BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//RLASKEY//CALENDEROUS//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20260915T064519Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20121116T203436Z
DTSTART:20121030T193000Z
DTEND:20121030T203000Z
UID:event978@bu.edu
URL:http://physics.bu.edu/internal/events/show/978
SUMMARY:TBA
DESCRIPTION:Featuring Gordon Baym\, University of Illinois\, Urbana-Champai
	gn\nHosted by: David Campbell\nPoster: http://physics.bu.edu/posters/2012_F
	all/06_Baym.pdf\n\nPart of the Physics Department Colloquia Series.\n\nABST
	RACT: Niels Bohr once suggested a very simple two-slit diffraction experime
	nt with highly charged particles to prove that the consistency of elementar
	y quantum mechanics requires the radiation field to be quantized. As this t
	alk will describe in detail\, measurement far from the interference apparat
	us of the electric field of a particle going through the slits yields "whic
	h path" information\, and thus the diffraction pattern must be destroyed. T
	he key is that as the particle’s trajectory is bent in diffraction by
	 the slits it must radiate and the radiation must carry away phase informat
	ion. Thus the radiation field must be a quantized dynamical degree of free
	dom. On the other hand\, if one similarly tries to determine the path of a 
	massive particle through an interferometer by measuring the Newtonian gravi
	tational potential the particle produces\, the interference pattern would h
	ave to be finer than the Planck length and thus undiscernable. Unlike for t
	he electromagnetic field\, Bohr’s argument does not imply that the g
	ravitational field must be quantized.
LOCATION:SCI 109\, 590 Commonwealth Avenue\, 02215
STATUS:CANCELLED
CLASS:PUBLIC
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR