Universität Wien

260039 VU "Table Top" Quantum Gravity (2023W)

5.00 ECTS (3.00 SWS), SPL 26 - Physik
Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung
Moodle

An/Abmeldung

Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").

Details

max. 15 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch

Lehrende

Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert

NOTE: the lecture program may be adapted, also according to the interests and background of the students

Courses will take place at the IQOQI Seminar Room on Wednesdays between 15h and 17h30.

IQOQI Seminar Room is located at: Boltzmanngasse 3, 2nd floor

For access to the IQOQI building: enter through the main door at Boltzmanngasse 3 and ring the bell.

Alternatively, you can enter the IQOQI building also by going to the 3rd floor of the Boltzmangasse 5 Univie building and crossing the `bridge' to IQOQI building and ringing the bell there.

The teaching language is English.

  • Mittwoch 04.10. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 11.10. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 18.10. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 25.10. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 08.11. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 15.11. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 22.11. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 29.11. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 06.12. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 13.12. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 10.01. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 17.01. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details
  • Mittwoch 24.01. 15:00 - 17:30 Ort in u:find Details

Information

Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung

This course aims to present the nascent research (sub)field of `Table Top' Quantum Gravity to interested graduate students. The topic is interdisciplinary, mixing basics of gravity theory and quantum information theory.

The lecturer is a theoretical physicist. The focus will be on the theoretical basics needed to understand the topic. The discussion will be placed in the context of proposed experimental protocols and so the course is also suitable for students of a more experimental inclination and background. The course will also discuss extensively the intense conceptual and philosophical debate that has been ongoing the past few years regarding the possibility to see Quantum Gravity in a `Table Top' setting. Students with a background on philosophy and epistemology and a general interest in this research direction may also find the course of interest.

The course is aimed generally at the level of the graduate student, typically 2nd year of master's or PhD level (but not exclusively).

The selection of topics is meant to give to the student a broad overview of the landscape that has been shaping around what is now called TTQG. The graduate student attending the course can expect to acquire the essential understanding of the mathematical tools and physical intuition needed to be able to critically judge for oneself the interest and prospects of this research program and begin to contribute with their own research in the further development of this topic, in which numerous researchers at the University of Vienna and the Academy of Sciences are currently involved in.

No specific technical background is needed other than a good knowledge of basic physics and mathematics, typically what any student in a physics or mathematics curriculum would have acquired in the first 3 years of a higher education program. Assessment will be not be particularly work intensive and can be adapted to the students particular academic background.

The lecture schedule below ( note that it may be somewhat changed)

( 4 Oct) Lecture 1: What will we do in this course?

(11 Oct) Lecture 2: What is Table Top Quantum Gravity? A first look at gravity mediated entanglement.

(18 Oct) Lecture 3: Gravity mediated entanglement as quantum superposition of spacetimes

(25 Oct) Lecture 4: Work at home lecture

Autumn break

( 8 Nov) Lecture 5: Ripples of Spacetime: general relativity as a classical field theory

(15 Nov) Lecture 6: Spacetime local entanglement generation in linearised quantum gravity

(22 Nov) Lecture 7: Gravitational entanglement in optically cooled particles

(29 Nov) Lecture 8: Lab tour

Winter break

( 6 Dec) Lecture 9: No-Go theorems for TTQG

(13 Dec) Lecture 10: Relativistic locality VS subsystem locality

(10 Jan) The tortured idea of the ‘true’ degrees of freedom

(17 Jan) Table top QG with Bose Einstein condensates

(24 Jan) Student presentations of their chosen research paper

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel

The assessment criteria will be

1. Attendance.
2. Homework assignment. This will consist of (guided) exercises to help the student familiarise themselves with the basics of the mathematics and concepts employed in the course.
3. A 10 minute presentation on a research paper (which can be also done in binome and also possibly prerecorded). A list of papers will be handed over at the beginning of the course. The students will be expected to study the paper and summarise its main assumptions, results, claims and give their own critical view of that paper's importance in the context of TTQG.

The assessment criteria 2. and 3. may be adapted to the individual students background and interests.

Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab

The three assessment criteria correspond to 1/3 of the full course mark each.

Full mark for criterion 1 is minimum 80% attendance.

Full mark criterion 2 is reasonably good completion of minimum 80% of the assignments given.

Full mark for criterion 3 is displaying a reasonable understanding of the chosen research paper's main result and importance during the 10 minute presentation.

Prüfungsstoff

Assignments will be handed out during the course and will be returned typically within a 2-3 weeks (Criterion 2). These will consist of one or two critical essays (of max one page) and three sets of (guided) exercises.

Literatur

The literature is mainly research paper based as no textbook exist on the topic at the time.

The below list is tentative and will be updated shortly. I do not expect students to study and understand all these papers in detail. I suggest reading abstract, introduction and conclusions.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06050 A Spin Entanglement Witness for Quantum Gravity

https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06036 Gravitationally-induced entanglement between two massive particles is sufficient evidence of quantum effects in gravity

https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.05842 On the possibility of laboratory evidence for quantum superposition of geometries

https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.01542 On the possibility of experimental detection of the discreteness of time

https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.08431 An experiment to test the discreteness of time

https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.03368 Locally mediated entanglement through gravity from first principles

https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.09013 Quantum Gravity in a Laboratory? (review article by philosophers of spacetime)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.12235 Quantum Gravity at Low Energies (review article by philosophers of spacetime)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.04818 Incompleteness Theorems for Observables in General Relativity (related to the question of the `true' degrees of freedom)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.05645 Relativistic locality can imply subsystem locality (related to theory independent argument/no go theorems)

https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.03138 Gravity entanglement, quantum reference systems, degrees of freedom

Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis

M-VAF A 2, M-VAF B

Letzte Änderung: Mi 11.10.2023 13:28