Episodes

  • Episode 77: Maxwellian Ratchets with Alex Jurgens
    Mar 31 2024

    Jim talks with Alex Jurgens about Maxwellian ratchets, automata that are similar to Maxwell's Demon. They talk about their implications for information processing and entropy.

    http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/77

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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • Episode 76: Undeciability and Theories of Everything with Claus Kiefer
    Jan 29 2024

    Jim talks with Claus Kiefer about the implications of Goedel's incompleteness theorems on the search for the theory.

    Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/76

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    50 mins
  • Episode 75: Categorical Probability and the Measurement Problem
    Aug 20 2023

    Jim talks with Nick Ormrod and V. Vilasini about their use of categorical probability theory to analyze the measurement problem.  We discuss categorical probability theory, which allows them to abstract from particular mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics to more general ideas about states and measurements and observers than found in Hilbert space formulations.  They use this to look at the various properties of quantum mechanics and how they relate to each other, in particular how relativity affects the measurement problem.

    Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/75

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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Episode 74: Stochastic Thermodynamics with David Wolpert
    Jul 9 2023

    Jim talks with David Wolpert about the non-equilibrium behavior of computation, what it means for entropy, and how it relates to traditional thermodynamics.

    Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/74

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    50 mins
  • Episode 73: Quantum Money with Jiahui Liu
    Jun 18 2023

    Jim discusses quantum money with Jiahui Liu.  Quantum money is a linchpin of quantum cryptography.  The ability to create secure banknotes using quantum computers would allow even more secure methods of encryption for communications. 

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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Episode 72: Born Rule and Gravity with Antony Valentini
    Apr 23 2023

    Jim talks with Antony Valentini about the difficulties of interpretation of quantum mechanics in light of quantum gravity.  In particular, Antony discusses the failure of the Born Rule due to the impossibility of normalization (the fact that probabilities must sum to 100%) at that scale, and therefore the need to interpret the wavefunction as something more than merely the knowledge of the observer about the system.  They spend some time talking about the de Broglie-Bohm interpretation in light of quantum gravity.

    Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/72

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    1 hr and 14 mins
  • Episode 71: Primordial Graviton Background
    Feb 19 2023

    Jim talks with Sunny Vagnozzi about using the Primoridial Graviton Background to rule out all inflation models. 

    Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/71

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    46 mins
  • Episode 70: Path Integrals and Entanglement with Ken Wharton
    Dec 18 2022

    Jim talks with Ken Wharton about how to describe entangled states as sums over histories of particle paths using the path integral method.  He shows how this works for Bell-type experiments, entanglements swapping, delayed choice experiments, and the triangle network.  This leads to a second way to describe what happens quantum mechanically without introducing non-locality (but requiring other classical ideas to break down).

    Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/70

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    47 mins