Perimeter Winter 2011

InsIde the PerImeter winter 2011

www.perimeterinstitute.ca 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, ON, Canada N2L 2Y5 I 519.569.7600

whAt’s inside UPCOMING SCIENTIFIC EVENTS ...... 2

Guifre Vidal Joins pi p.4 pi and Cita Join liGo p.9 NEIL’S NOTES ...... 3

PI NEWS ...... 4

CONFERENCE RECAPS ...... 13

PI PUBLICATIONS ...... 16

GLOBAL OUTLOOK ...... 18

OUTREACH UPDATE ...... 20

CULTURE @ PI ...... 24

PI COMMUNITY ...... 26

THE LIFE OF PI IN PHOTOS ...... 28

Black Strings p.10 $4 Million Gift from BMo Creates new Chair p.5 InsIde the PerImeter

uPcOming scientiFic eVents ColloQuia SeMinarS upCoMinG For up-to-date information on colloquia, For up-to-date information and locations, ConFerenCeS at pi please visit: www.perimeterinstitute.ca/ please visit: www.perimeterinstitute.ca For more details on PI conferences, Scientifi c/Seminars/Colloquium /Scientifi c/Seminars/Series please visit: www.perimeterinstitute.ca/ Scientifi c/Conferences/Conferences  adrian Kent, University of Cambridge/  Gil holder, McGill University Perimeter Institute Particle Physics  Back to the Bootstrap TBA MARCH 25 AT 1 PM APRIL 12 – 14, 2011 MARCH 23 AT 2 PM, Theatre  abhay ashtekar, Pennsylvania State

University  4-Corner Southwest ontario

 Simon white, Max Planck Institute ILQG Condensed Matter Symposium for Astrophysics MARCH 29 AT 10 AM 2011

“The structure of the dark matter  thomas Vidick, University of APRIL 26, 2011 distribution on laboratory scales” California, Berkeley MARCH 30 AT 2 PM, Theatre PI Quantum Discussions  Conceptual Foundations and MARCH 30 AT 4 PM Foils for Quantum information

 roger penrose, University of Oxford  andreas ross, Carnegie Mellon processing “Conformal Cyclic Cosmology: University MAY 9 – 13, 2011 Equations of Evolution, Observational Strong Gravity Consequences” MARCH 31 AT 1 PM

APRIL 6 AT 2 PM, Theatre  tarun Grover, University of Conceptual Foundations California, Berkeley and Foils for Quantum

 Christopher Stubbs, Condensed Matter Information Processing May 9 - 13, 2011 Harvard University April 1 at 11 AM Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada TBA  tadashi takayanagi, Institute The interplay between information-processing protocols and basic physical principles has attracted increasing interest in the past few years and has been the subject of many new and exciting results. Such investigations offer a new perspective on the APRIL 20 AT 2 PM, Theatre for the Physics and Mathematics of foundations of quantum theory, a deeper understanding of the origin of quantum advantages for information-processing, and a framework for exploring the nature of the Universe information-processing within alternatives to quantum theory (foil theories). Invited Speakers Scientific Organizers  eduardo Fradkin, University of Illinois Strings Scott Aaronson, MIT Giulio Chiribella, Perimeter Institute (main organizer) Antonio Acín, ICFO Barcelona Anne Broadbent, Institute for Quantum Computing Howard Barnum, University of New Mexico Robert Spekkens, Perimeter Institute TBA APRIL 5 AT 11 AM Jon Barrett, Royal Holloway* Gilles Brassard, Université de Montréal Nicolas Brunner, University of Bristol Deadline for registration is May 3, 2011 APRIL 27 AT 2 PM, Theatre  lawrence price, California Institute Dan Browne, University College London* Caslav Brukner, University of Vienna www.perimeterinstitute.ca/Conceptual_ Bob Coecke, University of Oxford Foundations_and_Foils_for_QIP of Technology Roger Colbeck, Perimeter Institute Mauro D’Ariano, University of Pavia Chris Fuchs, Perimeter Institute Sandu popescu, University of Bristol Cosmology & Gravitation Lucien Hardy, Perimeter Institute  Marc Kaplan, Université de Montréal Gen Kimura, Shibaura Institute of Technology* TBA APRIL 5 AT 2 PM Tsuyoshi Ito, Institute for Quantum Computing Lluis Masanes, ICFO Markus Mueller, Perimeter Institute Jonathan Oppenheim, University of Cambridge MAY 11 AT 2 PM, Theatre  Brien nolan, Dublin City University Paolo Perinotti, University of Pavia Sandu Popescu, University of Bristol Renato Renner, ETH Zurich Strong Gravity Valerio Scarani, National University of Singapore Ben Schumacher, Kenyon College Anthony Short, University of Cambridge APRIL 7 AT 1 PM Stephanie Wehner, National University of Singapore Alex Wilce, Susquehanna University Andreas Winter, University of Bristol  Kristan Jensen, *to be confirmed University of Victoria Strings APRIL 11 AT 11 AM

PirsA Pick of the issue new “Best hope” for Quantum Gravity? (http://pirsa.org/11020085/)

renate loll, utrecht university

Series: Colloquium

02 winter 2011 InsIde the PerImeter NEIL’S NOTES

On Alchemy And Physics

ome view winter here as an for him worldwide. And who was Newton? He came out of ordeal: for me it’s a wonder, nowhere (the backwoods of Lincolnshire in England to be Sto look out on the deep, precise) to solve thousand-year-old riddles. He invented bright snow and see the land- entirely new mathematics — calculus — and used it to create scape transformed. It’s also a the new sciences of mechanics, gravitation, optics, fluids. reminder of how quickly things His equations were far more powerful than even he knew. can change. Like Perimeter, now For example, they describe the expansion of the universe in the throes of a major renewal. and the formation of galaxies and stars. As the Russian Laying the seeds, we hope, for a astrophysicist Zel’dovich said: “There is nothing wrong with springtime bringing transforma- Newtonian cosmology — all it takes is courage.” Today, giant tive insights to our research. supercomputers solve Newton’s equations to describe the As you have often read in these pages, we are building a clustering of galaxies and stars, although even Newton him- research community here of exceptional depth, around the self never attempted to describe the universe in this way. central themes of quantum theory and spacetime: the basic The economist John Maynard Keynes, who collected many laws and the arena for physics. A major emphasis naturally of Newton’s original manuscripts, stated that Newton was falls on enlarging our research faculty, and I am delighted to “not the first of the age of report that Guifre Vidal, a pioneer working at the interface reason, but rather the last of of quantum information and condensed matter physics, will the magicians.” In his rooms shortly be joining PI from the University of Queensland. at Trinity College, Cambridge, No other institute in our field, worldwide, has such ambitious he famously spent more time growth plans. To support them and secure Perimeter’s long- on alchemy than he did on term future, we have launched Expanding the Perimeter, a physics. Some find this surpris- major campaign to build our endowment and widen our circle ing, but perhaps there is really of supporters. We have been thrilled at the intensity of no puzzle. One definition of interest and commitment so far garnered across Canada. theoretical physics is simply Innovators and leaders from many arenas have joined our that it is “magic which works.” Leadership Council and are generously lending their time and Newton was looking for magic, talents to the campaign. and he found it in physics, In late November, Expanding the Perimeter celebrated a discovering that the world major success. The BMO Financial Group contributed $4 mil- works according to mathematical lion to create the BMO Financial Group Isaac Newton Chair in rules. With persistence, we can Theoretical Physics at Perimeter Institute. This is the largest reveal them and use them to single gift BMO has ever made to an academic institution. create phenomena which are Coming from a major financial institution this is an extraor- truly magical. So in a sense, Newton marked the transition dinary endorsement of our conviction that investment in from magic based on traditional beliefs and superstition to fundamental research is an essential element of ensuring scientific magic which transcends us all and which is our our shared future prosperity as a society. greatest hope for the future. The Newton Chair is only the first of five Research Chairs One of the most moving experiences of my career was to we plan to create at Perimeter, each named after a scientist examine Newton’s own private library, a small collection held whose insights helped define modern physics: Isaac Newton, in the Wren Library in Trinity College at Cambridge. It includes James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Paul Galileo’s manuscripts, with Newton’s comments scribbled Dirac. The holders of the Perimeter Research Chairs will be in the margins. Newton and his peers were the beginning of chosen from among the world’s leading physicists, building the modern scientific community — like us, they worked in the strength of our research community and helping us to special institutions which gave them the space and the fulfill our mission of fostering major breakthroughs in our support they needed. understanding of the universe. And just who will occupy the Newton Chair? Stay tuned... Surprisingly, in view of Newton’s pre-eminence in modern science, this Chair is, as far as I know, the first to be named — Neil Turok

winter 2011 03 InsIde the PerImeter PI NEWS

guiFre VidAl tO JOin Pi FAculty

his May, Perimeter Institute will welcome a new member what finally made me decide to to its research faculty, as current Distinguished Research join the Institute was the recent t Chair (DRC) Guifre Vidal is set to arrive with two post- inclusion of condensed matter doctoral researcher colleagues. In addition to serving as a theory as one of its core research DRC since 2009, Dr. Vidal is currently an Australian Research areas.” Council Federation Fellow at the University of Queensland in Dr. Vidal received his PhD Brisbane, Australia. from the University of Barcelona In making the announcement, PI’s Director Neil Turok said, in 1999 under the supervision “Professor Vidal has pioneered powerful new methods for of Prof. Rolf Tarrach. He was a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. understanding large quantum systems which exhibit fascinating Ignacio Cirac’s group at the University of Innsbruck in Austria collective phenomena. His research combines insights from from 1999 - 2002 and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow quantum information, computational physics, and condensed with Prof. John Preskill at the Institute for Quantum Information matter physics and lays the basis for a far more sophisticated at the California Institute of Technology from 2002 - 2005. understanding of the real quantum world around us. We are He has been a professor in the School of Mathematics and thrilled to have Guifre join us at PI – he will greatly strengthen Physics at the University of Queensland since 2005. and broaden our expertise in quantum information, field Dr. Vidal’s past honours include a Marie Curie Fellowship, theory and condensed matter.” awarded by the European Union, and a Sherman Fairchild Dr. Vidal works at the interface of quantum information Foundation Fellowship. and condensed matter physics. He has done extensive work on quantum entanglement, both with regards to quantum — Mike Brown computing and in the broader context of many-body systems. He has developed new computational approaches, such as entanglement renormalization, to gain a better understanding of condensed matter systems. Further exploration: His present work concerns the use of tensor network Dr. Vidal recently spoke with Science Watch about some of his highly-cited states, such as the multi-scale entanglement renormalization work. You can read that interview at: http://www.sciencewatch.com/ana/st/ ansatz (MERA) and projected entangled pair states (PEPS), to quantum/10julSTVida/ compute the ground state of quantum many-body systems on G. Vidal, J. I. Latorre, E. Rico and A. Kitaev. “Entanglement in quantum critical a lattice, and to issue a classification of the possible phases phenomena.” Physical Review Letters 90, 227902 (2003). of quantum matter, corresponding to the different fixed http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0211074 points of the renormalization group flow. The tensor network G. Vidal. “Efficient classical simulation of slightly entangled quantum computa- formalism is likely to become relevant across many research tions.” Physical Review Letters 91, 147902 (2003). areas involving many-body physics, which made Perimeter’s http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0301063 interdisciplinary environment particularly appealing. G. Vidal. “Efficient simulation of one-dimensional quantum many-body systems.” Dr. Vidal said, “I very much look forward to starting to work Physical Review Letters 93, 040502 (2004). as a Faculty member at Perimeter Institute. I have visited PI http://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0310089 several times since its creation, and have always enjoyed G. Vidal. “Entanglement Renormalization.” Physical Review Letters 99, the special atmosphere it offers to researchers. However, 220405 (2007).

Pi APPOints First Visiting FellOw

r. Etera Livine has been appointed as Perimeter’s first work with past collaborators Visiting Fellow. The new Visiting Fellows program will — including Faculty member Dbring accomplished early career scientists to Perimeter Laurent Freidel and postdoc- for extended research periods of up to six months each year, toral researcher Valentin Bon- while maintaining their positions at other institutions. The zom — as well as developing appointments are for three-year terms. new collaborations. As he Dr. Livine is a Chargé de Recherche for the Centre National puts it, “I like the interactive de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at the Laboratoire de atmosphere at PI; there’s Physique of the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, in France. always something new and He works in the area of quantum gravity, with a focus on exciting every day. I like working spinfoam models, and has recently developed an interest on the comfortable sofas, discussing physics in the evening in deriving effective dynamics for quantum cosmology from at the Bistro or sorting out controversies in the squash court. these models. I like the whole friendly and very active ambiance at PI.” From 2003 - 2006, Dr. Livine was a Postdoctoral Fellow at PI, and he is looking forward to returning to Waterloo to — Natasha Waxman

04 winter 2011 $4 milliOn BmO giFt creAtes new reseArch chAir

n the winter of 2009, Bill Downe, President and CEO of What resulted from their new association was the single Bank of Montreal (BMO), came to Perimeter to satisfy his largest donation ever made by BMO to support science i curiosity about what it is we’re doing here. He listened $4 million to establish the BMO Financial Group Isaac Newton to PI Board Chair and founder Mike Lazaridis’ impassioned Chair in Theoretical Physics at Perimeter Institute, announced talk about his belief in the importance of supporting basic at PI on November 29, 2010. It is the first of five such chairs research, and how theoretical physics is behind some of that will be named for the scientists whose insights defined the biggest technological advances in our history. Intrigued, modern physics: Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, James Clerk Mr. Downe invited Mr. Lazaridis and PI Director Neil Turok to Maxwell, Paul Dirac, and Niels Bohr. Appropriately, the first share the PI story at a special “thought leadership” event chair is named for Isaac Newton, one of the most brilliant being hosted by BMO later that spring. and influential scientists in history, whose work marks the starting point of modern physics. Mr. Downe explained, “We believe so strongly in the work that is happening at PI that we wanted to invest in it, contributing, we hope, to PI’s and Canada’s success. This donation is a celebration of Canadian science and the possi- bilities that will fire the imagination of the next generation of scientists. While BMO operates in the practical world of banking, we see ourselves as innovators as well. It’s not easy to understand what the researchers at PI are doing, but what is easy to understand is the link between the questions they’re asking and the implications for us all, when they find the answers.” Speaking at the announcement, Mr. Lazaridis said, “What we’re trying to do at PI is live up to the remarkable tradition of research advancements, such as those of Newton and Einstein. BMO recognizes that in order to move science, technology, and society forward, we must invest in the breakthrough research that makes innovation possible. With this gift from BMO, we can continue to invest in important Pictured (L to R): Mike Lazaridis, Founder of Perimeter Institute; research that, one day, may transform our world once again.” Bill Downe, President & CEO, BMO Financial Group; The Honourable Glen Murray, Minister of Research and Innovation; — Carrie Gabla Neil Turok, Director of Perimeter Institute

The actual telescope thrOugh the lOOking glAss that Newton built still exists, and resides ust 15 cm long, Sir Isaac Newton’s little telescope sym- at the Royal Society bolizes one of the biggest stories in science — showing in London. This exact Jthe nearly miraculous way Newton braided observation, replica of Newton’s theory and experiment to achieve breakthroughs. telescope was pre- Newton’s investigations into light, in which he used a sented to Bill Downe, prism showing that white light was composed of a spectrum President and CEO of of colours, led him to figure out the cause of a distortion BMO Financial Group, that afflicted the telescopes of his day. He realized that light in recognition of BMO’s passing through the lenses was being refracted unevenly, $4 million contribution causing fringes of colour to appear around the objects being to PI and to science. observed, and obscuring them. By contrast, he reasoned, since light doesn’t pass through a mirror, but simply bounces mathematics of calculus needed to precisely calculate their off its surface, there should be no such distortion. observed elliptical orbits. To prove his point, in 1668, Newton built the world’s first Astronomy took off as a science after the reflecting tele- functional reflecting telescope, grinding the mirrors himself scope was invented. Mirrors are still used in many modern out of a highly reflective metal of his own composition. He telescopes, including the Hubble space telescope, whose continued to refine the design to achieve a telescope that huge mirrors have enabled it to reveal astounding new vistas. enabled him to minutely observe and calculate the motions of the planets. These observations were crucial to the — Carrie Gabla & Natasha Waxman development of his law of universal gravitation, and the new

winter 2011 05 InsIde the PerImeter PI NEWS

exPAnding the Perimeter leAdershiP cOuncil

he Expanding the Perimeter Leadership Council, led their research, and from student Laura Piispanen about by Co-Chairs Mike Lazaridis and Cosimo Fiorenza, has the PSI Masters program. Greg Dick and John Matlock also t been created to bring business and community together spoke about PI Outreach and Communications activities, with to assist others in understanding the impact they can have animated conversations continuing over a delicious dinner at on moving science forward through financial support of PI. the Black Hole Bistro and in the days that followed. The Council met as a group for the first time at PI on October We are honoured to have such an exceptional team of 27, 2010. They spent the afternoon discovering why PI volunteers on our Council, which will continue to grow as new Founder Mike Lazaridis and Director Neil Turok are so excited members are sought locally, nationally and abroad. about what we’re doing here. They heard from Lee Smolin, Latham Boyle, Natalia Toro, and Adrienne Erickcek about — Carrie Gabla

leaDerShip CounCil MeMBerS

Mike lazaridis, O.C., O.Ont. arlene Dickinson Michael lee-Chin, o.J. (Council Co-Chair) CEO, Venture Communications Ltd. Executive Chairman & CEO, Founder, Perimeter Institute Portland Investment Counsel Inc. President & Co-CEO, Ginny Dybenko Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) Executive – Strategic Initiatives, Don Morrison Wilfrid Laurier University Chief Operating Officer, Cosimo Fiorenza (Council Co-Chair) Research in Motion Ltd. (RIM) Vice Chair, Board of Directors, Jim estill Perimeter Institute Partner, Canrock Ventures Gerry remers Vice-President and General Counsel, President & COO, Infinite Potential Group edward S. Goldenberg Christie Digital Systems Canada Inc. Partner, Bennett Jones LLP alexandra (alex) Brown Bruce rothney President, Aprilage Inc. tim Jackson President & Country Head, CEO, Accelerator Centre Canada, Barclays Capital Canada Inc. David Caputo President & CEO, Sandvine tom Jenkins Maureen Sabia Executive Chairman & Chief Strategy Chairman of the Board, Jim Cooper Officer, Open Text Canadian Tire Corporation Ltd. President & CEO, Maplesoft Carol lee Kevin Shea Catherine (Kiki) Delaney, C.M. CEO and Co-Founder, Chair, Ontario Media Development President, C.A. Delaney Capital Linacare Cosmetherapy Inc. Corporation Management Ltd.

carnegie group of international s&t leaders Visits Pi Perimeter Institute hosted a visit by the world’s science and technology leaders during a Carnegie Group meeting in Ontario. Carnegie’s annual meetings provide a forum for open ex- changes among chief science advisors and ministers responsible for research from G13 countries and the European Union on science-related issues. Perimeter Institute Director Neil Turok gave a presentation on the importance of basic research in the broader science, technology and innovation ecosystem, as well as his insights on PI’s unique strengths and linkages throughout the world’s research, training and outreach communities. 06 winter 2011 PI DIstInguIsheD ReseaRch chaIR YakIR ahaRonov WIns us natIonal MeDal of scIence

erimeter Institute Distinguished Research Chair Yakir Aharonov has been awarded the highest honour bestowed P on scientists by the United States government, the National Medal of Science. The award was presented by President Barack Obama in a White House ceremony on November 17. PI Director Neil Turok commented, “Within the world of physics, Professor Aharonov is simply a legend. His career has been characterized by a series of brilliant and unexpected insights into the deepest aspects of quantum theory and their manifestations in real phenomena.” The National Medal, which recognizes outstanding contri- butions to the biological, social, physical or mathematical sciences, has been awarded annually since 1959. Previous recipients in physics include such luminaries as Richard Feynman and Hans Bethe. The Medal is the latest in a long list of accolades awarded to Professor Aharonov for his work on the foundations of quantum mechanics; he has previously been honoured with the Wolf Prize in Physics, and holds four honorary doctorates from universities on three continents. Professor Aharonov’s best-known discovery is the Aharonov- Bohm effect, a quantum phenomenon which fundamentally quantum theory has been a tremendous inspiration to gen- advanced modern physics by demonstrating that potentials, erations of physicists interested in the detailed conceptual not forces, were the most appropriate language in which to structure of the theory. His work on understanding quantum describe the quantum world. The implications of the Aharonov- theory in terms of pre- and post-selected ensembles, in par- Bohm effect are still being probed by researchers in quantum ticular, continues to provide deep and fundamental insights foundations, more than 50 years after its discovery. that will, I expect, prove important in future developments of Other important contributions to physics made by Professor theoretical physics.” Aharonov include the theory of weak measurement, which In addition to his visiting researcher appointment as a allows certain classes of quantum systems to be measured DRC, Professor Aharonov is the James J. Farley Professor without altering their state. He is also the co-discoverer of in Natural Philosophy at Chapman University and Professor the Aharonov-Casher effect, an effect dual to the Aharonov- Emeritus at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Bohm effect that has proven important to experimental quantum computing. — Natasha Waxman According to PI Faculty member Lucien Hardy, “Professor Aharonov’s no-nonsense approach to the foundations of Read more about the Aharonov-Bohm Effect on page 8.

BaRBaRa Palk JoIns PI BoaRD of DIRectoRs

erimeter Institute welcomes Barbara Palk to the Institute’s Association of Canada, as Vice Board of Directors. The recently retired President of Chair of the Board of the Canadian P TD Asset Management Inc., one of Canada’s leading Coalition of Good Governance, and money management firms, and former Senior Vice President as a member of the Council of of TD Bank Financial Group joined the Board on December 4, Examiners for The CFA Institute. 2010. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute, a She is a past Co-Chair of the CFA Charterholder, and a member of the Toronto Society of Queen’s University Advancement Financial Analysts. Committee, and past President of In addition to her distinguished career in financial services, The Ticker Club. In 2004, Ms. Palk Ms. Palk has a long record of community service. Currently, was honoured as a recipient of the Ms. Palk is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Queen’s Ontario Volunteer Award and by The Women’s Executive University and the Chair of its Investment Committee, and a Network as one of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 member of the Boards of The Shaw Festival and Greenwood in the Trailblazer category. College School. Previously, Ms. Palk has served as a director of Unicef Canada, CanStage, and the Investment Counsel — Natasha Waxman

winter 2011 07 InsIde the PerImeter PI NEWS

AnOther QuAntum surPrise: the AhArOnOV-BOhm eFFect

ntuition, the tool that allows us to predict and thus function paths of the diffracted electron (see Figure 1), we would in our world, has been shown time and again to collapse expect nothing to change in the classical picture. However, iin spectacular and surprising ways at the quantum scale. the vector potential has the ability to shift the phase of the For example, we would expect that a charged particle moving electron wave. This, in turn, shifts the diffraction pattern. A through a region of space where it feels no force would tangible effect of a supposedly imaginary potential, which experience no change, even if there was a magnetic fi eld in exerts no force, has been observed. another region of space very close by. The Aharonov-Bohm effect, predicted by Yakir Aharonov and David Bohm in 1959, Figure 1: A double turns this logic on its head, and forced physicists either to slit experiment, where reformulate their understanding of electrodynamics, or to the phases of the two abandon the concept of locality and accept what Einstein possible electron paths coined “spooky action at a distance”. are altered with respect Picture a long electric coil, wound into a cylinder, through to each other by the which a current is running. Electrodynamics tells us the current presence of a non-zero induces a magnetic fi eld inside the coil, but no magnetic fi eld magnetic fl ux contained outside it. In a world without quantum mechanics, it would in a solenoid. then be safe to assume that an electron passing outside the solenoid would be completely unaffected by it. Just as a The Aharonov-Bohm effect was fi rst confi rmed experimentally charged particle in a Faraday cage feels no electric fi eld, one in Tokyo in 1985 by Akira Tonomura and collaborators. It just outside a solenoid feels no magnetic fi eld. leaves physicists with a choice: accept that the vector poten- In classical electrodynamics, magnetic fi elds are described tial is a real entity and that forces are not the fundamental with the help of a “vector potential”, a quantity originally engines of change in physics, or demand that the magnetic introduced only as a mathematical tool. In the classical world fi eld be capable of affecting regions of space in which it the vector potential is never measured; in fact, it is impossible is zero. This choice has implications for the foundations of even to say uniquely what it would be, as the same magnetic quantum mechanics and for the formulation of physics in fi eld can be derived from a whole family of vector potentials. general that are still being discussed today. Importantly, though, the vector potential is non-zero in regions of space where the magnetic fi eld is zero, and although this — Imogen Wright effect cannot be measured classically, it has implications when we enter the quantum world. On the quantum scale, particles aren’t just particles, but behave like waves, too. Thus, electrons on the quantum scale Further exploration: can be in or out of phase, and can form diffraction patterns. - Detailed explanation of the Aharonov-Bohm Effect: If an electron is diffracted through a double slit, it will create http://rugth30.phys.rug.nl/quantummechanics/ab.htm an interference pattern on a screen. If a solenoid containing - Journal of Physics A – Special Issue on the Aharonov-Bohm Effect: a magnetic fi eld is then placed between the two potential http://iopscience.iop.org/1751-8121/43/35

“mAgic stAte” imPlementAtiOn AchieVed

ne hurdle on the road to building quantum computers resonance system. In order to successfully realize their is that they are very vulnerable to errors caused by experiment, they had to achieve a very high degree of control Ounintended interactions with the environment outside over their qubits and perform precise measurements of this the computer. Indeed, errors are unavoidable in any device large quantum system. used for quantum information processing. The result is an important building block in the implementation Recently, researchers from Perimeter Institute and the of quantum information processing, according to PI Associate Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) implemented a novel Faculty member and IQC Director Raymond Lafl amme, one way to cope with errors inherent to quantum systems, and of the paper’s co-authors. “We know there are incredible published their results in Nature Communications. advantages to quantum information processing over classical A number of error-correcting and fault-tolerant methods computing, but the hurdle we need to overcome is errors,” have been developed in recent years to overcome quantum he said. “We can’t completely eliminate errors, but we can imperfections. In particular, some methods rely on the ability learn to control them.” to prepare quantum bits (qubits) in a special high-purity state: the so-called “magic state.” — Colin Hunter The researchers implemented, for the fi rst time, the magic- state distillation. This quantum algorithm involves applying quantum operations to fi ve imperfect magic states and distill- Further exploration: - Experimental magic state distillation for fault-tolerant quantum computing, ing one with high-purity. The research team implemented Alexandre M. Souza, Jingfu Zhang, Colm A. Ryan, Raymond Lafl amme. Nature the distillation protocol with a seven-qubit nuclear magnetic Communications, 2, 169 (2011), DOI 10.1038/ncomms1166. arXiv:1103.2178.

08 winter 2011 Pi And citA BecOme First cAnAdiAn memBers OF the ligO scientiFic cOllABOrAtiOn

joined Perimeter Institute as a postdoctoral researcher in October 2010 after working at the LIGO Laboratory i (short for Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory) at Caltech. I’ve been involved with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC) in one form or another for about seven years and, as I was transitioning to PI, Kipp Cannon of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) and I petitioned successfully to join the LSC on behalf of PI and CITA. We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the LSC to continue our research into gravitational wave observation, including the merger of neutron stars and black holes, cosmic string cusps and other transient phenomena. This venture marks the first Canadian membership in the LSC and further strengthens the relationship between PI and CITA. I think it also holds great potential as an opportunity to stimulate new observational tests for fundamental theories, and should fit nicely with the Institute’s goal of engaging with scientists at leading experimental and observational centres. The LIGO Scientific Collaboration is paving the way for the era of gravitational wave astronomy. Founded in 1997, the LSC is an international collaboration of around 700 scientists Aerial view of Livingston, LA, LIGO Observatory. from over 60 institutions and 11 countries worldwide, working on building and operating kilometre-scale laser interferometric Kipp and I are currently working on developing techniques gravitational wave detectors. Their primary objective is to for real-time gravitational wave astronomy to facilitate joint observe gravitational waves from the nearby universe. observation with optical, gamma-ray and radio telescopes. The LSC oversees the scientific goals and analysis of the We hope to catch the full electromagnetic and gravitational two American LIGO detectors located in Hanford, Washington spectrum for transient gravitational wave events such as the and Livingston, Louisiana as well as the GEO detector near merger of neutron stars. It is a technically challenging task, Hannover, Germany. Since May 2007, the LSC has operated given the computational complexity of searching the vast jointly with the Virgo Scientific Collaboration operating a compact binary space, but may be critical for confirming detector near Pisa, Italy. unequivocally that the first gravitational wave detections have The LIGO project recently successfully completed its first phase, occurred. attaining a peak strain sensitivity of ~10 -23 Hz -1/2 — which, Ultimately, prompt electromagnetic observation (within just to provide the scale of that infinitesimal strain, is roughly seconds) following a gravitational wave observation will equivalent to being able to detect when something the deepen our understanding of some of the mechanisms driving diameter of the Milky Way is stretched or squeezed by the transient events in our universe, allowing us to correlate width of your thumbnail. The two LIGO sites and the Virgo the gravitational wave signal with the electromagnetic signal site are scheduled to have significant upgrades in the next throughout the event. Our work meshes well with the exciting five years that should further increase their sensitivity by a work conducted by Luis Lehner (PI), Carlos Palenzuela (CITA) factor of 10. Pending funding, an advanced LIGO observatory and collaborators on modeling electromagnetic emission in Australia and the Large-scale Cryogenic Gravitational wave from compact binary systems. Telescope (LCGT) in Japan Gravitational wave observation will provide tests for strong may also be operating this gravity that are not possible in any conceivable laboratory. decade. The joint PI and CITA MOU with the LSC will open up possibili- With the development ties for current and future researchers at PI hoping to connect of advanced detectors on with gravitational wave experiments. Anyone interested in a global scale, the direct discussing such opportunities is invited to contact me detection of gravitational ([email protected]) or Kipp Cannon waves is a near certainty ([email protected]). in the next decade. The regular observation of — Chad Hanna gravitational waves will deepen our understanding of highly energetic phe- nomena in the universe and may reveal new and exciting physics. CITA-ICAT

winter 2011 09 InsIde the PerImeter PI NEWS

BrAiding BlAck strings, cOsmic censOrshiP, And Pi reseArchers

new act has opened in a cosmic drama that began a chain of black holes connected by thinner strings. These nearly 20 years ago, and features many PI-related strings are affected by the same instability as the parent A characters weaving in and out of the story ... string, and in turn pinch off to form more black holes, con- A recent paper published in Physical Review Letters by PI nected by even thinner strings. Lehner and Pretorius were Associate Faculty member Luis Lehner and Frans Pretorius able to model the series of self-similar black hole formations (Princeton University) describes the evolution and ultimate accurately enough to predict the final state of the system. fate of a higher dimensional object — the black string. It also The curvature of each successive generation of black holes dangles the tantalizing possibility that spacetime singularities is dependent on string radius, meaning that the event horizon not hidden behind an event horizon may exist. The cosmic of each generation will be smaller than that of the last. The censorship hypothesis conjectures that no such “naked” final generation of strings will thus coalesce into singulari- singularity is possible in nature, meaning that we are forever ties with no event horizon at all — naked singularities. The blind to the point where all known laws of physics break time between generations also depends on string radius, so down and only quantum gravity can rule. Professors Lehner each generation of black holes forms more quickly than the and Pretorius’ work suggests, however, that in five dimen- last, meaning that the naked singularities form in finite time. sions the end state of a spacetime containing a black string Lehner explains that with a small enough black string this may indeed include a naked singularity. could happen in seconds, but that an object the mass of the The question of stability — whether a physical state is supermassive black hole in the centre of our galaxy would robust when perturbed — is crucial takes weeks to terminate the series. to an understanding of any physical Cosmic censorship — the absence of naked singularities — system. Black holes have been known was supported by PI Distinguished Research Chair Stephen to be stable in four dimensions for Hawking in a famous bet against John Preskill and Kip Thorne, nearly 40 years. As Lehner points out, both of the California Institute of Technology. Hawking was it is crucial that black holes are stable forced to concede the bet in 1996, however, when Professor in four dimensions, because, for Matt Choptuik of the University of British Columbia, also a instance, the black hole at the centre PSI lecturer, demonstrated that a naked singularity could of our galaxy is continuously perturbed arise in a special case in a collapsing black hole. However, by objects surrounding it and falling because of the amount of fine tuning involved, which Choptuik into it. However, many unified theories compares to balancing “a pen on its tip with your finger,” postulate that we live in more than four Hawking classed the concession as a technicality. dimensions. Here, higher dimensional In the black string scenario investigated by Lehner and cousins of black holes, black strings, Pretorius there is no such fine tuning. However, Lehner can be studied mathematically. A suspects that Dr. Hawking would nevertheless consider the black string is essentially a black hole scenario a technicality, since the existence of higher dimen- extended in one dimension, and is a sions is itself unconfirmed. solution to Einstein’s equations in five Where could the story go from here? According to Lehner, dimensions and higher. continuing the study of the black string system beyond the PI Associate Faculty member point where a singularity arises would require an understanding Raymond Laflamme and Professor of quantum gravity that would remove the infinities present. Ruth Gregory (Durham University), a However, assuming the resolution of these infinities, he Perimeter Scholars International (PSI) predicts that small perturbations in spacetime would cause lecturer, conjectured in 1993 that, unlike black holes, the many formed black holes in the series to merge, creating black strings would be unstable and decayed into a chain a single large black hole as the true final state of the system. of black holes. This conjecture was believed to be true but the dynamics behavior — and final state — of the system — Imogen Wright remained unknown for almost two decades. The complexity of the system and the computational power Editor’s Note: Imogen Wright was a member of the first class required to model it numerically proved a stumbling block of Perimeter Scholar International, and stays in touch with for a decade. Lehner recalls that “from 1993, several regular contributions to PI’s newsletter. hundred papers were written assuming that this conjecture was correct, but no one ever proved it.” It wasn’t until Lehner and Pretorius were invited to lecture in PSI in early 2010 Further exploration: that they were able to concentrate for enough time together - APS Synopsis - http://physics.aps.org/synopsis-for/10.1103/ on the problem to finally solve it. PhysRevLett.105.101102 They turned to the cutting-edge numerical relativity - L. Lehner and F. Pretorius, Black Strings, Low Viscosity Fluids, and Violation employing methods of adaptive mesh refinement to model of Cosmic Censorship, Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 101102 (2010) - Watch an animation of Professors Lehner and Pretorius’ results here: a perturbed black string in five dimensions. They confirmed http://www.livescience.com/common/media/video/player. that the instability causes the string to “pinch off”, forming php?videoRef=LS_100921_black_strings

10 winter 2011 A chAt with Visiting scientist AndreA lOmmen Interview by Mike Brown

strophysicist Andrea Lommen is an Associate Professor MB: Can you tell us a little bit about what you’re working on of Physics and Astronomy at Franklin & Marshall College. these days? A She is Chair of the International Pulsar Timing Array, an organization that seeks to foster collaboration amongst the al: I aim to detect gravitational waves using pulsars. Pulsars world’s major pulsar timing arrays, and served as Charter are these dead, dense stars that are about the mass of the Chair of the North American Nanohertz Observatory of Gravi- sun, collapsed down to the size of Waterloo and spinning as tational Waves (NANOGrav) until the end of 2010. fast as a kitchen blender. There’s a radio beacon that’s emit- Professor Lommen is also the founder of the Mid-Atlantic ted out one side of the pulsar, and so every time the pulsar Relativistic Initiative in Education (MARIE), a science outreach spins, you see a pulse. Pulsars are intrinsically interesting program for high school students, and serves on the Program — we actually don’t understand particularly well how you get Advisory Council of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave this beam of radio emission out one side — but I am sort of Observatory (LIGO). After connecting with Associate Faculty putting all that aside and saying, “Well, let’s just use them member Luis Lehner and Postdoctoral Researcher Chad as celestial clocks.” Basically, the universe has donated this Hanna through LIGO, she visited PI for the fi rst time in system of clocks distributed throughout the galaxy for us to December, and presented a seminar about her work with use. What I’m interested in is any disturbance in the curvature NANOGrav (available on PIRSA at pirsa.org/10120035). She of spacetime that would disturb the path between the pulsar plans to return for another visit in September. and the Earth. The disturbance we’re most interested in is the gravitational wave, of course.

MB: How does this work relate to the work being done by ground-based interferometry observatories such as LIGO?

al: Ground-based interferometry and pulsar timing are fairly analogous, actually — they’re just at different scales and they’re actually quite complementary experiments. LIGO has three-kilometre baselines, and we have more like 3000-light- year arms. One of the things that means is that we’re sensitive to very low-frequency gravitational waves — tens of nanohertz is our sweet spot, whereas LIGO is sensitive to kilohertz, so we’re actually 12 orders of magnitude away from each other in frequency space. So, our sources are quite different and, if you look at the whole spectrum of gravitational waves, from the Cosmic Microwave Background experiment at Hubble wavelengths down to the ground-based interferometers, we’ve actually got the whole spectrum sampled. I think it’s probably one of the MB: What are your initial impressions of PI? fi rst times in history that we have the whole spectrum of something sampled before we’ve ever detected anything. al: It’s an amazing place. I love the way the space is set up Usually you have an entry point and then you go from there, — the light and the windows and the chalkboards — and the but we know there’s going to be something there and it’s going way they have it set up for visitors makes a lot of sense. It’s to be really exciting when that region starts to open up. really nice. Continued on page 12

Associate Faculty member luis lehner named Fellow of the APs

Congratulations to pi associate Faculty Member luis lehner, who was recently elected as a Fellow of the american physical Society (apS), for his “important contributions to numerical relativity, most notably in the areas of black hole simulations, general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics, and algorithm development.”

winter 2011 11 InsIde the PerImeter PI NEWS

A chAt with Visiting scientist AndreA lOmmen Continued from page 11

MB: It sounds like a thrilling time to be working in gravita- tional wave astronomy. Would it be fair to say the field has gained prominence in recent years?

al: It’s definitely coming into the public view; it got rated very highly in the Astro2010 Decadal Survey. Every 10 years, the National Academy of Sciences in the US does a broad study of, “What are the most important questions in astronomy in the next decade going to be?” LISA [Laser Interferometer Space Antenna] and the PTAs, the Pulsar Timing Arrays as we call them, both figured prominently in this Decadal Survey, and they said that gravitational waves and gravitational wave astronomy is one of the most important questions going forward. Image courtesy of David Champion. The figure illustrates the As pulsar astronomers, somehow we got used to what I use of the pulsar timing array, array of pulsars (in purple) call the “thrift store culture,” where we sort of just take whose electromagnetic signals (in yellow) are used to detect whatever’s left over from everybody else. I keep trying to con- gravitational waves (represented by the green grid which you vince people that this is our time — we have now come into should imagine fluctuating) here at earth (centre). money and notoriety and we can start thinking about what it is we would need, not what is left over from somebody else’s experiment. that maybe we will reach one or two girls that weren’t going to go into science, that will now just because they see a MB: What are your earlier memories of being interested in woman succeeding. this type of work? I try to put people in front of students that are near to them in age. It’s probably useful for them to see me, but I think it’s al: Well, my dad talked to me about it a lot — his degree is more useful for them to see undergraduates in college who in gamma ray astrophysics. As I was going to bed and trying are only four years older than them or my postdoc, who is to stall, I’d say, “Hey dad, why’s the sky blue?”, and he’d only eight years older than them, and start to see, “This is give me this really long explanation about Rayleigh scattering, a trajectory that I could do.” They don’t have to — but they which, at seven years old, I just didn’t quite appreciate. My could! It’s an option. I want them to know that it’s an option. mom is a PhD biologist, but somehow I got the message — I think actually because my dad talked more about stuff than my mom did, and then maybe from Star Trek — that space really was the final frontier. I wanted to do something where reFerenCeS For proFeSSor loMMen’S worK: we didn’t always know everything. “Optimizing Pulsar Timing Arrays to Maximize Gravitational Wave Single Source Detection: a First Cut,” Burt, B. J., Lommen, A. N., Finn, L.S. (2011) accepted MB: And how has that attitude affected the outreach work by ApJ, http://arxiv.org/abs/1005.5163. you do, specifically with MARIE? “Detection, Localization, and Characterization of Gravitational Wave Bursts in a Pulsar Timing Array,” Finn, L. S. and Lommen, A. N. (2010) ApJ 718: 1400. al: That has been my goal with MARIE as well — I wanted to http://arxiv.org/abs/1004.3499 let high school students know that we don’t know everything. Especially in high school and sometimes in college too, we give our students the impression that we know all this stuff already — you know, “Here’s a textbook. Learn this.” And the textbook just tells you about what we know; it doesn’t say, AssOciAte FAculty “Oh, we’re on the brink of discovering gravitational waves.” Even if students don’t go into astronomy, I really want POsitiOn OPen At Pi them to understand why it’s important to put your taxes into basic research. People ask me, “What’s the point of this? Is Perimeter Institute is currently accepting there spinoff research of what you do?” And I say no. Gravita- applications for an Associate Faculty tional wave astronomy is not going to produce a better post-it note, or make your toilet flush better, or anything like that. position in theoretical astroparticle physics It’s of no practical use, really. But if we stop trying to uncover to be held jointly with York University. the universe, trying to understand the universe we live in, I think something about human nature dies. I like it when the population as a whole understands about Visit www.perimeterinstitute.ca science, but what really excites me about doing outreach is for more details.

12 winter 2011 InsIde the PerImeter CONFERENCE RECAPS

ir issues And lOOPs in de sitter sPAce

he universe is currently expanding at an accelerating This workshop brought those younger cosmologists together rate, as it may also have done in a very early phase of with the original cast from the early days in a lively and very t inflation. In both cases, the geometry is close to that of well attended workshop. We discussed formal aspects of de Sitter spacetime. Quantum physics in de Sitter is fraught quantum field theory in de Sitter, methods to compute loop with conceptual and technical difficulties compared to its computations, and the relevance for observation. cousins, flat and anti-de-Sitter space. Just as in black hole The “big fish” of the conference was the issue of stability spacetimes, interesting quantum physics is happening on of de Sitter spacetime. Sasha Polyakov, whose work on this infrared (large spatial or long temporal) scales, set by the subject has inspired much debate, joined the workshop scale of the cosmological horizon. The dark energy we detect through a memorable phone call. Sasha prepared his talk by today and the growth, freezing and classicalization of quantum writing some notes (rare for him!) titled “My Waterloo” and fluctuations during inflation are both horizon-scale phenomena, told us that we should not define the de Sitter theory by and this is the large-scale boundary of our understanding. analytically continuing from the sphere since this misses any The study of quantum fields in de Sitter was most widely potential instability. He compared this strategy to “studying pursued in the late 1970s and early 1980s, around the time a black hole on life support”. On the other hand, we had inflation was invented, but in the past few years advances in several talks about calculations that do seem to make sense cosmological observations have inspired a new look. The when done on the sphere, and so the question is still unre- hope that the Planck satellite or various large-scale structure solved but very much on everybody’s mind. surveys may detect non-Gaussianity (in the form of higher In addition, we heard about new and simpler techniques point correlation functions of fluctuations in de Sitter) has to calculate loop amplitudes of gravitons and scalars, and revived the subject of doing quantum field theory beyond the interesting results are surely waiting to be discovered. In tree-level power spectrum. Thanks to this possibility, there is particular, we expect that the 15-year-old claim by Richard a new crowd of young cosmologists who are suddenly re-learning Woodard and Nick Tsamis (both of whom were present) of a the known issues and methods, but also bringing a new large 2-loop graviton contribution to the stress-energy tensor perspective to the field. may finally be checked by someone else using these new techniques. Also of note was the very interesting colloquium by Steve Giddings where he made the link between the infrared puzzles in de Sitter and in black hole physics. Steven Weinberg presented a new, very powerful way to regulate UV divergences in cosmological settings, and Leonardo Senatore attempted to settle his differences with Richard Woodard, who inadver- tently happened to be the chair for his session. Everybody was quite ready for a drink and the banquet after that! We hope this meeting was a catalyst for increased interac- tion between veterans of the field and the upstart young cosmologists, and that agreements will be reached on the most effective (and correct) way to calculate loop corrections. At the conceptual level, we are still left puzzled by the very strange behaviour of quantum fields at the horizon of our universe — this large-scale boundary to our knowledge will (From left) Cliff Burgess, Steven Weinberg, Rich Holman and surely continue to surprise us. Louis Leblond. — Louis Leblond, Conference Co-organizer

winter 2011 13 InsIde the PerImeter CONFERENCE RECAPS

Pi reseArch And reseArchers shOwcAsed At QiP 2011

IP 2011, the 14th annual workshop on Quantum Infor- measurement-based quantum computation. This raises the mation Processing, was held in Singapore from January possibility that one could find a real physical system which Q 10-14, and PI research and researchers were quite in naturally produces the right kind of entangled state without evidence. Of the 183 submissions received for the conference, any human intervention. four of the 40 selected talks, and some additional posters, The next day brought more PI research. Xie Chen of MIT reported on results obtained by PI postdocs, an impressive reported on research performed with PI postdoc Zhengfeng Ji showing. and others in a contributed talk about the structure of solu- As well as myself (I was Chair of the Program Committee), tions to quantum 2-SAT. Quantum 2-SAT is a computational the list of attendees included Associate Faculty member Ashwin problem, in which you are given a set of constraints on pairs Nayak, postdocs Hector Bombin, Zhengfeng Ji, Akimasa of qubits and wish to satisfy them all. This is not always Miyake, and Markus Müeller, and Distinguished Research possible, of course, but because the constraints are only on Chairs Dorit Aharonov and Patrick pairs of qubits, it turns out that there Hayden, as well as numerous other is an efficient (classical) procedure to familiar faces, including former PI determine whether or not a consistent postdocs Robin Blume-Kohout, Steve solution always exists. This contrasts Flammia, and Robert Raussendorf with the case of interactions on three and former PI graduate student David or more qubits, where determining if Poulin (who also spoke at the there is a solution is difficult. However, conference). There were also many two-qubit interactions are particularly people — and a number of additional interesting, because two-particle inter- talks — from the Institute for Quantum actions are the kind most commonly Computing, meaning Waterloo’s pres- encountered in the real world. ence was felt profoundly despite being Studying this sort of problem, Xie, 15,000 km, 13 time zones, and 40 Zhengfeng, and their collaborators degrees Celsius away. showed that the ground states of PI’s presence at the conference solutions to quantum 2-SAT cannot be became obvious from day one, with a very entangled. You might want to Monday afternoon talk by postdoc create entangled states — such as a Akimasa Miyake. Akimasa actually split resource state for measurement-based a time slot with Tzu-Chieh Wei (currently quantum computation — by putting on at UBC, formerly an IQC postdoc). a series of two-qubit constraints and Wei was working in collaboration with letting the system cool down until it former PI postdoc Robert Raussendorf satisfies all of the constraints. However, and former SAC member Ian Affleck, the new results show that you won’t and they simultaneously obtained nearly get what you want unless you either the same result as Akimasa about a work with more complicated interactions universal resource for measurement- (larger particles or more qubits per based quantum computation. constraint) or frustrated systems (for Measurement-based quantum computation (invented by which it is not possible to satisfy all constraints simultaneously). Raussendorf when he was a graduate student) is an approach Another day, another PI talk. On Wednesday, PI postdoc to building a quantum computer where one does all the Hector Bombin gave a featured talk on his work on twists entanglement first, creating a large entangled state that need in topological quantum computation. Topological order is an not depend on the computation to be performed. Then, the exotic new phase of matter which is completely resistant to computer performs a sequence of measurements on indi- any process which only affects a small region of the sub- vidual quantum bits (qubits) from the entangled state. In the stance. Consequently, a topologically ordered system could classical world, a sequence of measurements can only reveal store quantum information for a long time, since errors will information that is already present, but quantum measurement need some time to spread over the whole system. However, is a much more active process. Certain entangled “resource” the simplest topologically ordered systems are not much states are universal, meaning that by performing different good as quantum computers, since there are also few ways possible sequences of measurements, you can get results to deliberately alter the stored quantum information. More that correspond to the answers to arbitrary quantum compu- complicated systems can be used as quantum computers, tations. The usual resource states used for measurement- but they are hard to make or find. based quantum computation are artificial and could only be In his talk, Hector showed how, by adding “twists”, which produced by a system with a significant degree of control change the regular lattice structure of the atoms composing over quantum systems. some simple topologically ordered systems, he can substan- The new results presented by Akimasa and Tzu-Chieh tially increase the types of computation that can be performed showed that the lowest energy state of a certain theoretical with it. Even with this approach, the systems presented by system of interacting spins called the “AKLT model” has the Hector are not capable of the full range of quantum computa- right kind of entanglement to act as a resource state for tion. A poster presented on Monday by Lucy Liuxuan Zhang

14 winter 2011 (of the University of Toronto) described her follow-up research those objects to thermalize (reach the thermal distribution) in collaboration with Hector where they study adding twists after a short time, it remains somewhat of a mystery exactly to more complicated topologically ordered systems, perhaps which ones do and which don’t. A natural assumption is that allowing access to the full power of a quantum computer with very simple systems might not thermalize, but more compli- a simpler system than previously possible. cated systems do. By applying some ideas from quantum On Friday, the last day of the conference, Christian Gogolin information, Christian, Markus, and Jens gave some conditions (from the University of Potsdam) spoke on work performed on the properties of the thermalization process, and showed with Jens Eisert and PI postdoc Markus Müeller. They applied that it is possible to have some rather complicated systems ideas from quantum information theory to study when quan- that nevertheless do not thermalize. tum systems thermalize. The notion of “temperature” is an The PI talks only represent a fraction of the topics covered everyday one, and in many cases, it is a completely sensible at QIP. We also learned about complexity and cryptography, thing to discuss. However, an object only has a well-defined about algorithms and entanglement. Quantum information as temperature if it has a particular distribution of energy among a field continues to expand, and QIP gets bigger and more the atoms or molecules composing the object. From statistical elaborate, with more people and more posters. QIP 2012 will mechanics, we know that thermal distributions are typical in be held much closer to home, in Montreal. I think we can a rigorous mathematical sense, which helps to explain why expect less swimming and more snow, but just as much most things we encounter do have a temperature. It is still great science. possible, of course, to have objects which don’t have a ther- mal distribution, and while it is very common in practice for — Daniel Gottesman, Chair, QIP Program Committee

Pi-AtlAs lhc dAy

his day-long meeting was the latest in a series initiated and exotic searches in dijet data. On the theoretical side, in 2009 for physicists interested in LHC physics in there was a talk by Bob Holdom on the possibility of a fourth t southwestern Ontario to gather to discuss the current generation, and talks by Michael Trott on MFV field content status of LHC and exchange ideas. The meeting brought and Jim Cline on the possible linking of a two-scalar doublet together a number of experimental and theoretical physicists model, that could allow Baryogenesis, to experiment. from Toronto and PI, but we were also encouraged to see The scientific content of the meeting was quite interesting, that attendance is broadening to include people from Guelph, but of equal importance was the opportunity supplied for McMaster and York in this latest meeting. theorists and experimentalists to get together and talk about The scientific component of the meeting was split between the LHC physics program and exchange ideas. The meeting a series of experimental and theoretical talks. The primary was successful in its goals and was run very smoothly due experimental talk was given by Pekka Sinervo on the status to the excellent behind-the-scenes work of PI’s Conference of the LHC and ATLAS. There were also a series of nice Coordinator Stephanie Mohl and A/V Coordinator Jacob Stauttener. talks in the afternoon by a number of experimental graduate students reporting on tau ID, searches for extra dimensions, — William Trischuk, Cliff Burgess and Michael Trott, Co-organizers

winter 2011 15 InsIde the PerImeter PUBLICATIONS

The following is a list of recent publications by PI researchers, organized alphabetically by publication title. To search all publications by PI scientists, please visit www.perimeterinstitute.ca/en/Scientific/ Papers/Publications_Search/.

 A Note on Polytopes for Scattering Amplitudes, Nima Arkani-Hamed,  Einstein gravity as a 3D conformally invariant theory, Henrique Gomes, Jacob L. Bourjaily, Freddy Cachazo, Andrew Hodges, Jaroslav Trnka, Sean Gryb, Tim Koslowski, arxiv:1010.2481 arxiv:1012.6030  Einstein Wrote Back: My Life In Physics, John Moffat, Thomas Allen  A simple proof of orientability in the colored Boulatov model, Publishers, Sept 2010 Francesco Caravelli, arxiv:1012.4087  Einstein’s action in terms of Newtonian fields, Barak Kol,  A taste of Hamiltonian constraint in spin foam models, Valentin Bonzom, Michael Smolkin, arxiv:1009.1876 arxiv:1101.1615  Ensuring Correctness at the Application Level: a Software Framework  AdS/QHE: Towards a Holographic Description of Quantum Hall Experiments, Approach, Eloisa Bentivegna, Gabrielle Allen, Oleg Korobkin, Allan Bayntun, C.P. Burgess, Brian P. Dolan, Sung-Sik Lee, Erik Schnetter, arxiv:1101.3161 arxiv:1008.1917  EPRL/FK Group Field Theory, Joseph Ben Geloun, Razvan Gurau,  Anomalous coupling of scalars to gauge fields, Philippe Brax, Clare Burrage, Vincent Rivasseau, arxiv:1008.0354 Anne-Christine Davis, David Seery, Amanda Weltman, arxiv:1010.4536  Experimental investigation of the uncertainty principle in the presence  Application of Optimal Control to CPMG Refocusing Pulse Design, of quantum memory, Robert Prevedel, Deny R. Hamel, Roger Colbeck, Troy W. Borneman, Martin D. Hurlimann, David G. Cory, arxiv:1002.1702 Kent Fisher, Kevin J. Resch, arxiv:1012.0332

 Astrometric Microlensing by Local Dark Matter Subhalos,  Extending Quantum Coherence in Diamond, C.A. Ryan, J.S. Hodges, Adrienne L. Erickcek, Nicholas M. Law, arxiv:1007.4228 D.G. Cory, Journal-ref: Phys. Rev. Lett. 105:200402 (2010), arxiv:1008.2197  Asymptotes in $SU(2)$ Recoupling Theory: Wigner Matrices, $3j$ Symbols, and Character Localization, Joseph Ben Geloun,  First Observational Tests of Eternal Inflation, Stephen M. Feeney (UCL), Razvan Gurau, arxiv:1009.5632 Matthew C. Johnson (Perimeter Institute), Daniel J. Mortlock (Imperial College London), Hiranya V. Peiris (UCL), arxiv:1012.1995  Background independent condensed matter models for quantum gravity, Alioscia Hamma, Fotini Markopoulou, arxiv:1011.5754  First Observational Tests of Eternal Inflation: Analysis Methods and WMAP 7-Year Results, Stephen M. Feeney (UCL), Matthew C. Johnson  Beyond Feynman’s Diagrams, Neil Turok, Nature January 13 2011 Vol 469 (Perimeter Institute), Daniel J. Mortlock (Imperial College London), Hiranya V. Peiris (UCL), arxiv:1012.3667 Big Bang Nucleosynthesis as a Probe of New Physics, Maxim Pospelov,  From Low-Distortion Norm Embeddings to Explicit Uncertainty Relations Josef Pradler, Journal-ref: Ann.Rev.Nucl.Part.Sci. 60 (2010) 539-568,  arxiv:1011.1054 and Efficient Information Locking, Omar Fawzi, Patrick Hayden, Pranab Sen, arxiv:1010.3007 Black holes in an ultraviolet complete quantum gravity, Leonardo Modesto,  Group theoretic structures in the estimation of an unknown unitary John W. Moffat, Piero Nicolini, Physics Letters B 695 (2011) 397-400,  arxiv:1010.0680 transformation, G. Chiribella, arxiv:1012.2130

 Holographic c-theorems in arbitrary dimensions, Robert C. Myers,  Boosting jet power in black hole spacetimes, David Neilsen, Luis Lehner, Carlos Palenzuela, Eric W. Hirschmann, Steven L. Liebling, Aninda Sinha, arxiv:1011.5819

Patrick M. Motl, T. Garrett, arxiv:1012.5661  Holographic Quantum Critical Transport without Self-Duality, Robert C. Myers, Subir Sachdev, Ajay Singh, arxiv:1010.0443  Bootstrapping Null Polygon Wilson Loops, Davide Gaiotto, Juan Maldacena, Amit Sever, Pedro Vieira, arxiv:1010.5009  Holomorphic Linking, Loop Equations and Scattering Amplitudes in Twistor Space, Mathew Bullimore, David Skinner, arxiv:1101.1329  Bulk Axions, Brane Back-reaction and Fluxes, C.P. Burgess, L. van Nierop, arxiv:1012.2638  Informational derivation of Quantum Theory, G. Chiribella, G. M. D’Ariano, P. Perinotti, arxiv:1011.6451  Chern-Simons theory, Stokes’ Theorem, and the Duflo map, Hanno Sahlmann, Thomas Thiemann, arxiv:1101.1690  Large Dimensions and Small Curvatures from Supersymmetric Brane Back-reaction, C.P. Burgess, L. van Nierop, arxiv:1101.0152  Chiral symmetry breaking in cascading gauge theory plasma, Alex Buchel, arxiv:1012.2404  Lessons for Loop Quantum Gravity from Parametrised Field Theory, Thomas Thiemann, arxiv:1010.2426  Commuting Simplicity and Closure Constraints for 4D Spin Foam Models, Muxin Han, Thomas Thiemann, arxiv:1010.5444  Local Integrals for Planar Scattering Amplitudes, Nima Arkani-Hamed, Jacob L. Bourjaily, Freddy Cachazo, Jaroslav Trnka, arxiv:1012.6032  Comparing space+time decompositions in the post-Newtonian limit, Barak Kol, Michele Levi, Michael Smolkin, arxiv:1011.6024  Locking classical information, Frédéric Dupuis, Jan Florjanczyk, Patrick Hayden, Debbie Leung, arxiv:1011.1612  Complete Characterization of the Ground Space Structure of Two-Body Frustration-Free Hamiltonians for Qubits, Zhengfeng Ji, Zhaohui Wei,  Measurement contextuality is implied by macroscopic realism, Bei Zeng, arxiv:1010.2480 Zeqian Chen, Alberto Montina, arxiv:1012.2122

 Component Specification in the Cactus Framework: The Cactus  MHV Diagrams in Momentum Twistor Space, Mathew Bullimore, Configuration Language, Gabrielle Allen, Tom Goodale, Frank Löffler, Lionel Mason, David Skinner, arxiv:1009.1854 David Rideout, Erik Schnetter, Eric L. Seidel, arxiv:1009.1341  Muon Capture Constraints on Sterile Neutrino Properties, David McKeen,  Composite gravitational-wave detection of compact binary coalescence, Maxim Pospelov, Journal-ref: Phys.Rev.D82:113018, 2010, Kipp Cannon, Chad Hanna, Drew Keppel, Antony C. Searle, arxiv:1101.0584 arxiv:1011.3046

 Correlated stability conjecture revisited, A.Buchel, C.Pagnutti,  Muonic hydrogen and MeV forces, David Tucker-Smith, Itay Yavin, arxiv:1010.5748 arxiv:1011.4922

 Cosmology of the selfaccelerating third order Galileon, David F. Mota,  Normal completely positive maps on the space of quantum operations, Marit Sandstad, Tom Zlosnik, Journal-ref: JHEP 1012:051,2010, G. Chiribella, A. Toigo, V. Umanità, arxiv:1012.3197 arxiv:1009.6151  Observable Signatures of Inflaton Decays, Diana Battefeld,  Critical phenomena in N=2* plasma, A.Buchel, C.Pagnutti, Thorsten Battefeld, John T. Giblin Jr., Evan K. Pease, arxiv:1012.1372 arxiv:1010.3359  On Lorentz violation in Horava-Lifshitz type theories, Maxim Pospelov,  Discreteness and the transmission of light from distant sources, Yanwen Shang, arxiv:1010.5249 Fay Dowker, Joe Henson, Rafael Sorkin, Journal-ref: Phys.Rev.  On the Classification of Residues of the Grassmannian, Sujay K. Ashok, D82:104048,2010, arxiv:1009.3058 Eleonora Dell’Aquila, arxiv:1012.5094

16 winter 2011  Review of AdS/CFT Integrability, Chapter III.3: The dressing factor,  On theories of enhanced CP violation in B_s,d meson mixing, Michael Trott, Mark B. Wise, Journal-ref: JHEP 1011:157,2010, Pedro Vieira, Dmytro Volin, arxiv:1012.3992

arxiv:1009.2813  Space as a low-temperature regime of graphs, Florian Conrady, arxiv:1009.3195  One-shot Multiparty State Merging, Nicolas Dutil, Patrick Hayden,

arxiv:1011.1974  Specker’s Parable of the Over-protective Seer: Implications for Contextuality, Nonlocality and Complementarity, Yeong-Cherng Liang,  One-Way Entanglement of Assistance, Nicolas Dutil, Patrick Hayden, arxiv:1011.1972 Robert W. Spekkens, Howard M. Wiseman, arxiv:1010.1273

 State space dimensionality in short memory hidden variable theories,  Overcoming Gamma Ray Constraints with Annihilating Dark Matter in Milky Way Subhalos, Aaron C Vincent, Wei Xue, James M Cline, Alberto Montina, arxiv:1008.4415

Journal-ref: Phys.Rev.D82:123519,2010, arxiv:1009.5383  String Junctions and Holographic Interfaces, Marco Chiodaroli, Michael Gutperle, Ling-Yan Hung, Darya Krym, arxiv:1010.2758  Pathologies in Asymptotically Lifshitz Spacetimes, Keith Copsey,

Robert Mann, arxiv:1011.3502  Strongly Coupled Inflaton, Xingang Chen, arxiv:1010.2851

 Primordial beryllium as a big bang calorimeter, Maxim Pospelov,  Supersymmetric P(X,phi) and the Ghost Condensate, Justin Khoury, Josef Pradler, arxiv:1010.4079 Jean-Luc Lehners, Burt Ovrut, arxiv:1012.3748

 Principle of Maximum Entropy and Ground Spaces of Local Hamiltonians,  Surface operators in 3d Topological Field Theory and 2d Rational Conformal Jianxin Chen, Zhengfeng Ji, Mary Beth Ruskai, Bei Zeng, Duanlu Zhou, Field Theory, Anton Kapustin, Natalia Saulina, arxiv:1012.0911 arxiv:1010.2739  ‘t Hooft Operators in Gauge Theory from Toda CFT, Jaume Gomis,  Private Randomness Expansion With Untrusted Devices, Roger Colbeck, Bruno Le Floch, arxiv:1008.4139 Adrian Kent, arxiv:1011.4474  Tailoring Three-Point Functions and Integrability, Jorge Escobedo,  Progress toward scalable tomography of quantum maps using twirling- Nikolay Gromov, Amit Sever, Pedro Vieira, arxiv:1012.2475 based methods and information hierarchies, Cecilia C. López, The 1/N expansion of colored tensor models, Razvan Gurau, Ariel Bendersky, Juan Pablo Paz, David G. Cory, Journal-ref: Phys. Rev. A  arxiv:1011.2726 81, 062113 (2010), arxiv:1003.2444 The All-Loop Integrand For Scattering Amplitudes in Planar N=4 SYM, Pulsar timing arrays as imaging gravitational wave telescopes:   Nima Arkani-Hamed, Jacob L. Bourjaily, Freddy Cachazo, angular resolution and source (de)confusion, Latham Boyle, Ue-Li Pen, Simon Caron-Huot, Jaroslav Trnka, arxiv:1008.2958 arxiv:1010.4337 The Complete Planar S-matrix of N=4 SYM as a Wilson Loop in Twistor Quantum Capacity Approaching Codes for the Detected-Jump Channel,   Space, Lionel Mason, David Skinner, Journal-ref: JHEP 1012:018,2010, Markus Grassl, Zhengfeng Ji, Zhaohui Wei, Bei Zeng, arxiv:1008.3350 arxiv:1009.2225 Quantum codes give counterexamples to the unique pre-image  The general theory of porcupines, perfect and imperfect, Latham Boyle, conjecture of the N-representability problem, Samuel A. Ocko, Xie Chen,  arxiv:1008.4997 Bei Zeng, Beni Yoshida, Zhengfeng Ji, Mary Beth Ruskai,

Isaac L. Chuang, arxiv:1010.2717  The Hamiltonian constraint in 3d Riemannian loop quantum gravity, Valentin Bonzom, Laurent Freidel, arxiv:1101.3524  Quantum computational capability of a two-dimensional valence bond solid phase, Akimasa Miyake, arxiv:1009.3491  The principle of relative locality, Giovanni Amelino-Camelia, Laurent Freidel, Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman, Lee Smolin, arxiv:1101.0931  Quantum Computing, Thaddeus D. Ladd, Fedor Jelezko, Raymond Laflamme, Yasunobu Nakamura, Christopher Monroe,  U(N) tools for Loop Quantum Gravity: The Return of the Spinor, Jeremy L. O’Brien, arxiv:1009.2267 Enrique F. Borja, Laurent Freidel, Iñaki Garay, Etera R. Livine, arxiv:1010.5451  Quantum dispersion relations for excitations of long folded spinning superstring in AdS_5 x S^5, S. Giombi, R. Ricci, R. Roiban, A.A. Tseytlin,  Unimodular loop quantum gravity and the problems of time, Lee Smolin, arxiv:1011.2755 arxiv:1008.1759

 Resonant Trispectrum and a Dozen More Primordial N-point functions,  Using Dark Matter Haloes to Learn about Cosmic Acceleration: Louis Leblond, Enrico Pajer, arxiv:1010.4565 A New Proposal for a Universal Mass Function, C. Prescod-Weinstein, N. Afshordi, arxiv:1010.5501  Review of AdS/CFT Integrability: An Overview, Niklas Beisert, Changrim Ahn, Luis F. Alday, Zoltan Bajnok, James M. Drummond, Lisa Freyhult, Nikolay Gromov, Romuald A. Janik, Vladimir Kazakov, Thomas Klose, Gregory P. Korchemsky, Charlotte Kristjansen, Marc Magro, Tristan McLoughlin, Joseph A. Minahan, Rafael I. Nepomechie, Adam Rej, Radu Roiban, Sakura Schafer-Nameki, Christoph Sieg, Matthias Staudacher, Alessandro Torrielli, Arkady A. Tseytlin, Pedro Vieira, Dmytro Volin, Konstantinos Zoubos, arxiv:1012.3982

Pi chats with The Current About innovation During a stint as guest host of CBC radio’s The Current, arlene Dickinson, whom you may recognize from CBC’s tV show The Dragon’s Den, visited pi and interviewed pi Board Chair and founder Mike lazaridis, Director neil turok, and pi Faculty members latham Boyle and raymond lafl amme. the episode is available online through The Current’s website at http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/ interview-panel/2011/01/14/innovation-in-canada/index.html.

winter 2011 17 InsIde the PerImeter GLOBAL OUTLOOK

glOBAl diAlOgue On energy tO Be held At Perimeter institute

ver the next 20 years, our global population is expected to reach nine billion. Today, two billion people don’t have Oaccess to modern energy. Global coal and oil consumption is as its highest peak in history, energy prices are soaring, and the world is running out of cheap sources of energy-dense fuel. The climate impact of fossil fuels constitutes a growing threat to the planet. In short, the need for solutions to the problems facing humanity has never been greater and invest- ment in scientifi c and technological advancements can be part of the answer. The Waterloo Global Science Initiative (WGSI) aims to help reboot this global conversation through its inaugural Equinox Summit: Energy 2030, to be situated at Perimeter Institute from June 5 - 9, 2011. WGSI is a non-profi t partnership between Perimeter Institute leaders in politics, policy, civil society and business, will and the University of Waterloo. Its mandate is to catalyze address implementation strategies for each of the technolo- long-term thinking and possible solutions for the world through gies proposed. A third group of expert advisors will guide the science and technology. The fi rst Equinox Summit will examine blueprint creation and gauge the plausibility, process, and energy concerns and the need for cleaner and more sustain- timelines for the recommendations. able production, distribution and storage of electricity. Orga- Through its public programming, the Equinox Summit will nizers have designed a unique format and cross-disciplinary promote basic energy literacy by benchmarking our present approach to facilitate constructive engagement of scientifi c capabilities while exploring the state of low carbon technolo- and policy experts with young leaders, as well as a series of gies, and refi ning ideas that could transform how we produce, events for students and the general public. distribute and store energy within the next 20 years. Each Over three days of working sessions (June 6, 7 and 8), this day of the summit will feature a morning plenary, an afternoon cross-disciplinary group will collectively work toward producing public lecture and an evening panel discussion — all of which a blueprint document that shortlists a set of key technologies will be free to view on-site and online. that could help transform the current, carbon-heavy scenario. Visit wgsi.org to learn more about the Equinox Summit and The fi rst part of the blueprint will address the most promising follow developments as the planning continues. technologies proposed by a group of scientifi c experts, called “the Quorum”. The second part, led by “the Forum” of future — RJ Taylor

next einstein initiAtiVe wins 2010 wise AwArd

s part of its quest to recognize innovative educational initiatives that have had a transformative impact on A societies, the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has selected the AIMS Next Einstein Initiative (NEI) as one of six winners for the 2010 WISE Awards, from more than 300 applications spanning 89 countries. Each winner will receive US$20,000 towards their project. PI Director Neil Turok founded the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Cape Town, South Africa in 2003. Its mission is to rapidly and cost-effectively expand Africa’s scientifi c and technological capacity by providing advanced training to exceptional African graduates. The Next Professor Turok said, “We are thrilled with this recognition Einstein Initiative (NEI), stemming from Professor Turok’s from WISE. AIMS has succeeded through the combined efforts 2008 TED Prize wish that “the next Einstein be from Africa”, of many people and organizations. WISE represents an is a strategic plan to build on the success of the fi rst AIMS opportunity to extend our partnerships around a simple agenda: centre and create a coordinated pan-African network of 15 to enable Africa’s brightest scientifi c talents to fl ourish and, AIMS centres by 2020. ultimately, to transform Africa’s future. We hope our success Professor Turok accepted the award on behalf of AIMS-NEI, in Africa will inspire similarly creative efforts elsewhere.” which is the current centrepiece of Perimeter Institute’s Glob- al Outreach initiative, during a three-day summit on education — Mike Brown in Doha, Qatar. WISE is an initiative of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. Follow the developments of all the winning projects on the WISE blog at http://awardsblog.wise-qatar.org. 18 winter 2011 FiVe cAnAdiAn uniVersities suPPOrt Aims thrOugh “One FOr mAny” schOlArshiP PrOgrAm

asic science continues to change our world in innumer- able ways, reshaping the global economy and enabling Bthe free flow of information which opens societies and connects cultures. The influence of science in seeding new technologies is evident. What is less discussed is the fact that science is a powerful unifying force for humanity: it cuts across cultures, languages, and religious differences, in ways which few other human activities can. Perimeter Institute has explicitly recognized this power in launching a Global Outreach effort to promote emergence of scientific talent in the developing world. The first focus is on Africa: Perimeter serves as the North American partner institute for the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) project, and its Next Einstein Initiative, which plans to The University of Ottawa, the University of Victoria, Simon open many AIMS centres across Africa over the next decade. Fraser University, the University of Waterloo, and the University The Next Einstein Initiative received $20 Million in Canadian of Guelph have all recently signed five-year agreements, total- federal funding last year, and several of the new centres are ing between $100,000 and $250,000 from each institution. in advanced planning stages. Speaking about the One for Many campaign’s first members, Founded in 2003 by PI Director Neil Turok, AIMS is a globally Professor Turok said, “The commitment from these five recognized centre of excellence for postgraduate education Canadian universities is extraordinary: their farsighted invest- and research based in Cape Town, South Africa. Its mission ment will yield an excellent return. Africa is full of brilliant is to rapidly and cost-effectively expand Africa’s scientific young people who will make the most of the opportunity to and technological capacity by providing advanced training to develop their minds and skills in Africa, and then go on to exceptional African graduates. tackle the many challenges their continent faces.” PI is helping to coordinate the “One for Many” scholarship James P. Anglin, Director of the Office of International Affairs campaign for the Next Einstein Initiative. The program gives at the University of Victoria explained, “The University of Victoria universities across North America and Europe the opportunity was pleased to become one of the first Canadian university to contribute the equivalent cost of one graduate student per partners in the AIMS-NEI initiative. We support this innovative year on their own campus to an AIMS centre in Africa, where model as it combines academic and financial support from it will support 4-5 African students. Partnering universities well-established international universities with Africa-based also have the opportunity to send faculty members and country and institutional commitments, making it an exemplar graduate students to AIMS centres as lecturers and tutors, of true partnership in the advancement of knowledge leader- where they gain valuable international experience as they ship across the continent of Africa. We look forward to devel- contribute to the development of science in Africa. oping fruitful collaboration between the AIMS-NEI programs Five Canadian universities have now signed on as supporters and students, and members of UVic’s academic community.” of the One for Many campaign, joining forces with Perimeter Talks are ongoing with other universities that have expressed in a shared belief that a vast pool of scientific and technical interest in joining the One for Many program. talent lies waiting to be unlocked in Africa, and that doing so will be vital to the development of the continent. — Mike Brown

neil turok Appointed to canada’s science, technology and innovation council the honourable tony Clement, Canada’s Minister of industry, recently announced the appointment of six new members, including pi Director neil turok, to the Science, technology and innovation Council (StiC), the government’s advisory body on science, technology and innovation issues. Members are selected to cover many sectors of the Canadian economy and have varied competencies and areas of specialization. “these talented Canadians come from the public, private and academic sectors. they have the broad range of experience that is essential to advise the government on science and technology matters of national importance,” said Minister Clement. “i am pleased they have agreed to serve on the Council and am certain their contributions will advance the government’s innovation agenda.”

winter 2011 19 InsIde the PerImeter OUTREACH

Better thAn cOOl: hOw cAnAdA’s yOuth PerceiVes science

lear skies and brisk PI Outreach is well-positioned to fill a niche that supports this winter air always make third of Canada’s youth, with rigorous and enriched programs C me reflective, and there and products that bring the true mystery and wonder of modern has been plenty of oppor- science alive. Canada needs these scientifically adept youth tunity for reflection of late. to join the thriving post-secondary science ranks in this country. While looking back recently, More broadly, we must also have widespread understanding I found myself comparing of the importance of science, not only for the role it plays in the results of an online developing new technologies and medical breakthroughs, but survey with the experience the importance of scientific thinking in a knowledge economy. of the Outreach team here Our Outreach efforts aim to help build a population that at PI, and contemplating shares scientific values: curiousity, asking difficult questions, what it all means for scien- devising solutions, testing them rigorously in an open com- tific literacy in Canada. munity of ideas. Canada will be well served if our lawyers In November, Angus Reid released survey results declaring and business owners, our cab drivers and newspaper editors scientists “uncool”, with only 4% of high school-aged youth place confidence in science as a key arbiter of debate, as the stating otherwise. This statistic resonated with media across Canada and cries of a crisis in education followed predictably. But let’s look a little more closely at what the online survey of 502 Canadian youth aged 16 to 18 actually had to say about science in Canada. A video game, a backside 720, even a toque can be “cool” – but is this really a relevant bar to measure the perceived value of science to young people? The survey offered more data to consider: one out of three students is considering science at the post-secondary level — one out of three! Con- sider the full breadth of post-secondary options — from law, business, literature, fine arts, and mathematics to aesthetics, interior design, pipe-fitting, and auto repair — and yet one-third are considering science. This seems, if anything, dispro- portionately large. The conclusion I draw when one-third of Canadian teens are considering a future in science is that Local high school students witness firsthand the amazing wave science teachers across this country are doing an effective nature of particles during a recent Go Physics! session. job illustrating and promoting the importance of science. To me, this is a more valuable goal than trying to make basis of our capacity to drive technological innovation, and something “cool.” as the process for unlocking the secrets of our universe. We are in luck. The Angus Reid poll finds eight out of ten teens believe studying science will open doors for their future and that Canada needs capable people pursuing science. Eighty percent of our youth placing significant value in science is good news any way you slice it. Perimeter Institute started with two clear mandates: to be a world-class institute for theoretical physics research and to do world-class outreach. This early and clear focus on outreach has allowed PI to make significant strides into both the Canadian general public and educational landscapes over the past decade. Our impact has scaled from a few hundred local students reached through classroom visits in the early days to a program that will reach over 100,000 students this year alone. The entire PI family takes part, from the research- ers who supply insight and energy, to the Bistro staff who put an incredible shine on every event, to the tireless behind the scenes efforts of the entire administrative team. We look forward to the challenges ahead with a great deal of optimism. We see our role as feeding the human spirit and intellectual thirst by celebrating the excitement that is modern science. I invite you to check back with us each issue for a look at some of our highlights, interesting anecdotes and progress updates. Students play with the spacetime beach ball at a recent GoPhysics! event. — Greg Dick

20 winter 2011 einstein gOes BAck tO schOOl

his past November, the what he actually did. But their opportunities to learn about PI Outreach team put the his ideas are limited, and that’s a shame. That’s where PI t process of science through Outreach comes in. With Alice and Bob in Wonderland, we do its paces at the largest annual general relativity — the quote-unquote ‘hardest’ of Einstein’s gathering for science teachers ideas… in grades 9 and 10! We’re not talking about those in Canada, a conference held by tired and often misleading popular science analogies — this the Science Teachers’ Asso- is the real thing. And we do applications to GPS in grades 11 ciation of Ontario (STAO). The and 12. Einstein’s general relativity for grade 9? Teachers STAO event included workshops were skeptical. But when they saw how simple we had made featuring many of PI’s in-class it, while still being real, they were stunned. And excited to go resources including The Chal- try it with their students. We’ve tested our materials with lots lenge of Quantum Reality, The of students — and it works brilliantly. Teachers say they’ve Mystery of Dark Matter, The never seen their kids so engaged. The challenge we have Physics of Innovation, GPS & is not with the students, it’s the teachers. But we’re making Relativity, and others. In addi- it happen.” tion, Dr. Richard Epp shared a plenary session featuring our Alice and Bob animated series. ANALYZE YOUR DATA AND DRAW A CONCLUSION All told, over 500 educators were introduced to PI’s programs With each teacher we reach, we know we’re impacting the and both online and in-class resources. way they regard the subject and share it. The resources shared with teachers at STAO will translate into reaching ASK A QUESTION more than 40,000 students. In a recent survey of over 850 “Is it possible to share Einstein’s ideas in an impactful way teachers that attended a PI resource workshop, 98% of them with science students in grade 9 and 10?” We had a few said that they would definitely use the resource in their own skeptics at the STAO conference ... at first. classrooms. STAO organizers collected their own data about PI Outreach DO BACKGROUND RESEARCH workshops: PI’s classroom resources have always been designed with the goal of bringing the excitement of modern physics to Criteria Score students and teachers across Canada and beyond. Each Usefulness of content 92% resource is developed in collaboration with teachers and PI researchers to develop the best in-class and online resources Effectiveness of speaker(s) 96% on modern physics. We know that teachers are more likely to use a resource with their students when they know that it Overall session 92% has been thoroughly classroom-tested. COMMUNICATE YOUR RESULTS CONSTRUCT A HYPOTHESIS The PI Outreach team is dedicated to inspiring both those If teachers are given innovative and curriculum-based who teach the next generation of critical thinkers, and the resources and materials on modern physics, then they will be young critical thinkers themselves. The docket of workshops inspired to share Einstein’s ideas with their science students. presented at the STAO conference, combined with PI’s exhibit booth, proved to be a very effective way for our Outreach TEST YOUR HYPOTHESIS BY DOING AN EXPERIMENT team to engage Canadian educators. “In my experience,” says Dr. Richard Epp, Manager of Scientific Outreach at PI, “virtually all students are intrigued — Renée Ellis by Einstein — he’s a great ‘hook.’ Students want to know

Outreach Video honoured in international competition pi outreach’s latest video resource, Everyday Einstein: GPS & Relativity, battled fierce competition to tie for second place in the non-interactive Media category of the prestigious international Science & engineering Visualization Challenge. the video explains the surpris- ing link between GpS navigation and einstein’s greatest discovery, and outreach is excited to share the video widely. the winners were announced in the February 18, 2011 issue of Science, which presents the awards in partnership with the u.S. national Science Foundation (nSF). it can be viewed online at http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/outreach.

winter 2011 21 InsIde the PerImeter OuTREACH

The ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. PI Outreach tO BrIng PartIcle PhysIcs tO schOOls

hat are the basic building blocks that make up The video will be accompanied by a comprehensive teacher’s everything in the universe? What exactly is the Large guide complete with supplementary information and student WHadron Collider (LHC)? Why do researchers think it worksheets. Led by Damian Pope, Senior Manager of Scientific may revolutionize our understanding of the cosmos? Outreach, the project involves an experienced team consisting These questions are some of the many PI Outreach will tackle of Cliff Burgess (PI Associate Faculty member and lead scientific in its latest educational video for high school students. The advisor), Richard Epp (Manager of Scientific Outreach), and topic will be particle physics and work began on the project in Dave Fish and Roberta Tevlin (senior physics teachers and December. Once finished, the 30-minute video will be the third PI teacher consultants). PI will also receive assistance from installment in Perimeter’s highly successful Explorations series. CERN Outreach and Dr. Eric Mazur, Dean of Physics at Harvard, With work on CERN’s LHC experiment in particle physics during the project. — the largest scientific endeavor in history — well underway, The Outreach team is looking forward to working on the interest in particle physics has surged dramatically. Students resource throughout the year and sharing it with students are hungry to learn more about what we currently know about across Canada once complete. this topic and what the LHC might teach us. Scheduled for release in early 2012, the resource will come out just as the — Dr. Damian Pope world’s attention is poised to focus on the LHC.

reaching Out to the Far north

Last December, PI Outreach ran an online webinar for 50 high school students in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Located over 3,000 kilometres from Waterloo, this remote town is one of Canada’s northernmost cities. Grade 11 and 12 students from École St. Patrick High School in Yellowknife experienced a virtual presentation of PI’s acclaimed Physics of Innovation resource, which details how basic research leads to technological innovation. Despite the vast distance between presenter and participants, the session was highly interactive. Students were able to ask questions just as if they were in the same room as the presenter, PI’s Dr. Damian Pope. As part of Outreach’s efforts to reach remote communities throughout Canada, preparations are now underway to stage webinars in Nunavut and Yukon.

22 Winter 2011 teAcher tAlk with dr. eric mAzur

n Tuesday, November 2, the PI Outreach Team presented an Teacher Talk featuring prominent physicist and edu- Ocator, Dr. Eric Mazur from Harvard University. Over 130 teachers from across southern Ontario registered to attend Dr. Mazur’s “Confessions of a Converted Lecturer” talk that took place at PI’s Mike Lazaridis Theatre of Ideas. Attendee Racquel Carlow, Vice President of the Science Teachers’ Association of Ontario (STAO), shared her thoughts on the talk: “Dr. Mazur’s peer instruction and interactive teaching strategies are pedagogically-sound and results-based. These strategies are particularly effective in the physics classroom because better understanding does result in better problem- solving ... Having taught sciences in secondary schools for over 30 years (and senior physics for almost 20 years), it is easy to become complacent and entrenched in the old habits of teaching. Dr. Mazur’s talk provided a not-so-gentle reminder of the need to re-visit pedagogy, to be alert to misleading indicators of achievement, to focus on formative assessment, to continually engage in professional development. Kudos to Perimeter Institute for holding this event and for having Dr. Mazur as the inaugural speaker. Dr. Mazur models the ideal educator — he has a true love for the subject and, more importantly, a true desire to help students learn and love Dr. Mazur’s talk was recorded and can be viewed on the subject.” PIRSA at http://pirsa.org/10110081. Dr. Mazur also gave a PI Public Lecture on November 3, 2010 on the topic of — Renée Ellis “Stopping Time”, which can also be viewed on PIRSA at http://pirsa.org/10120038.

School in Ottawa. Ms. Diana Hall, a physics teacher at her former high school said, “Sherry is an outstanding physics student and a confident young lady who has clear goals and a lot determination. She is well respected and admired by her peers and teachers.” Sherry is now attending McGill University in Montréal in the Faculty of Science.

what happened sherry chu wins 2010 Before the luke sAnti AwArd Big Bang? ttawa’s Sherry Chu receives the 2010 Luke Santi Memorial Award for Student Achievement from PI’s Out- Oreach General Manager Greg Dick. The award honours Recently, British TV’s BBC Two program Horizon aired Luke Santi, a passionate science student at Resurrection “What Happened Before the Big Bang?” The one-hour High School in Kitchener and a former active volunteer with documentary featured many familiar PI names, including PI’s Outreach department before his passing in 2007. Director Neil Turok, Distinguished Research Chair Leonard Among Sherry’s many academic awards and accomplish- Susskind, Faculty member Lee Smolin, and past Postdoc ments, she received the Governor General’s Academic Parampreet Singh. You can watch it at: http://www.you- Bronze Medal for achieving the highest standing at Bell High tube.com/watch?v=_bGx3UB-Slg.

winter 2011 23 InsIde the PerImeter CULTURE @ PI

Other seAsOns, Other uniVerses: An eVening with JOshuA Bell

mysterious opening notes of Schubert’s Fantasie in C for violin and piano, D. 934 (1827) seemed to make time stand still, appropriate at an institute where the nature of time is a subject of daily interest and conjecture, and proved to be a brilliant showcase for the technical virtuosity of both musicians. The evening ended with the luminous sweetness and passion of Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 2, in G, Op. 13 (1867), which he composed “in the euphoria of my honeymoon.” Reflecting on the concert, PI Senior Researcher Rafael Sorkin said, “What struck me most about Joshua Bell’s playing was the sheer beauty of his tone. It reminds me of something my father told me about [Austrian violinist] Fritz Kreisler, that before he had finished drawing his first bow the audience would be in tears. Speaking of Kreisler, I think he wrote somewhere that he owed his tone partly to a special type of finger-based vibrato that he had perfected, but Bell’s looked like it came almost all from his arm — also an uncom- n January 25, 2011, Perimeter Institute welcomed one mon style.” of the world’s most celebrated violinists, Joshua Bell, “The Brahms sonata held a special meaning for me,” Prof. Oaccompanied by pianist Sam Rockwell, to the Mike Sorkin added, reflecting on the occasion when he engineered Lazaridis Theatre of Ideas for the second instalment in the a recording session of the Brahms piece played by his father, Institute’s Classical World Artists Series’ 2010/11 season. violinist Leonard Sorkin, with pianist James Tocco. “It brought Playing to a full house and a very appreciative audience that back old memories of operating a reel-to-reel Ampex tape included many PI researchers, the enchanting violinist sent recorder and dutifully noting down things like ‘take 13: ended everyone home on a high note. at bar 74’. This time I could just sit back and enjoy the music.” The evening’s program offered lively contrasts among works Prof. Sorkin was not the only researcher who left dazzled. by Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert and Edvard Grieg. PI Associate Faculty member Raymon d Laflamme exclaimed, Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick once wrote of Brahms’ Violin “What a fantastic concert! The virtuosity of Josh Bell brought Sonata No. 2, in A, Op. 100 (1886), “we are drawn into the me to a parallel universe, one where music reigns.” delicious stillness of an aromatic summer evening,” and the shimmering warmth of Bell’s rendition was indeed a welcome — Renée Ellis experience in the depths of a Canadian winter. Next, the

FriDaY, april 29, 2011 at 7:00 pm MiKe lazariDiS theatre oF iDeaS, pi

Yefim Bronfman

The 2010/11 season is set to conclude with a performance by Yefim Bronfman on April 29. While the concert is sold out, tickets occasionally become available. Pianist Yuja Wang at her recent perfor- mance in the Theatre of Ideas. Contact anne little at [email protected] if you’d like to be added to a concert waiting list.

24 winter 2011 wOrk OF Pi reseArchers insPires lOcAl Artist

omewhere in the Universe” (pictured left) by local artist Diane Eastham, is an artistic portrayal of our potential “Sto understand the workings of the universe. The mys- terious text superimposed on a swirling ‘galaxy’ of colours offers the idea that there is a code to the universe — we just need to find and decipher it. Eastham says she is inspired by the work of the physicists at PI, who are “tackling the big questions.” She attends the PI Public Lectures and says she is surprised by how much she learns during the talks. As an artist, she likes looking at images from space, especially the pictures from the Hubble telescope. It all finds a way into her creative work. Before her career as a full-time artist, Eastham was a vice-principal at Waterloo Collegiate Institute. In that role, she assisted PI in bringing the Public Lectures to the school. “It was a great opportunity to show that science could be an integral part of our community, and our lives,” said East- ham. “It was an honour and an inspiration to be part of that.” String Theory, an exhibition of Eastham’s work was recently held at the Homer Watson Gallery in Kitchener.

— Katherine Sage

PuBlic lecture series weDneSDaY, april 6, 2011 at 7:00 pm waterloo ColleGiate inStitute twistors and Quantum non-locality Sir roger penrose, University of Oxford

pace and time are two of the universe’s most fundamental elements. Relativity combines these two into the unified Snotion of space-time, but twistor theory goes beyond this replacing both by something entirely different, where the basic elements are the paths taken by particles of light or other particles without mass. Twistor theory has already found powerful applications in the field of high-energy physics. The creation of twistor theory was motivated with the hope that it would shed light on the foundations of quantum physics, a theory that puzzled even Einstein, particularly through the weird effects of quantum non-locality — the phenomenon whereby the behaviour of quantum particles can seem to have instantaneous effects over large distances. In this lecture, Prof. Penrose will describe a deep link between twistor theory and the simplest form of quantum non-locality and how the connection may be generalized in ways that provide a broader understanding of the phenomenon.

For tickets, contact anne little at [email protected].

winter 2011 25 InsIde the PerImeter COMMUNITY

new FAces @ Pi

KellY FraSer, help Desk analyst Kelly started working at Perimeter in June as a co-op student and is now a Help Desk Analyst. She holds a BA and MA in Classics as well as a Bachelor of Education. Before coming to PI, Kelly worked with a travelling science exhibit, taught ESL in Japan and was an elementary school teacher. After moving to Waterloo, she made the leap to IT and studied Information Technology Applications and Technical Support at Conestoga College. Kelly’s excited to be working at PI because she considers herself a lifelong learner and sees a huge opportunity for expanding her IT knowledge here. As a Help Desk Analyst, Kelly provides first line support for any computer-related questions, concerns or issues. She also supports BlackBerrys, office phones, and printers and is happy to help with any problems users are having. In her spare time Kelly enjoys yoga, reading and travelling, but her favourite thing to do is to just hang out at a park with her husband and their three-year-old son, Calvin. Kelly can be found in office 207 at extension 6082 or the new Help Desk extension 8888.

Matt MaSotti, Data architect Matt became Perimeter’s Data Architect in November of 2010 and is thrilled to be a part of such an ambitious organization. His primary responsibility is to ensure the Institute has well organized, clean and consistent information across all of its systems. Matt has served in many technical, consultation and management capacities over the years, focused mainly on data management and system implementation. His most recent positions were Data Integrator at Salentica Inc. and IT Manager at Butterfield & Robinson. He studied Biochemistry at McGill (1995) and later added studies in Computer Science at the University of Toronto (2004). In his spare time, Matt is an avid guitarist, enjoys hockey and, after recently buying an old house in Guelph with his wife Amy, is most likely to be doing some kind of renovation for the foreseeable future. He is at 35 King at extension 5391.

raChel YounG, academic programs assistant Rachel joined the Academic Programs department in January as the Academic Programs Assistant and is thrilled to be a part of this great team. Rachel received her BA from the University of Waterloo in Religious Studies and Psychology before heading on to McMaster University to complete her MA. She then began a PhD at Wilfrid Laurier University, but is taking a break from her own studies on food, drink and religion in order to aid the students at PI in their various endeavours. Having spent the last four years working with students as a teaching assistant as well as living the grad student life herself, Rachel is excited to share her knowledge of everything academic with the PI Academic Programs department. In her spare time, Rachel enjoys acting and singing in local theatre productions, reading and writing about food, wine and religion, and planning dream vacations. Rachel can be found on the third floor of 35 King and her extension is 5204.

rJ taYlor, wGSi Communications liaison RJ started as WGSI Communications Liaison in January. He is in his last undergrad term at the University of Waterloo studying sociology and business. Throughout his university career, RJ has spent several co-op terms working in communications at RIM and the Ontario Ministry of Energy, as well as working in the Canadian Rockies. RJ, who works on a number of external relations and communication activities, is very excited by his role with WGSI and the wider culture of ideas here at PI. He also looks forward to brushing up on his grade 11 physics. RJ is located on the main floor of 35 King at ext. 5371. In his spare time, he is either on a mountain bike, immersed in a cookbook, or swimming in any body of water.

26 winter 2011 new FAces @ Pi continued

MiKe leFFerinG, wGSi outreach liaison Mike started as the WGSI Outreach Liaison in February and is presently helping to raise awareness and organize logistics for the Equinox Summit: Energy 2030. He received his BBA in the spring of 2010 from Wilfrid Laurier University with an emphasis on marketing and supply chain management. Since graduating, Mike has also taken on a marketing internship at a local software company where he is involved in creating their social media campaigns. Mike loves to stay active and enjoys the outdoors, and spent his summers throughout university working in landscaping and the residential pool industry. When not at work on WGSI, he likes to play a wide variety of sports and get to the cottage as much as possible. Mike also likes to read and travel. You can find him on the first floor of 35 King or drop him a line at extension 5382.

the Other side OF the eQuAtiOn: VOlunteering in kitchener-wAterlOO editor’s note: “The Other Side of the Equation” is a new feature giving the perspec- tives of PI spouses and partners. If you have an idea for a column or are interested in contributing, we’d love to hear from you! Please contact Natasha Waxman at [email protected].

hortly after moving to Waterloo last year from Berlin, I guidance from the chef started looking for opportunities to occupy myself while (the only non-volunteer in Slearning more about the community we’d landed in. I a team of seven). Around found the website volunteerkw.ca and started looking for noon, the seniors would volunteering opportunities I could relate to. arrive and we would serve them their meal, and then sit down Coming from Europe, where they don’t have a strong volun- and enjoy our meals in their company. After that, the volun- teering tradition, I was surprised at the quantity and variety teers would clean the tables and the kitchen. of volunteering opportunities I found in the K-W community. On Friday morning, I would go to the “Pins and Patches” You can do so many different things — build houses, answer group. It is composed of senior ladies that knit and quilt and phones, work in a kitchen, library, hospital or other association sell their crafts, with the money reverting back to the commu- — helping a wide range of people, from children to seniors. nity centre. Most of the ladies are well into their seventies, You can even volunteer at your kid’s school. but are able to crochet and knit with their eyes closed. When I made some phone calls, sent some emails, and finally I went there, they would talk about their families, trips and found two positions I really liked. They were both at the same vegetable gardens. They told me many stories about their place, Kitchener’s Downtown Community Centre. lives and how they arrived to Canada (most of them retain On Mondays, I would volunteer in the kitchen, helping to much of the culture and language of their home countries), prepare meals for the seniors (40 to 50 people per day). I how K-W was in the ’50s and how it has grown since. would start at 9:00 am, aiding in the food preparation, with Sadly, I had to stop volunteering at the Downtown Com- munity Centre when I started working, but I really miss going there. Sometimes I still stop by to see them, grab a coffee with the kitchen workers, or sit and chat with the craft ladies. It was a great experience, and a wonderful way of becoming a part of our new community, and I want to do it again.

— Diana Gonçalves

Diana moved to Waterloo in October 2009 with her husband, Pedro Vieira, who is a Faculty member at PI.

Community Centre employees serving seniors and volunteers at the Christmas dinner.

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7 6 the liFe OF Pi 1. Lucy and Vicki Lehner joined a PI group to hit the Chicopee Tube Park in January; 2. John Moffat and Rafael Sorkin put their heads together with a collaborator over lunch; 3. Faculty member Laurent Freidel; 4. Little Catarina, the newborn daughter of Faculty member Pedro Vieira and wife Diana; 5. PSI students enjoying a winter lecture; 6. Dawn Poll, Sue Scanlan and the finance team recently lent a hand at Kitchener’s St. John’s Food Kitchen; 7. Postdoctoral Researcher Eleonora Dell-Aquila; 8. Bistro Manager Dan Lynch shares a laugh with Assistant Manager Kendra Hillborn on the last day before her maternity leave; 9. The Black Hole Bistro’s temporary location in the Atrium; 10. Postdoctoral Researcher Tim Koslowski with his son, Nathanael, at a recent PI social; 11. Richard Epp and Kevin Donkers 10 demonstrating what keeps us stuck to the earth; 12. Faculty members Latham Boyle and Niayesh Afshordi; 13. Researchers Sean Gryb, Daniel Gottesman, and Sarah 8 Shandera dissecting the hit TV show, The Big Bang Theory, for the benefit of PI’s lay – ahem, admin – staff; 14. PSI students learning the Charleston.

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