Talks

With ongoing efforts to observe quantum effects in larger and more complex systems, both for the purposes of quantum computing and fundamental tests of quantum gravity, it becomes important to study the consequences of extending quantum theory to the macroscopic domain. Frauchiger and Renner have shown that quantum theory, when applied to model the memories of reasoning agents, can lead to a conflict with certain principles of logical deduction. Is this incompatibility a peculiar feature of quantum theory, or can modelling reasoning agents using other physical theories also lead to such contradictions? What features of physical theories are responsible for such paradoxes? 

Multi-agent paradoxes have been previously analysed only in quantum theory. To address the above questions, a framework for analysing multi-agent paradoxes in general physical theories is required. Here, we develop such a framework that can in particular be applied to generalized probabilistic theories (GPTs). We apply the framework to model how observers’ memories may evolve in box world, a post-quantum GPT and using this, derive a stronger paradox that does not rely on post-selection. Our results reveal that reversible, unitary evolution of agents’ memories is not necessary for deriving multi-agent logical paradoxes, and suggest that certain forms of contextuality might be. 

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/ab4fc4

An important and unresolved question in cosmology today is whether there is new physics that is missing from our current standard Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model. A current discrepancy in the measurement of the Hubble constant could be signaling a new physical property of the universe or, more mundanely, unrecognized measurement uncertainties. I will discuss two of our most precise methods for measuring distances in the local universe: Cepheids and the Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB). I will present new results from the Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program (CCHP), the goal of which is to independently measure a value of the Hubble constant to a precision and accuracy of 2%. Using the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys,  we are  using the TRGB to calibrate Type Ia supernovae. I will  address the uncertainties,  discuss the current tension in Ho, and whether there is need for additional physics beyond the standard LCDM model.

Analog quantum simulation has the potential to be an indispensable technique in the investigation of complex quantum systems. In this work, we numerically investigate a one-dimensional, faithful, analog, quantum electronic circuit simulator built out of Josephson junctions for one of the paradigmatic models of an integrable quantum field theory: the quantum sine-Gordon (qSG) model in 1+1 space-time dimensions. We analyze the lattice model using the density matrix renormalization group technique and benchmark our numerical results with existing Bethe ansatz computations. Furthermore, we perform analytical form-factor calculations for the two-point correlation function of vertex operators, which closely agree with our numerical computations. Finally, we compute the entanglement spectrum of the qSG model. We compare our results with those obtained using the integrable lattice-regularization based on the quantum XYZ chain and show that the quantum circuit model is less susceptible to corrections to scaling compared to the XYZ chain. We provide numerical evidence that the parameters required to realize the qSG model are accessible with modern-day superconducting circuit technology, thus providing additional credence towards the viability of the latter platform for simulating strongly interacting quantum field theories. 

Motivated by the question of how inflation started, we propose a Euclidean preparation of an asymptotically AdS2 spacetime that contains an inflating dS2 bubble. The setup can be embedded in a four dimensional theory with a Minkowski vacuum and a false vacuum. AdS2 times 2-sphere approximate the near horizon geometry of a 4d near-extremal RN wormhole. Likewise, in the false vacuum the near-horizon geometry of a near-extremal black hole is approximately dS2 times 2-sphere. We interpret the Euclidean solution as describing the decay of an excitation inside the wormhole to a false vacuum bubble. The result is an inflating region inside a non-traversable asymptotically Minkowski wormhole.