An example of wave-mechanical magnet and related dynamical perspectives
speaker: Leonardo De Carlo (scuola normale superiore di Pisa)abstract: As pointed out in 1, recent remarkable developments in quantum optics, mesoscopic and cold atom physics have given reality to wave functions. With this motivation in mind, we construct an example of statistical wave-mechanical magnet. Namely the configuration of the matter is represented by the wavefunction itself, which lives on the surface of a high dimensional sphere. In this context, to set some physically meaningful Gibbs ensemble, two ingredients appear necessary: considering symmetricasymmetric wavefunctions and introducing a wavefunction energy that block large superpositions for large N. Under a dynamical perspectives this energy suggests to add a non-linearity to Schrodinger equation, which becomes relevant for large N. The modified nonlinear hamiltonian dynamics is compatible with Newton's law and allows to construct idealized measurement situations with random classical outcomes, proposing a mathematical solution for the so called "measurement problem" of quantum mechanics and a possible justification to the use of statistical ensembles themselves.
1 G. Jona-Lasinio, C. Priscilla, \emph{On the statistics of quantum expectations for systems in thermal equilibrium}, arXiv quant-ph0603245v1
timetable:
Thu 24 Mar, 14:00 - 15:00, Sala Conferenze Centro De Giorgi
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