Niels Bohr Lecture by professor Markus Aspelmeyer, University of Vienna

How does a quantum object gravitate?

Talk by: Professor Markus Aspelmeyer, University of Vienna

There will be coffee, tea and cake from 15:45. Lecture starts at 16:15.

Abstract: No experiment today provides evidence that gravity requires a quantum description. The growing ability to achieve quantum optical control over massive solid-state objects may change that situation – by enabling experiments that directly probe the phenomenology of quantum states of gravitational source masses.

I will review the current status in the lab and the challenges to be overcome for future experiments.

About the speaker: Markus Aspelmeyer is Professor of Physics at the University of Vienna and Scientific Director at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.

• He studied physics and philosophy in Munich, Germany. Aspelmeyer is regarded one of the pioneers of the field of quantum optomechanics.
• His research combines the development of new quantum technologies with fundamental quantum experiments.
• He is co-founder of Crystalline Mirror Solutions (now Thorlabs Crystalline Solutions), which provides novel optics for laser precision measurements.
• He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg.

His current research is focused on the intriguing puzzles around quantum physics and gravity.

More about Markus Aspelmeyer here >>

There will be coffee, tea and cake from 15:45. Lecture starts at 16:15.