Scientific Series

We review situations under which standard quantum adiabatic conditions fail. We reformulate the problem of adiabatic evolution as the problem of Hamiltonian eigenpath traversal, and give cost bounds in terms of the length of the eigenpath and the minimum energy gap of the Hamiltonians. We introduce a randomized evolution method that can be used to traverse the eigenpath and show that a standard adiabatic condition is recovered. We then describe more efficient methods for the same task and show that their implementation complexity is close to optimal.

Violation of local realism can be probed by theory–independent tests, such as Bell’s inequality experiments. There, a common assumption is the existence of perfect, classical, reference frames, which allow for the specification of measurement settings with arbitrary precision. However, if the reference frames are ``bounded'', only limited precision can be attained. We expect then that the finiteness of the reference frames limits the observability of genuine quantum features. Using spin coherent states as reference frames, we determined their minimal size necessary to violate Bell’s inequalities in entangled systems ranging from qubits to macroscopic dimensions. In the latter, the reference frame’s size must be quadratically larger than that of the system. Lacking such large reference frames, precludes quantum phenomena from appearing in everyday experience.

The Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) are the latest weapon in the quest for precision cosmology and dark energy. Many presentations on BAO are complicated and unclear and I will therefore present BAO with particular emphasis on trying to give the simplest theoretical description, both at the linear and nonlinear level, and will describe some of the observational challenges to measuring BAO.

The standard theorist's model for the dynamics of galaxies is the limit of a Newtonian N-body system at fixed mass as the number of particles goes to infinity - i.e a phase space fluid After going over conventional wisdom, some interesting open issues which remain will be highlighted, and their relation to real galaxies explored.

The relic neutrino background contains a gapless, spin-2 sound mode, as well as a spin-1 mode if there is a neutrino-antineutrino asymmetry. The self-coupling of the spin-2 mode is given by Z boson exchange in the Standard Model and is parametrically similar to Newton's constant given the expected density of relic neutrinos. I will describe this emergent gravity theory and also describe how emergent theories avoid the Weinberg-Witten theorem, when the constituent degrees of freedom live in a flat Lorentz invariant space.

The particle physics community is bubbling with excitement since the recent discovery in the cosmic radiation of a positron and electron excess at high energy. This may be the first indirect hint that dark matter particles wander in the halo of the Milky Way. However, these species do not seem to have the expected properties. I will review the various pieces of that puzzle and present a status report of the current developments in that fast moving field.

Although most realistic approaches to quantum theory are based on classical particles, QFT reveals that classical fields are a much closer analog. And unlike quantum fields, classical fields can be extrapolated to curved spacetime without conceptual difficulty. These facts make it tempting to reconsider whether quantum theory might be reformulated on an underlying classical field structure. This seminar aims to demonstrate that by changing only how boundary conditions (BCs) are imposed on ordinary classical field equations, a psi-epistemic quantum theory naturally emerges. Uncertainty and basic quantization naturally result from imposing BCs on closed hypersurfaces (as in Lagrangian QFT); further quantization results from extending Hamilton's principle to restrict the BCs as well as the field equations. The partial dependence of field parameters on future BCs implies an effective contextuality, naturally avoiding the usual arguments against realistic quantum models. Successful applications to the relativistic scalar field will be presented, further motivating an ambitious research program of reformulating quantum theory in terms of ontic classical fields.