Jack Harris
Yale University
Graduate Student Recruiting Weekend
Note different time and room
Friday, March 28, 2008
4:30 pm in SPL 59
Radiation Pressure and Micromechanics: a Route to Macroscopic Quantum Phenomena
Abstract: The center-of-mass degree of freedom of a macroscopic object can couple to light via radiation pressure. When this coupling strong enough, the quantum fluctuations of the light can be transferred to surprisingly large objects. I will provide a brief overview of this phenomena, which has its origins in the Bohr-Einstein debates of the 1920's and which was transformed from a philosophical issue to a practical one with the advent of astrophysical gravitational-wave detectors. I will describe my group's work in this field, which involves table-top experiments where millimeter-sized objects are laser cooled to 0.007 Kelvin and stand on the threshold of exhibiting quantum effects on an unprecedentedly large scale.
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