initiated by Paul Ehrenfest in 1912
currently organized by Ana Achúcarro & Luca Giomi (read about its history)


Dinner participants: 54 | Follow the live stream

Fuchs

Christopher Fuchs

University of Boston

April 10

7:30 p.m.

Sitterzaal

Repainting Quantum Mechanics on QBist Canvas

QBism (pronounced cubism) is a foundational program for quantum mechanics premised on the idea that quantum probabilities should be understood as personalist Bayesian probabilities—that is, quantified degrees of belief or gambling attitudes. Philosophers hate it. “Wah, wah, wah, your quantum states aren't real; they have to be real because my philosophy says so!” What the philosophers have never appreciated (or perhaps cared about) is that this turn in thinking has motivated a significant number of theorems in quantum information science that might not have been discovered otherwise. In this talk, I will sketch QBism’s most ambitious project yet—rewriting the quantum formalism so to wear its Bayesian character on its sleeve. One of our key moves will be to replace the notion of Phasenraum (a notion first developed by Paul and Tatyana Ehrenfest, in fact) with the notion of a reference measurement. But which reference measurement is the most revealing of quantum theory’s essence? In trying to answer this question, we will see that it leads to a deep mathematical question related to Hilbert’s still-unsolved 12th problem and suggests a novel measurement (when it exists) with a growing number of applications in quantum information science.

The Colloquium Ehrenfestii takes place Wednesday evenings starting at 19:30 hours in the main auditorium of the Oort building. Before the Colloquium, there is a common dinner in the canteen located on the ground floor of the Oort building. This dinner starts at 18:00 hours sharp and is free of charge, under the condition that one attends the colloquium and that one has made a reservation before noon on the Tuesday preceding the colloquium.

We count on your presence if you register, please do show up. Meal registrations may close earlier, when 80 persons have signed up.

Colloquium Ehrenfestii Program 2024

10 Jan

Jay Fineberg (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Friction, Earthquakes and Everything in Between

21 Feb

Sera Markoff (Anton Pannekoek Inst., University of Amsterdam)

A tale of two black holes: Sgr A* and M87*

10 Apr

Christopher Fuchs (University of Boston)

Repainting Quantum Mechanics on QBist Canvas

01 May

Cumrun Vafa (Harvard University)

TBA

29 May

William Bialek (Princeton University)

TBA

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