DF Seminar

[Rosita Glavina]

Thursday 3 December 2009 - 15:00 hrs
Room 204 (2nd floor LB)

Prof. Beatrix Hiesmayr
University of Vienna

'Testing quantum mechanical foundations in high energy physics"

In 1964, the physicist John Stuart Bell initiated a new research field 
by studying the quantum mechanics closer. Until today, many interesting 
and fruitful directions have emerged and even the first applications are 
on the market as e.g. quantum cryptography. In a different field, in 
particle physics, experiments are achieving ever higher precision such 
that the borderline of known physics will be reached. My talk will 
combine both fields and tackles some of the most fundamental questions 
of quantum mechanics and relates them to the most fundamental questions 
in particle physics. In particular, I will show that a Bell inequality, 
detecting the nonlocality of quantum mechanics, is in contradiction to 
the observed tiny difference between matter and antimatter explored in 
particle physics. Then I will discuss further examples what more of 
quantum mechanics can be learn by studying system in high energy physics.