Quantum Institute: Visitor Schedule

The Quantum Lunch is regularly held on Thursdays in the Theoretical Division Conference Room, TA-3, Building 123, Room 121.

The organizing committee includes Malcolm Boshier (P-21), Diego Dalvit (T-4), Michael Di Rosa (C-PCS), Sebastian Deffner (T-4 & CNLS), Changhyun Ryu (P-21) , Nikolai Sinitsyn (T-4), Rolando Somma (T-4), Christopher Ticknor (T-1), and Wojciech Zurek (T-4).

For more information, or to nominate a speaker, contact Sebastian Deffner.

To add your name to the Quantum Lunch email list, contact Kacy Hopwood.

Thursday July 7, 2016
12:30 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker: David Rogers (University of South Florida)

Technical Host: Diego Dalvit

TOPIC: The quantum mechanics of Jaynes

Abstract
Edwin Jaynes is recognized as one of the founding figures of both quantum electrodynamics and an advocate for applying maximum entropy to nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. However, many of his ideas were (and still are) viewed as odd or even heretical. This talk reviews some of those less well-known ideas, including the quantum telegraph process and objections to the zero point energy. Exploring the reasoning behind them shows that more robust connections still need to be made from quantum field theory to conventional atomistic quantum mechanics. Following this suggestion, I present some recent results on the theory of maximum transition entropy. The theory is capable of deriving both classical Langevin and Brownian motion, as well as the quantum master equation of Caldeira and Leggett.