PSILOGO

Laboratory for Particle Physics (LTP)


LTP Colloquium

Quantum trajectories, quantum jumps and classical probability

Thursday, October 30, 2014, 16:00
WHGA/Auditorium

Michel Bauer, CEA Saclay

Abstract:
In 1913, Niels Bohr wrote his groundbreaking paper "On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules", were already mentioned quantum jumps between energy levels. Later on, he was also the leader of the Copenhagen interpretation of measurement. Almost a century later, thanks to major progresses in fast electronics and low temperature physics, the delicate manipulation of simple quantum systems, and the observation of quantum jumps and quantum trajectories, have become a reality. These observations teach us important things about measurement, with deep theoretical implications, but also with practical stakes for the conception of the still elusive quantum computers. After a brief and targeted overview, we shall focus in this talk on a few recent experiments dedicated to simple quantum systems and on their mathematical interpretation which involves some remarkable probabilistic results.