Prof. Jacob David Bekenstein - Playing with quantum gravity on the tabletop

Many would class the quantum theory of gravity as the number-one open problem in theoretical physics. Discussion of quantum gravity is at least seventy years old, but all along it has been mostly a theoretical undertaking. After describing some planned experiments on the subject, I will focus on the quantum foam idea, and delineate a proposal for exposing it in a relatively simple tabletop experiment which relies on instrumentation which is routine in quantum optics. I will also broach the issue of noise and its control.

2015.06.23. 11:00 - 12:00