Scientific Series

There has been some significant recent progress on the long-standing problem of identifying the conditions under which equilibrium statistical mechanics can arise from an exact quantum mechanical treatment of the dynamics. I will give an overview of this progress, describing in particular how random matrix models and the associated concentration of measure phenomena imply that equilibration is generic even for the closed system evolution of pure quantum states. I will then discuss the relevance of these models to clarifying the conditions for quantum-classical correspondence of few-body chaotic systems. In particular, I will show that the Newtonian description of the dynamics of chaotic macroscopic bodies, remarkably, does not emerge from the underlying quantum mechanical description. These results suggest, under reasonable assumptions, that pure quantum states require a statistical interpretation.

The IceCube neutrino observatory is the world's largest high-energy neutrino telescope, utilizing the deep Antarctic ice as the Cherenkov detector medium.  In December 2010 the last of the observatory's 86 strings of optical detectors was deployed, completing the approximate cubic-kilometer array.   With the addition of a low-energy extension, called DeepCore, the observatory has very high neutrino detection efficiency for energies ranging from ~10 GeV to a few EeV.  The low-energy threshold establishes the first steps towards precision neutrino measurements in the Antarctic. Discussed will be early results from this emerging particle physics program as well as initial expectations from studies of potential future detector upgrades towards creating a multi-megaton neutrino detector with O(10 MeV) energy threshold.

The curvaton scenario provides a simple explanation for the generation of the cosmological perturbations, however most works have focused on cases with rather trivial curvaton energy potentials, e.g. quadratic ones. In this talk I will present the rich phenomenology of curvatons by showing that non-quadratic curvatons exhibit new behaviors, leading to interesting signals in the resulting density perturbations. A string theory realization of the curvaton scenario will also be discussed, where D-branes located in a warped throat region of the internal space play the role of curvatons.

We propose a form of parallel computing on classical computers that is based on matrix product states. The virtual parallelization is accomplished by evolving all possible results for multiple inputs, with bits represented by matrices. The action by classical probabilistic 1-bit and deterministic 2-bit gates such as NAND are implemented in terms of matrix operations and, as opposed to quantum computing, it is possible to copy bits. We present a way to explore this method of computation to solve search problems and count the number of solutions. We argue that if the classical computational cost of testing solutions (witnesses) requires less than O(n^2) local two-bit gates acting on n bits, the search problem can be fully solved in subexponential time. Therefore, for this restricted type of search problem, the virtual parallelization scheme is faster than Grover’s quantum algorithm.

I will describe a new numerical effort to solve Einstein gravity in 5-dimensional asymptotically Anti de Sitter spacetimes (AdS). The motivation is the gauge/gravity duality of string theory, with application to scenarios that on the gravity side are described by dynamical, strong-field solutions. For example, it has been argued that certain properties of the quark-gluon plasma formed in heavy-ion collisions can be modeled by a conformal field theory, with the dual description on the gravity side provided by the collision of black holes. As a first step towards modeling such more general phenomena, we initially focus on spacetimes with SO(3) symmetry in the bulk; i.e., axisymmetric gravity, dual to states with spherical or special conformal symmetry on the boundary. For a first application we study quasi-normal ringdown of highly deformed black holes in the bulk. Even though the initial states are far from equilibrium, the boundary state is remarkably well described as a hydrodynamic flow from early times. The code is based on the generalized harmonic formulation of the field equations, and though this method has been shown to work well in many asymptotically flat scenarios, there are unique challenges that arise in obtaining regular, stable solutions in asymptotically AdS spacetimes. I will describe these challenges, and the way we have addressed them.

One of the most important open problems in physics is to reconcile quantum mechanics with our classical intuition. In this talk we look at quantum foundations through the lens of mathematical foundations and uncover a deep connection between the two fields. We show that Cantorian set theory is based on classical concepts incompatible with quantum experiments. Specifically, we prove that Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms of set theory (and the background classical logic) imply a Bell-type inequality. Consequently, quantum experiments violating Bell inequality cannot be described in the framework of classical set theory. This suggests that a non-Cantorian set theory could be a better framework to capture the elusive nature of quantum world. Finally, we discuss several possible options for a future logico-mathematical framework compatible with quantum experiments. 

Direct dark matter (DM) detection experiments almost always focus on Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), which have a mass in the 1--1000 GeV range.  However, what if DM is not a WIMP?  In this talk, new direct detection strategies for DM particles with MeV to GeV mass will be presented.  In this largely unexplored mass range, DM can scatter with electrons, causing ionization of atoms in a detector target material and leading to single- or few-electron events.  I will present the first direct detection limits on DM as light as a few MeV, using XENON10 data.  Theoretically interesting models can already be probed.  Significant improvements in sensitivity should be possible with dedicated experiments, opening up a window to new regions in DM parameter space.  

In this talk I will present evidence that accounting for the presence of hierarchies in string compactifications naturally leads to a UV sensitivity of dark matter in contrast to what is usually assumed. In particular, we will see that the existence of cosmological moduli may lead to a non-thermal history for the early universe and modifications in the primordial production of dark matter. If such a history were realized it would not only require probing new regions in dark matter searches, but also imply that a detection of dark matter would provide a direct probe on the early universe and the UV -- contrary to the thermal WIMP case. Regardless of the history of the early universe I will argue that if current string constructions are representative of more general models then all weak-scale dark matter would indeed be UV sensitive and would be a new prediction of string theory - falsifiable by experiment.

As helium-4 is cooled below 2.17 K in undergoes a phase transition to a state of matter known as a superfluid which supports flow without viscosity. This type of dissipationless transport can be observed by forcing helium to travel through a narrow constriction that the normal liquid could not penetrate. Recent advances in nanofabrication techniques allow for the construction of smooth pores with nanometer radii, that approach the truly one dimensional limit. In one dimension, it is believed that a system of bosons (like helium-4) may have startlingly different behavior than in three dimensions. The one dimensional system is predicted to have a linear hydrodynamic description known as Luttinger liquid theory, where no type of long range order can be sustained. In the limit where the pore radius is small,  helium inside the channel would behave as a sort of quasi-supersolid with all correlations decaying as power-laws at zero temperature.  We have performed large scale quantum Monte Carlo simulations of helium-4 inside nanopores of varying radii at low temperatures with realistic helium-helium and helium-pore interactions. The results indicate that helium inside the nanopore forms concentric cylindrical layers surrounding a core that can be fully described via Luttinger liquid theory and provides insights towards the exciting possibility of the experimental detection of a Luttinger liquid.

We establish a tight relationship between two key quantum theoretical notions: non-locality and complementarity. In particular, we establish a direct connection between Mermin-type non-locality scenarios, which we generalise to an arbitrary number of parties, using systems of arbitrary dimension, and performing arbitrary measurements, and a new stronger notion of complementarity which we introduce here.    Our derivation of the fact that strong complementarity is a necessary condition for a Mermin scenario provides a crisp operational interpretation for strong complementarity. We also provide a complete classification of strongly complementary observables for quantum theory, something which has not yet been achieved for ordinary complementarity.  Since our main results are expressed in a diagrammatic language (the one of dagger-compact categories) they can be applied outside of quantum theory, in any setting which supports the purely algebraic notion of strongly complementary observables. We have therefore introduced a method for discussing non-locality in a wide variety of models in addition to quantum theory.    The diagrammatic calculus substantially simplifies (and sometimes even trivialises) many of the derivations, and provides new insights. In particular, the diagrammatic computation of correlations clearly shows how local measurements interact to yield a global overall effect. In other words, we depict non-locality.   This is joint work with Ross Duncan, Aleks Kissinger and Quanlong (Harny) Wang. Paper: arXiv:1203.4988 - LiCS'12 

I present our work on inferring causality in the classical world and encourage the audience to think about possible generalizations to the quantum world. Statistical dependences between observed quantities X and Y indicate a causal relation, but it is a priori not clear whether X caused Y or Y caused X or there is a common cause of both. It is widely believed that this can only be decided if either one is able to do interventions on the system, or if X and Y are part of a larger set of variables. In the latter case, conditional statistical independences contain some information on causal directions, formalized by the Causal Markov Condition on directed acyclic graphs. Contrary to this belief, we have shown that empirical joint distributions of just two variables often indicate the causal direction. The observed asymmetry between cause and effect is, on the one hand, related to the thermodynamic arrow of time. On the other hand, it can be derived from a new principle that we have postulated: the Algorithmic Causal Markov Condition, which relates Kolmogorov complexity to causality.  
Literature: [1] Janzing, Schoelkopf: Causal inference using the algorithmic Markov condition, IEEE TIT 2010. 
[2] Daniusis, Janzing,...: Inferring deterministic causal relations, UAI 2010. 
[3] Janzing: On the entropy production of time-series with uni-directional linearity.Journ. Stat. Phys. 2010.