Inside the Perimeter Is Published by Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
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the Perimeter fall/winter 2018/19 Quantum quandaries Musical neutron stars People of PI Lasers! ... and much more Editor Natasha Waxman [email protected] Managing Editor Tenille Bonoguore Contributing Authors Tenille Bonoguore Erin Bow Dan Falk Colin Hunter Stephanie Keating Neil Turok Copy Editors Tenille Bonoguore Mike Brown Colin Hunter Stephanie Keating Kelly Pedro Natasha Waxman Graphic Design Gabriela Secara Photo Credits AdobeStock istockphoto NASA Gabriela Secara Cover Watercolors Kaća Bradonjić Front: “Steven Abel, ‘Progress in constructing an Asymptotically safe Standard Model, 2’” Back: “Masatoshi Yamanda, ‘Asymptotically safe gravity and electroweak scalegenesis’” Inside front cover “100 Closest Stars (2016)” by Lucy Pullen This sculpture, installed on the feature wall at Perimeter, represents the volume of 100 closest stars, based on open-source data from NASA. The forms are made with voronoi geometry, in collaboration with Stuart Lynn, head of research for CARTO in Brooklyn, NY. Inside the Perimeter is published by Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. www.perimeterinstitute.ca To subscribe, email us at [email protected] 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada p: 519.569.7600 I f: 519.569.7611 02 IN THIS ISSUE 04/ The best is yet to come, Neil Turok 06/ Depth of vision, Tenille Bonoguore 07/ New named fellowships for young researchers 08/ The music of neutron stars, Stephanie Keating 10/ Charting a course for greater inclusion, Tenille Bonoguore 13/ The quandary at the heart of quantum physics, Dan Falk 16/ Using game theory to tell if a quantum memory is legit, Tenille Bonoguore 18/ The difference a year makes, Stephanie Keating 20/ Putting quantum mechanics to the test, Erin Bow 21/ Projections - Art feature 26/ Unpicking holography, Erin Bow 28/ People of PI: Claudia de Rham, unstuck by gravity, Colin Hunter 30/ Figuring out physics with newfound friends, Stephanie Keating 32/ Thanks to our supporters 34/ Teachers become pupils at immersive physics camp, Colin Hunter 35/ Exploring the physics all around us, Tenille Bonoguore 36/ Where did it come from? Lasers, Erin Bow 37/ One laser breakthrough really did change the world, Tenille Bonoguore 38/ New summer program to support exceptional undergrads, Stephanie Keating 39/ Particles 42/ PI kids are asking: How are elements made?, Tenille Bonoguore 03 NEIL'S NOTES THE BEST IS YET TO COME I have been fortunate to serve as Young people are the future, in physics the largest community of independent Perimeter’s Director for a decade. It’s as in every other field. Their freshness postdoctoral fellowships in the world. been the opportunity of a lifetime, and lack of prejudice bring new energy both challenging and exhilarating, and and critical thinking. It is vital that we We take risks on unusual people. We an enormous privilege to lead such a continually re-examine and challenge have admitted students straight out of dedicated and willing team. Together the foundations of physics. Youth and high school into PSI and appointed a we have built a faculty, a community, diversity provide our greatest source of faculty member straight out of his PhD. and a culture which is, I think, uniquely vitality in doing so. Not everyone needs to be precocious, forward-looking and ambitious. We but we should be open to those who are. encourage each other and, above all, It’s no a coincidence that both Donna We have hired pure mathematicians to our young people to be unafraid of and Jocelyn made their breakthroughs interact with and enrich our physicists. seeking answers to the most difficult at a young age. Beginners do not see We have hired specialists in advanced questions. Together, we are creating a the barriers from which others shy away. data analysis to deal with the torrent of new kind of research institute for the A first-year graduate student can ask a new data from probes of the cosmos. It world. I use the present tense because question or invent a new way of doing is very exciting to see those gambles now I believe our work has only just begun. things that sparks a revolution. paying off: in Canada’s new CHIME radio telescope, in the rapid advances When I was recruited here, Waterloo One of my first acts as Director was of multi-messenger astronomy, in new was still relatively unknown as a world to open Perimeter’s doors to students. searches for dark matter. In all of these centre for physics. That much has The Perimeter Scholars International fields, Perimeter is emerging as a world changed. This year’s Nobel Prize win (PSI) master’s program commenced in leader. for Donna Strickland at the University of 2009. We set out to recruit extraordinary Waterloo, for the extraordinary discovery students worldwide, to expose them to Perimeter’s faculty have so far won she made as a PhD student of chirped theoretical physics’ full sweep, and to five New Horizons prizes, the largest pulse amplification in laser physics, is encourage them to become young awards for young physicists, given by a huge boost for our collective efforts. researchers. PSI has become, by any the Breakthrough Foundation (whose We were likewise honoured by the visit metric, the world’s most sought-after name was inspired by a conversation of Jocelyn Bell Burnell, winner of this and successful master’s program in here at Perimeter). The founder called year’s Special Breakthrough Prize for theoretical physics. me a year ago to say, “How do you her discovery of pulsars, also made as do it? The young people you hire keep Our postdoctoral program is another winning our prize!” a graduate student. Characteristically, flagship effort. Just as others increasingly Jocelyn donated her prize to support move towards project-based postdocs, The recipe is simple: look below PhD students from underrepresented we do the opposite. Here, postdocs are the horizon for original, passionate, groups. It was a very special occasion encouraged to set their own course, pioneering young scientists. Provide to have Donna and Jocelyn join us to work with whom and on what they them with the time and freedom and together to celebrate their achievements, may wish. Our new named fellowships support they need to focus on what and to announce a new series of named – seven so far announced – are a nod they want to focus on, to explore postdoctoral fellowships before Jocelyn’s to past greats and an encouragement to unconventional avenues with vision and public lecture. (See page 6.) the holders. Perimeter is proud to host undivided intensity. 04 As we all should. Because, amazing as ideas are welcomed in an atmosphere of Over the past decade, Perimeter has it seems after centuries of discoveries internationalism, openness, enterprise, grown into a significant institution. As that transformed society, we have barely and hope for the future. we grow up, we should hold on to our scratched the surface of physics and sense of fun and excitement while we what it offers us all. What drives us is our unbridled curiosity reach for the stars. and appreciation of the extravagant We need to be more effective and efficient beauty and simplicity inherent in What a brief and wonderful trip it’s not only in pursuing breakthrough nature. By sharing the joy of discovery been! And we’re just getting started. discoveries but in communicating the and the opportunities it brings, by magic and wonder of understanding opening access to talented people from – Neil Turok the universe to everyone. There are everywhere, Perimeter is showing the vast numbers of young people whose world what is possible. talents are lost because they were never fostered. Perimeter’s dual mission – of research advances and sharing the thrill of them with millions of students and the public – makes it a positive force for progress in these troubled and anxious times. Our outstanding Educational Outreach team has organized spectacular festivals – from Quantum to Cosmos in 2009, to Convergence in 2016, to Innovation150 which travelled right across the country in 2017. Each has been a creative feast inspiring students, teachers, and curious minds of all ages. It isn’t too much, I believe, to say that Perimeter plays a part in defining Canada as a place where new Nobel Prize winner Donna Strickland, Perimeter Director Neil Turok, 05 and Special Breakthrough Prize winner Jocelyn Bell Burnell. DEPTH OF VISION Pioneering astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell isn’t one to stand back from a challenge, whether it involves analyzing data, tackling sexism, or leading change within science itself. ocelyn Bell Burnell has an unusually thinking. She went back along the closed to it. Bell Burnell’s mind, as acute talent for noticing the chart, found that first bit of “scruff,” and usual, was not. Junnoticed. When she was a young compared them. They were the same. child, her family took in refugees from With a Cambridge PhD in hand and the Hitler’s Europe. There would be four or Bell Burnell had just uncovered the first discovery of pulsars to her credit, she five of them at a time, learning English evidence of pulsars, rotating neutron wrote “begging letters” to observatories and helping out on the family farm in stars that emit a beam of radio waves and universities, seeking whatever job Lurgan, Northern Ireland. that sweep through space, rather like she could find in whatever town her how a light house beam sweeps through husband was working. “I didn’t find it The refugees would come and go, their the sky. acceptable, to be honest,” she says lives rendered flotsam in a world riven during a recent visit to Perimeter to by war. But while they might have felt like She would go on to find the first four deliver a public lecture.