David Gross, KITP Director.
This spring we have run two programs that get to the heart of quantum mechanics. One is “Spintronics,” which is centered on the attempt to use quantum spin of the electron to convey information and control devices. The other is “Topological Phases and Quantum Computing,” an attempt to use a quantum mechanical system to construct an incredibly powerful computer that could out-perform existing classical computers by a wide margin.
These programs illustrate to me how central quantum mechanics is in modern physics, clearly at the atomic and of course subatomic scales. In conjunction with the programs, we held a conference for high school teachers on “Nanoscience and Quantum Computing,” that led me to think about quantum mechanics in terms of education.
Many—probably all—physicists still feel a bit uncomfortable with quantum mechanics, shaped as we are in our education by classical notions of determinism and reality. Yet quantum mechanics works so well that no one has come up with an alternative picture though many, from Einstein onward, have tried.
Some of my colleagues believe that eventually quantum mechanics will have to be replaced by something more “real.” I myself regard this eventuality as unlikely. If there are conceptual revolutions in the future, they are only going to make things worse not better—less classical, stranger than ever.
I have an idea that the reason we find quantum mechanics so difficult is due to our poor training. Quantum mechanics is only 70 years old—that’s a short time in the history of physics for dramatic new concepts to sink into the consciousness of the field. And we are only learning, as we go along, to teach quantum mechanics better and better to our younger students, who understand it much better than the inventors did. Thus I think eventually—maybe 100 years from now, when quantum mechanics is taught in high schools (and we don’t first teach classical physics and then tell the students, “That’s all wrong, think quantum mechanically”), then and finally then— we will feel comfortable with quantum mechanics.
Of course by then we might have (probably will have) new conceptual revolutions that will make things appear mysterious and confusing once again.
Endowment Fund
You will have noticed that this second issue of the “KITP Newsletter” contains a remittance envelope to encourage readers—our dear friends and colleagues around the world—to contribute to the KITP endowment fund. Its purpose is twofold: to enable the KITP to initiate new and exciting programming efforts—to experiment!— and to buffer us against the vicissitudes of federal funding. Please take a moment to consider and, we hope, to respond.
Director’s Council
The Director’s Council has seen a shift in leadership. Fred Gluck and Joe Alibrandi, who are the founding co-chairs of the Council, have given over that role to John Mackall, who has replaced them as chair. We welcome a new member, Simon Raab. Finally, we all mourn the loss of Eli Luria, a good friend of the KITP, who served on the Director’s Council till his passing in March.
David Gross
KITP Newsletter, Spring 2006