Aephraim Steinberg

YouTube video by U2VEVO U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (Official Music Video)

Heads-up: we'll be searching this Fall for a tenure-stream faculty member in Theoretical #QuantumOptics (#AMOPhysics #QuantumInformation)
at U of T Physics
@cqiqc-uoft.bsky.social

Official ad out next month – please alert potential strong candidates you may know!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3-5...

Tunnelling photons challenge interpretation of quantum mechanics Measurements with confined photons challenge a prediction that particles that ‘quantum tunnel’ into infinitely long barriers will get stuck.

(See also Alessandro Fedrizzi & Fabio Biancalana's N&V, www.nature.com/articles/d41... )

Energy–speed relationship of quantum particles challenges Bohmian mechanics - Nature The study of the relationship between particle speed and negative kinetic energy, arising in regions in which, according to classical mechanics, particles are not allowed to enter, reveals behaviour t...

Super-fascinating new article out, on the speed of particles in a forbidden region.
For me, it raises more questions than it answers, which is of course my favorite kind of experiment.
Kudos to the authors for a novel approach and technical tour de force!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Meanwhile, let's all keep trying to learn this lesson about understanding in what way every one is right (even when they're wrong).

Finding Peter Putnam The forgotten janitor who discovered the logic of the mind

Finally got around to reading this fascinating article by Amanda Gefter -- kudos on an epic investigation and a gripping story!

Sad but also inspiring.
Thanks for making his writings publicly available - I hope this will lead to new inspirations as well as to restoring his legacy.

University of Virginia President Resigns Under Pressure From Trump Administration

Disgusting
Weaponizing the justice department, and research funding, against what the US has left of intellectual institutions.
Against one of the real good guys, at that.
His crime?
Not dismantling efforts in support of equity vigorously enough.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/27/u...

Fearing yet more war;
hoping for peace.

May war-mongering leaders be removed, and innocents everywhere be safe. What else is worth saying?

RIP Ray Laflamme, gone too soon.

Ray was a stellar scientist, the founding director of ⁦‪the IQC‬⁩ and ⁦‪of CIFAR's‬⁩ Quantum Information program, but more importantly a warm & generous human who built community and helped many (particularly junior researchers).

May his memory be a blessing.

Traceable random numbers from a non-local quantum advantage - Nature A study demonstrates a public generator of random numbers based on device-independent techniques, with the randomness being fully auditable and traceable.

Krister Shalm in the news again, with a new paper on the Colorado Random Number beacon.

Well, we always did say that getting a paper into Nature was a roll of the dice...

Always exciting to see our group members go on to lead such creative & successful efforts!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sad news.
A great scientist & author, of course, but also a kind man and thoughtful teacher.
He will be missed.
www.optica.org/about/newsro...

I like to hope we're already doing this in Physics (at least in most groups..), but a discussion around a more systematic approach like this would not be out of place.

I had a student who often ignored us during mtgs, rdng his own stuff instead; I spied him doing this at a conf Id brought him to & resolved to confront him,
but that eve he came to me first: "I realized my bg was weaker than others, so I spent this yr reading CCT cover to cover, & I just finished."

Theory and practice
#FIAN 2014

Just sharing for the yocks.

Seriously, YOCTOjoules.
How many of you have even *heard* that prefix before?

That's 10^-5 visible photons, in case you're keeping count.

"Fieldoscopy." arxiv.org/abs/2504.13121

Quantum and Dance: It Takes 2 to Entangle Quantum physics and dancing may seem very different, but they both rely on creativity and precision. Both have shaped one NIST researcher’s outlook on life

Hey!
Group alum making waves (or particles) !

www.nist.gov/blogs/taking...

#WorldQuantumDay #Quantum #EntangledPhotons

I was apprehensive about big airlines moving their routing to #QuantumComputers so early, but here we go... Lufthansa has inaugurated their new double-slit service!

(It feels like we landed safely, but that may just be because of that eavesdropping observer in the background.)

You know you have achieved peak fringe when someone publishes an April Fool's joke and you're disappointed they didn't cite your earlier work...;)

home.cern/news/news/ph...

Belatedly sharing the great news that my colleague Joseph Thywissen has been named a Fellow of @OpticaWorldwide !
Congratulations to a jolly good one!

cqiqc.physics.utoronto.ca/news/recent-...

@CQIQC_Toronto @uoftphysics

Correction -- UofT didn't think it worth mentioning; the Globe&Mail made it their headline ;)

Congrats to Melanie Woodin, U of T's next President!

(Should say in passing that it seems to me she'll be our 1st female president, and it's especially heartening that this can happen without any one [until me, apologies- maybe one step of meta will excuse me] feeling that needs to be emphasized.)

Kyle doing a masterful job of motivating and explaining our work on atomic excitation times in his #CQIQC seminar:
www.physics.utoronto.ca/research/qua...

[to appear on CQIQC youtube channel]

The bizarre quantum paradox of 'negative time' Cause is usually followed by effect, but in the quantum world, time's sequencing is not so straightforward.

Oh, another one!

They kept some of my "Holland Tunnel" analogy, and then segué'd into Emily Adlam on retrocausality...
Have only skimmed so far...
how'd they do? Better than the rest so far, I trust?

#NegativeTime #FoundationsOfQM
www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

Ok, something to remember the next time we're complaining about our "publish or perish" culture...

#AcademicChatter

Stop slurping at Microsoft's trough,
and read about something interesting instead,
like our old group member Luciano's efforts to measure the onset of reality
(or sth like that -- I still have to read the paper 😉

arxiv.org/abs/2502.13932

Hmm.
Came back from a few weeks out of the loop to run into this headline, and must just say:

At least they're honest enough to put it on the "Business" page instead of "Science" ;)

[Honestly, good luck to them. I'll be thrilled if this time they're telling the truth. ;} ]

The pigeons have come home to roost, at long last!

Congrats to Noah, Aharon, & the rest – just out in PNAS:
how strong & weak quantum measurements compare in regards to sum rules and other desiderata, by using the seeming violation of the "pigeonhole principle."

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Looking forward to #Time and #Quantum Theory!

tiqt2025.quantummechanics.it

I think the in-flight PA announcement just said we could purchase any of our favorite atoms from duty-free, and I am really hoping to get a good deal on some Francium.

Nice, & odd, to visit a uni and realize that the postdoc I used to know at UofT is now chair of Physics here,
but esp to have him claim that auditing my course waybackwhen has had lasting influence on his career.

In general, lots of friendly & creative people here I haven't seen in too long.

Congrats, Joseph!

twitter.com/cqiqc_toront...