On experimental tests of Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

by Dr Marco Genovese (INRIM)

Thursday 11 Nov 2010, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Rome

Aula dei Seminari (Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati)

Quantum Mechanics represents nowadays one of the pillars of modern physics: so far a huge amount of theoretical predictions deriving from this theory has been confirmed by very accurate experimental data, while the theory is at the basis of a large spectrum of researches ranging from solid state physics to cosmology, from bio-physics to particle physics. Furthermore, in the last years the possibility of manipulating single quantum states has fostered the development of promising quantum technologies as quantum information (calculus, communication, etc.), quantum metrology, quantum imaging, ... Nevertheless, even after a pluri-decennial debate many problems related to the foundations of this theory persist {1,2}, like non-local effects of entangled states, wave function reduction and the concept of measurement in Quantum Mechanics, the transition from a microscopic probabilistic world to a macroscopic deterministic world described by classical mechanics (macro-objectivation) and so on. Problems that, beyond their fundamental interest in basic science, now also concern the impact of these developing technologies. In this talk, after a short summary of the present discussion concerning some of these problems, we present some recent experimental works in the field. In particular, some specific experiment realized at INRIM will be described in some detail (concerning tests of specific local realistic models, wave particle duality, …). {1} M.Genovese, arXiv:1002.0990 {2} M. Genovese, Physics Reports 413/6 (2005) 319.

Slides genovese-frascati.pdf.pdf