Nobel Laureate presents "Why can’t time run backwards?"

Leggett gives Department of Physics and Astronomy public lecture

Tuesday, March 13, 2007
7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Monsanto Auditorium, Life Science Building

Sir Anthony Leggett is the 2003 Nobel Laureate in Physics and a Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As part of his visit to the MU campus, he will present a public lecture Why can't time run backwards?:

"We can all tell when a movie of some everyday event, such as a kettle boiling or a glass shattering, is run backwards. Similarly, we all feel that we can remember the past and affect the future, not vice versa. So there is a very clear 'arrow' (direction) of time built into the interpretation of our everyday experience. Yet the fundamental microscopic laws of physics, be they classical or quantum-mechanical, look exactly the same if the direction of time is reversed. So what is the origin of the 'arrow' of time? This is one of the deepest questions in physics; I will review some relevant considerations, but do not pretend to give a complete answer."

In addition, Sir Leggett will give the O. M. Stewart Colloquium for Monday, March 12, 2007, entitled Testing the Limits of Quantum Mechanics: Motivation, State of Play, Prospects:

"I present the motivation for experiments which attempt to generate, and verify the existence of, quantum superpositions of two or more states which are by some reasonable criterion 'macroscopically' distinct, and show that various a priori objections to this program made in the literature are flawed. I review the extent to which such experiments currently exist in the areas of free-space molecular diffraction, magnetic biomolecules, quantum optics and Josephson devices, and sketch possible future lines of development of the program."

The Physics Colloquium runs 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. in Room 120, Physics Building.

Links:

MU Department of Physics and Astronomy

Sir Anthony Leggett
2003 Nobel Prize in Physics