and 2nd, Curt Jaimungal's
@TOEwithCurt
interview with me went live: we talked for 2 hrs about my lab's work on negative time, weak measurements, the arrow of time, quantum computers, the interpretation of quantum mechanics, and more. Link here: youtu.be/cOZ3Kto6NIc
An exciting week for our group –
first, Daniela's paper on observing negative "excitation times" was published (at long last!) in PRL: journals.aps.org/prl/abstract... ; (1/2)
. . . listen to me claim that we've seen effects that only occur for photons whose time *and* frequency you know simultaneously!
It's no fun to make such fringe-y sounding claims when there's no one around to tell me they think I'm out of my mind!
So, I do have to say it: if you're in Denver at the #APSGlobalSummit, and will still be here (and awake) at 8am on Friday, please come to Mile-High Ballroom 4F, and I'll tell you about "The Private Lives of Photons: asking particles where they spent the night" – come
14,000 physicists are visiting Denver this week.
But I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
14,000 physicists are visiting Denver this week.
But I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
14,000 physicists are visiting Denver this week.
But I'm sure that's just a coincidence.
APS's "Division of Quantum Information," which I thought of as the way to smuggle fundamental physics into a condensed-matter physics meeting ;}
Instead, I fear we're becoming a division of (mostly condensed-matter) Quantum Engineering, and am very sad there's so little attention to foundations.
Congratulations to two deep thinkers, to whom Physics and Computer Science both owe so much!
awards.acm.org/about/2025-t...
Looking forward to seeing you and to your talk!
Indeed, I kept scouring the program for more foundations and was shocked not to find more—despite (or because of?) the growth of DQI.
If you show up at 8am on Friday, I'm buying your coffee; a worthwhile investment if it gets someone into that room!
Happy 2026, and
hearty Congratulations to Antoine Browaeys, Misha Lukin, and Mark Saffman
on the 9th biennial John Stewart Bell Prize
for their ground-breaking work developing quantum computational technologies relying on tweezer arrays of Rydberg atoms!
cqiqc.physics.utoronto.ca/bell-prize/b...
Holiday throwback... our group around the turn of the Millennium, when we were younger and (even) more playful.
CW from upper left, Stefan Myrskog, Jalani Kanem, some kid I don't recognize, Marcelo Martinelli, Ana Jofre, Mirco Siercke, & Samansa Maneshi.
Find me another school whose fundraiser performances include a dramatic recitation of Catullus (in the original, certe) !
Vivat #TheAbelardSchool !
😞
The end of an era.
[Extended 20th century, I guess.]
Tom Stoppard, playwright who dazzled with verbal gymnastics, dies aged 88 - www.reuters.com/world/uk/bri...
I love quantum computing (& quantum information science, even more), don't get me wrong --
but we have to acknowledge how much of the so-called "ecosystem" this captures:
Put in mind of the Infinite Improbability Drive, as I listen to Bárbara Amaral explain over @cqiqc-uoft.bsky.social Quantum Tea how contextuality may power anomalous heat flow…
see journals.aps.org/prxquantum/a... for more on her actual work...
#Contextuality #QuantumThermodynamics
Happy day of Quantum, and congratulations to John Clarke, Michel Devoret, & John Martinis!
There's no stopping it now!
#NobelPrize #SuperconductingQubits #QuantumTunneling
nobelprize.org/prizes/physics…www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2025...df
Crazy milestone passed over (I think) in silence – as of last November or so, I have spent over half my life as a professor at the University of Toronto.
[Since as people my age understand, I firmly believe I'm in my early 30s, this implies that I became a professor at around 16.]
Thx, Sylvain -- I do not know and am now thrilled to take a look!
Excited, elated, chuffed, stoked, even!
[But off to prepare & give a lecture first...]
Looking forward to more great things from Josiah! You're lucky to have him.
On the British theme, I'm torn between "dreary" and "bleak."
^* – excuse the Briticism, but I'm running out of synonyms for "excited" in this context, and "thrilled" is too stereotypically LInkedIn/Twitter overhype–ish for my taste. (Our next experiment will be on measuring how long an atom spends in its chuffed state.)
Hopefully the exp't paper will follow its sibling into print shortly, once we remove all the objectionable stuff about what the results actually mean, and deliver "just the facts, ma'am," to mollify our referees, at the risk of putting our readers to sleep+teaching them nothing
Chuffed^* to announce our theory on how long an unabsorbed photon causes atoms to spend in the excited state is out: lnkd.in/gF--eQgV
It extends the dichotomy to a confounding "simple to state, but looks wrong; turns out to be right, but this is difficult to prove."
and
U of T Engineering
is seeking an Assistant Professor in #Photonics #QuantumTechnologies (jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...)
Send us your best, your brightest, your yearning to do #QuantumInCanada!
Please reshare.
We are also seeking an Associate/Full Professor in #QuantumComputing, joint in
Physics and CS
(jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-... –– **closes 18 Sep**!);
In the Department of Physics, we
are seeking an Assistant Professor in theoretical #QuantumOptics (including AMO, applications to Quantum Information, et cetera – jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-... );
U of T is thrilled to celebrate the Year of Quantum by advertising three new faculty positions!
Please spread the word, encourage friends/mentees to apply, or consider applying yourself.
(Links in rest of thread)
#QuantumOptics #QuantumInformation #AMO
@cqiqc-uoft.bsky.social
Nominations for the 2026 #BellPrize are being accepted through September 30th, 2025 – please consider nominating the work from the past 6 yrs which you believe has done the most to advance #Quantum science.
Please RT.
(See cqiqc.physics.utoronto.ca/bell-prize/n... .)
@CQIQC_Toronto
But after a colossal vacuum failure, this experiment had been down for just over 12 mths, so seeing any cold atoms here at all is just like bringing 3 of my students (& a part of me) back from the dead.
Congratulations Kyle, Vida, & Andy on the fruit of a very frustrating year!
Lazaro Felice!
Seeing atoms floating in vacuum and glowing bright in the laser beams that suspend them there (while cooling them millions of times below room temp) should always be inspirational, even if it's now routine for AMO physicists & the MOT is nearing its 40th birthday.
