Schrödinger's Cat, Clauser's Interferometer, and Impossible Optics

OSA Presidential Speaker
Note: Meeting to be held at Goodrich

I will make an excursion into one of the longest-running frontier areas of physics, which is the  weird character of quantum mechanics itself. Illustrations will include a description of experiments with  the Clauser Interferometer, one of the new optical devices invented for study in this domain.  Schrödinger's Cat is no longer just an academic matter, and on-going studies are providing startling answers to questions about the reality of the natural world. I'll offer a proof, for example, showing that the square of the cosine of a real angle is larger than the cosine itself, thus contradicting high school trigonometry.

Goodrich will need the name and citizenship for each attendee. Please include this when you make a reservation. All are welcome to this talk regardless of citizenship.

Joseph Eberly

Biographical Sketch

Professor Eberly received his B.S. from Penn State and his Ph.D. in Physics from Stanford. He joined the UR physics faculty in 1967 where he is presently the Andrew Carnegie Professor of Physics, Professor of Optics, and Director of the Rochester Theory Center.

Prof. Eberly is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Optical Society of America. He was President of OSA in 2007 and earlier was Chair of the APS Division of Laser Science. He is the founding Editor of Optics Express. Professor Eberly was the recipient of the Georgen Award for Creative Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching in 2000, and is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Penn State College of Science, the Charles Hard Townes Award of OSA (1994), the Smoluchowski Medal of the Physical Society of Poland (1987), a Senior Humboldt Award (1984), and a JILA Visiting Fellowship (1979).

Research

Prof. Eberly's research interests are in the general field of theoretical Quantum Optics and AMO science. He is the co-author of Optical Resonance and Two-Level Atoms, with L. Allen, which has been translated into Japanese, Polish and Russian and is now published by Dover. He is a co-author the text Lasers (1988, now in 16th printing) and a new book Laser Physics (in proof) both with P. W. Milonni and published by John Wiley. He has written more than 350 research papers and reviews and has supervised 35 PhD theses. His research is currently devoted to three main topics: entanglement dynamics and quantum weirdness, the response of multi-electron atoms to very intense laser pulses, and propagation of optical solitons in non-fiber media.

Reservations:

DINNER reservations are required by noon, November 17, 2008, the Monday of the meeting. MEETING ONLY reservations are required by noon, November 20, 2008, the day of the meeting. 

Please make reservations online. Reservations may also be left on the answering machine at 617.584.0266. We no longer have an email address for reservations due to SPAM. When making reservation requests, please provide the following information: 

• DINNER AND MEETING or meeting only
• Name(s) and membership status
• Daytime phone number where you can be reached (in case of change or cancellation)

Location:

Goodrich Corporation
Surveillance and Reconnaissance Systems
5 Omni Way
Chelmsford, MA 01824-4142
TEL: 978-967-2100
FAX: 978-967-2205

Directions to Goodrich

Networking—5:45 PM, Dinner—6:30, Meeting—7:30 PM.

Menu: 

Dinner will include --- and coffee, tea, or milk.

Vegetarian option available on request 

Dinner Prices:

General Information on NES/OSA Meetings

If the meeting must be canceled for any reason, we will try to call you at the phone number you leave with your reservation. Official notice of cancellation will be on our answering machine.

We have to pay for the dinners reserved as of the Tuesday before the meeting, so no-shows eat into our cash reserve. If you will not be able to attend, please let us know as early as possible. Otherwise, no-shows will be billed.

Membership Rates:

NOTE: The extra $5.00 of the non-member dinner fee can be used toward membership dues if the nonmember joins and pays dues for the current year at the meeting.