题目

信息与物质的统一: 第二次量子革命

报告人

Prof. Xiaogang Wen (文小刚)

Department of Physics,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA　　　　　　　 

时间

2015年9月18日（星期五）下午2：00

地点

微尺度国家实验室一楼科技展厅

文小刚，凝聚态物理领域的当代著名理论物理学家，现任美国麻省理工学院（MIT）终身教授、格林讲席教授，美国物理学会会士，加拿大滑铁卢前沿理论物理研究所(PI)牛顿讲席教授。1982年他本科毕业于中国科学技术大学低温物理专业，赴普林斯顿大学读研。普林斯顿大学一批年轻教授在高能物理领域的活跃主导地位，让文小刚在博士期间研究起了高能物理，师从爱德华・威滕（E・Witten）。在博士后期间，他重返凝聚态物理学研究领域。文小刚拥有十分清晰的物理图像，对量子多体系统有深刻的洞察力。他把凝聚态物理语言由狭义物态推广到宇宙普适，独立开创并发展了量子物态的拓扑序/量子序理论，和基本粒子的弦网凝聚理论。他的系列工作开辟了拓扑物态(topological state)、对称保护物态(symmetry protected state)、长程量子纠缠(long range entanglement)等物理新领域。他提出了“信息就是物质”这一新的世界观，用量子比特统一了所有基本粒子（除引力子）。揭示了费米统计，规范相互作用，其基于量子比特的起源。

报告摘要

Physics, in particular, condensed matter physics, is a very old field. Many people are thinking that the exciting time of physics has passed. We enter the begining of the end of physics. The only important things in physics are its engineering applications. However, I feel that we only see the end of the begining. The exciting time is still ahead of us. In particular, now is a very exciting time in physics, like 1900 - 1930. We are seeing/making the second quantum revolution which unifies information, matter and geometry. In this talk, I will describe the previous four revolutions in physics: mechanical revolution, electromagnetic revolution, general relativity revolution, and quantum revolution, as well as the fifth -- the second quantum revolution, which unify matter and information. Each revolution unifies seemingly unrelated phenomena. Each revolution requires new mathematics to describe the new theory. Each revolution changes our world view.