Next Wednesday, 24 May, at 14:30 in D5.01 we're happy to have Sam Kuypers from our group give a talk at the CQI seminar. Sam will talk about the history of scientific models of magnetism,
and why decoherence plays an important role in their modern understanding. Title and abstract below.
Abstract: Imagine a world where refrigerator magnets, compasses, and magnetic storage devices don't exist. Surprisingly, this is precisely the universe implied by classical physics: as Bohr and van-Leeuwen demonstrated, a classical system's magnetisation invariably
vanishes to zero in thermodynamic equilibrium.
Hence, quantum models, such as the Heisenberg spin-chain model, were invented to explain the phenomenon of magnetism. In this talk, I shall explore those models' history and intricacies. And I shall clarify why those quantum models require decoherence to explain
the structure of magnetic materials.