessionCalkins [ + ]
03/17/2025CCPP Brown BagAnthony Pullen [ + ]
03/18/2025Informal HEP TalkTony Zhou (host) [ + ]
03/18/2025Astro SeminarCarol Cuesta Lazaro [ + ]
03/19/2025HEP Journal Club [ + ]
03/19/2025HEP SeminarDaniel Harlow [ + ]
03/21/2025Informal HEP TalkTianli Wang [ + ]
03/21/2025Hep-Th Discussion SessionCalkins [ + ]
03/24/2025Holiday [ + ]
03/24/2025OtherRhine Samajdar [ + ]
03/25/2025Holiday [ + ]
03/26/2025Holiday [ + ]
03/27/2025Holiday [ + ]
03/28/2025Holiday [ + ]
03/28/2025Hep-Th Discussion SessionCalkins [ + ]
03/31/2025Informal HEP TalkAurelio Amerio [ + ]
03/31/2025Informal HEP TalkWilliam Pannell [ + ]
04/01/2025Astro SeminarBart Ripperda [ + ]
04/02/2025HEP Journal Club [ + ]
04/02/2025HEP SeminarCsaba Csaki [ + ]
04/03/2025Physics Dept ColloquiumAlessandra Buonanno [ + ]
04/04/2025Hep-Th Discussion SessionCalkins [ + ]
04/07/2025Special SeminarDalimil Mazac [ + ]
04/09/2025HEP Journal Club [ + ]
04/09/2025HEP SeminarLorenzo Ricci [ + ]
04/09/2025Cosmic Happy HourCammie Norton [ + ]
04/10/2025Physics Dept ColloquiumJesse Thaler [ + ]
04/11/2025Hep-Th Discussion SessionCalkins [ + ]
04/15/2025Astro SeminarJulien Lavalle [ + ]
04/16/2025HEP Journal Club [ + ]
04/16/2025HEP SeminarMichael Baker [ + ]
04/18/2025Hep-Th Discussion SessionCalkins [ + ]
04/21/2025CCPP Brown BagMarius Kongsore [ + ]
04/21/2025Informal HEP TalkNat Levine [ + ]
04/22/2025Astro SeminarGabriela Sato-Polito [ + ]
04/23/2025HEP Journal Club [ + ]
04/23/2025HEP SeminarGiovanni Villadoro [ + ]
04/25/2025Hep-Th Discussion SessionCalkins [ + ]
04/28/2025CCPP Brown BagMarcus DuPont [ + ]
04/29/2025Astro SeminarRisa Wechsler [ + ]
04/30/2025HEP SeminarDan Green [ + ]
04/30/2025HEP Journal Club [ + ]
05/02/2025Hep-Th Discussion SessionCalkins [ + ]
05/06/2025Astro SeminarTetyana Pitik [ + ]
05/07/2025HEP Journal Club [ + ]
05/07/2025HEP SeminarHowie Haber [ + ]
05/07/2025HEP SeminarHowie Haber [ + ]
05/09/2025Hep-Th Discussion SessionCalkins [ + ]
05/14/2025HEP Journal Club [ + ]