[quantum-info] Q+ hangout @ IQC: Jeff Lundeen, RAC1 3004, 9:00am, March 27th

[Marco Piani]

Dear all,

the series of Q+ hangouts continues.

A Q+ hangout is a broadcast seminar using the hangout feature of Google 
+. Participation is limited at the moment. IQC was given one of the  
available slots. To take part in the hangout, join us in RAC1 3004 on  
Tuesday March 27th at 9am.

For more information about the Q+ hangouts, please visit http://qplus.burgarth.de/

Cheers,

Marco

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Jeff Lundeen, Institute for National Measurement Standards, National  
Research Council, Ottawa

Title: Seeing is Believing: Direct Observation of the Wavefunction

Abstract: Central to quantum theory, the wavefunction is a complex  
distribution associated with a quantum system. Despite its fundamental  
role, it is typically introduced as an abstract element of the theory  
with no explicit definition. Rather, physicists come to a working  
understanding of it through its use to calculate measurement outcome  
probabilities through the Born Rule. Tomographic methods can  
reconstruct the wavefunction from measured probabilities. In contrast,  
I present a method to directly measure the wavefunction so that its  
real and imaginary components appear straight on our measurement  
apparatus. At the heart of the method is a joint measurement of  
position and momentum that is made possible by weak measurement (a  
concept that I will attempt to demystify). I will describe an  
experimental example of the method in which we directly measured the  
transverse spatial wavefunction of a single photon. New experimental  
work extending this to mixed states will be presented as well. Our  
direct measurement method gives the wavefunction a plain and general  
meaning in terms of a specific set of operations in the lab.

Related Papers:
Nature, 474, 188 (2011). http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.5471
Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 070402 (2012). http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.3575

Biography:
Dr. Jeff Lundeen received his undergraduate degree in Physics from  
Queen's University, Kingston, Canada. He then completed a Ph.D. in  
experimental Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in the group of  
Prof. Aephraim Steinberg at the University of Toronto, on the subject  
of Quantum Measurement. As an NSERC postdoctoral fellow, he joined the  
group of Prof. Ian Walmsley at the Clarendon Laboratory, University of  
Oxford. He led a Photonic Quantum Information subgroup, developing  
ways to generate, manipulate and characterize quantum light. After  
this he was a post-doctoral fellow in Dr. Morgan Mitchell's lab at  
ICFO – Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Barcelona, performing  
experiments with squeezed light. He is now a Research Officer in  
Quantum Radiometry at the National Research Council in Ottawa Canada.

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