Laboratoire de Physique Théorique
Toulouse - UMR 5152

A special SFP (Société Française de Physique) - IRSAMC (Institut de Recherche sur les Systèmes Atomiques et Moléculaires Complexes) seminar will be given by Professor Tony Leggett, during his one month stay in LPT Toulouse on the following topic :

[bleu] Does the everyday world really obey quantum mechanics ?[/bleu]

[bleu marine]Quantum mechanics has been enormously successful in describing nature at the atomic level,and most physicists believe that it is in principle the "whole truth" about the world even at the everyday level. However, such a view prima facie leads to a severe problem : in certain circumstances, the most natural interpretation of the theory implies that no definite outcome of an experiment occurs until the act of "observation". For many decades this problem was regarded as "merely philosophical", in the sense that it was thought that it had no consequences which could be tested in experiment. However, in the last dozen or so years the situation has changed very dramatically in this respect. I will discuss the problem, some popular "resolutions" of it, the current experimental situation and prospects for the future.[bleu marine]

[fond jaune]MONDAY 23rd APRIL AT 14:00[/fond jaune]

Coffee at 13h15

[fond jaune]Note the unusual place : Amphithéâtre Schwartz, at the 1R3 building of the Institut de Mathématiques de Toulouse[/fond jaune]