Physics Frontiers

Jim Rantschler

Journeys to the Outer Limits of Theoretical Physics

  • 1 hour 21 minutes
    Episode 77: Maxwellian Ratchets with Alex Jurgens

    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

    31 March 2024, 5:52 pm
  • 49 minutes 40 seconds
    Episode 76: Undeciability and Theories of Everything with Claus Kiefer

    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

    29 January 2024, 2:38 am
  • 1 hour 7 minutes
    Episode 75: Categorical Probability and the Measurement Problem

    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

    20 August 2023, 1:08 pm
  • 50 minutes 23 seconds
    Episode 74: Stochastic Thermodynamics with David Wolpert

    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

    9 July 2023, 1:47 pm
  • 1 hour 43 seconds
    Episode 73: Quantum Money with Jiahui Liu

    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. 

    18 June 2023, 1:36 pm
  • 1 hour 13 minutes
    Episode 72: Born Rule and Gravity with Antony Valentini

    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

    23 April 2023, 10:03 pm
  • 45 minutes 39 seconds
    Episode 71: Primordial Graviton Background

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

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

    19 February 2023, 3:40 pm
  • 46 minutes 30 seconds
    Episode 70: Path Integrals and Entanglement with Ken Wharton

    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

    18 December 2022, 3:46 pm
  • 43 minutes
    Episode 69: The Flavor Puzzle with Joe Davighi

    Jim talks with Joe Davighi of the University of Zurich about the flavor unification at high energies - the merging of all leptons into one kind of particle.  The discussion includes symmetries in particle physics, symmetry breaking at low temperatures, and unification schemes in general.  Joe also discusses both leptoquarks and proton stability in the context of his theory.

    20 November 2022, 2:19 pm
  • 51 minutes 29 seconds
    Episode 68: Quantum Resource Theories with Gilad Gour

    Jim talks with Gilad Gour of the University of Toronto about quantum resource theories.  These are theories of largish systems that describe the relationships between possible states by the different levels of resources required for each.  By using resources, a system can move from one state to another.  This results in a partial order where between two states there could be two different states inaccessible to one another. Although (usually) these coalesce into an order based on a single property of thermodynamically-sized systems, the entropy, a few do not.

    Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/68

    26 September 2022, 2:32 am
  • 35 minutes
    Episode 67: Optical Gravity with Matthew R. Edwards

    Jim talks with Matthew R. Edwards about his theory of Optical Gravity.  This is a Le Sage model of gravity based on graviton filiments.

    Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/67

    14 August 2022, 1:06 pm
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