Quantum Information Science and Engineering Seminar Series: Modernizing Quantum Thermodynamics

Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to welcome Jason Pollack, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science to present his talk, “Modernizing quantum thermodynamics”.

Abstract:

Sometimes our understanding of physical theories changes not because of a dramatic experimental result, but rather because of a reinterpretation of what the theory “actually means”. I’ll review two cases, statistical mechanics and quantum measurement  theory, whose “modern” understanding by their practitioners is quite different from their traditional textbook explications. In statistical mechanics, I’ll review the  Jaynesian interpretation of entropy and coarse-graining, and discuss the non-equilibrium results derived by Jarzynski and Crooks. In quantum measurement theory, I’ll describe the influence of the “decoherence program” in providing a clearer understanding of how coupling  to an  environment effectively measures a quantum system. I’ll sketch some ways in which I think combining and incorporating these understandings might help us better understand quantum thermodynamics and computation.
Speaker: Jason Pollack is an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at Syracuse, working in quantum information and related fields. His research is aimed at understanding the basic informational and computational structures underlying the quantum systems we see around us–elucidating how, and in what circumstances, thermalization, gravitational dynamics, and classical observables can be derived from the more fundamental underlying features of a quantum theory. Prior to coming to Syracuse, he received his Ph.D. in physics at Caltech and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia and the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Simons “It from Qubit” collaboration.

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