Squeezing Quantum Uncertainty by Entangling Atoms
- Speaker
-
Monika Schleier-Smith, Ph.D.Associate Professor, Physics, Stanford University
Presidential Lectures are a series of free public colloquia spotlighting groundbreaking research across four themes: neuroscience and autism science, physics, biology, and mathematics and computer science. These curated, high-level scientific talks feature leading scientists and mathematicians and are designed to foster discussion and drive discovery within the New York City research community. We invite those interested in these topics to join us for this weekly lecture series.
Quantum uncertainty hampers the precision of state-of-the-art measurements of time, magnetic fields, acceleration and gravity. Pushing these measurements to their ultimate limits requires engineering entanglement, that is, controllably introducing correlations into the randomness inherent in the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics.
In this lecture, Monika Schleier-Smith will describe experiments in which clouds of atoms are manipulated with laser light to generate entanglement that squeezes quantum uncertainty for improved measurement precision. She will also touch on broader opportunities for leveraging the experimental toolbox of atoms and photons in areas ranging from quantum computation to table-top simulations of quantum gravity.