The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics
The 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, awarded to Aspect, Clauser and Zeilinger ‘for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science’ was long overdue and signifies an important event in the story of quantum physics. This talk will discuss why.
The speaker will give an overview of the Einstien-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) paradox (1935) and how it was received by Bohr and others. Then, he will provide an exposition of Bell’s theorem (1964) along with some of its variants, and explain their experimental tests from the earliest ones in the 1970s to the loophole-free ones in the 2010s. He will talk about some controversies around the press release of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics. The talk will be interspersed with my remarks on the history and sociology of debates around EPR, Bell’s theorems and, more generally, quantum foundations. Time-permitting, he will briefly talk about how he got introduced to Bell’s theorem and, along with colleagues, ended up developing tabletop tests of Bell inequalities at Physlab, LUMS, Pakistan.
About the Speaker:
Muhammad Hamza Waseem is pursuing a DPhil in Physics at the University of Oxford. His studies are funded by a Rhodes Scholarship. His research revolves around quantum structures, applied category theory, natural language processing, and magnonics. During his undergraduate studies in electrical engineering at UET Lahore, Hamza helped develop the first lab for single photon quantum physics in Pakistan. He also co-authored a book ‘Quantum Mechanics in the Single Photon Laboratory’ published by the Institute of Physics (IOP), UK.
Keen on public engagement with science, Hamza has helped organise the Lahore Science Mela, the biggest annual science festival in Pakistan. He co-founded Spectra—an online magazine aimed at training popular science writers in Pakistan. For science popularisation, Hamza has been awarded the 2021 Diana Award and was highly commended at the 2021 SEPnet Public Engagement Awards.
At Oxford, Hamza teaches mathematics and physics at Mathematical Institute and Department of Computer Science. He has also been a Lecturer in Physics at Magdalen College. He is a Research Scientist at Cambridge Quantum and Research Fellow at Global Centre for Advanced Studies, Dublin. He can be contacted at hamza.waseem@physics.ox.ac.uk