Playing with quantum gravity on the tabletop

by Prof. Jacob David Bekenstein (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Tuesday 23 Jun 2015, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Budapest

Tanácsterem (Building 1)

Many would class the quantum theory of gravity as the number-one open problem in theoretical physics. Discussion of quantum gravity is at least seventy years old, but all along it has been mostly a theoretical undertaking. After describing some planned experiments on the subject, I will focus on the quantum foam idea, and delineate a proposal for exposing it in a relatively simple tabletop experiment which relies on instrumentation which is routine in quantum optics. I will also broach the issue of noise and its control.