Kolloquien
URL zum ICS-Kalender dieses Seminars
Kirchhoff-Institut für Physik, Otto-Haxel-Hörsaal
freitags 17:15
Vorträge
28.4.2017 17:00
KIP, INF 227, Otto-Haxel-Hörsaal
Entanglement is a counterintuitive feature of quantum mechanics, which implies that
a measurement of one particle can instantaneously determine the state of another
well-separated particle. Remarkably, quantum entanglement can also happen en
masse, and determines observable properties of macroscopic objects.
I will present a simple model of many-particle entanglement, which has led to new
insights into two very different classes of systems. First, we have crystals of materials
containing layered arrangements of copper and oxygen atoms. At low temperatures,
these materials exhibit superconductivity, the ability to conduct electricity without
resistance. But at higher temperatures they exhibit a “strange metal,” which conducts
electricity and heat in a novel manner linked to the collective quantum entanglement
of the electrons. Second, we have black holes, astrophysical objects so dense that
even light cannot escape past a horizon. Hawking argued that quantum
entanglement can be present across the horizon, and this leads to radiation from the
black hole. Remarkably, the simple model of entanglement leads to a common
description of the physical properties of both classes of systems.