INQNET Seminar

Speaker: Paul Erker, Vienna University of Technology

Time: 12:30pm Pacific

Place: in the Downs-Lauritsen 257

Title: Clocks and the Thermodynamic Limits of Timekeeping
Abstract: The seminar will start with a short discussion on why a single ion on its own does not constitute a clock. We need clocks to measure time as quantum mechanics does not provide us with an observable for it. To be able to understand and investigate time measuring devices, we introduce a model of a clock, namely the autonomous quantum clock and show how thermodynamics limits its abilities to keep time, as well as the trade-off relations that follow. Next we present an experiment that hints at the fundamental nature of these trade-off relations and also discuss the connection of the quality of timekeeping to quantum computation. Some of the many open questions regarding clocks and the nature of time will be posed in the end.