北京大学百年物理论坛

讲座一：Does the everyday world really obey quantum mechanics?

主讲人：By Nobel Laureate in Physics Professor Anthony J. Leggett，University of Illinois at Urbana-Champion

时间：2010年3月4日，15：00

地点：化学大楼，A座，204-206房间

Abstract：

Quantum mechanics has been enormously successful in describing nature at the atomic level, and most physicists believe that it is in principle the "whole truth" about the world even at the everyday level. However, such a view prima facie leads to a severe problem: in certain circumstances, the most natural interpretation of the theory implies that no definite outcome of an experiment occurs until the act of "observation". For many decades this problem was regarded as "merely philosophical", in the sense that it was thought that it had no consequences which could be tested in experiment. However, in the last dozen or so years the situation has changed very dramatically in this respect. I will discuss the problem, some popular "resolutions" of it, the current experimental situation and prospects for the future.

北京大学百年物理论坛（Centennial Physics Lectures at Peking University）

从1913年北京大学建立物理门起，近百年来几代北大物理学人筚路蓝缕，艰难玉成，以他们的远见卓识和坚韧不拔铸就了中国高等物理乃至中国现代科学教育与科学研究的根基，为国内外培养了大批杰出人才。历经近百个春秋，今日的北京大学物理已涵盖了物理、天文和大气与海洋三个重要的学科领域。“江山代有才人出，各领风骚数百年”。

2010年，北京大学物理创办了“北京大学百年物理讲坛”，邀请国际著名学者论述物理、天文和大气与海洋科学领域的基础前沿问题，及其最新科技进展，以学术创新与思想、智慧的交流迎接新的辉煌。

A. J. Leggett教授简介：

Anthony J. Leggett was born in London, England in March 1938. He attended Balliol College, Oxford where he majored in Literate Humaniores (classical languages and literature, philosophy and Greco-Roman history), and thereafter Merton College, Oxford where he took a second undergraduate degree in Physics. He completed a D.Phil.(Ph.D.) degree in theoretical physics under the supervision of D.ter Haar. After postdoctoral research in Urbana, Kyoto and elsewhere he joined the faculty of the University of Sussex (UK) in 1967, being promoted to Reader in 1971 and to Professor in 1978. In 1983 he became John D. and Catherine T. Macarthur Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a position he currently holds. His principal research interests lie in the areas of condensed matter physics, particularly high-temperature superconductivity, and the foundations of quantum mechanics.

Memberships of learned societies:

Royal Society (1980)

American Philosophical Society (1991)

American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1996)

Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences (1997)*

Foreign Member, Russian Academy of Sciences (1999)

Fellow of the Institute of Physics American Physical Society

Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK) (1999) *now regular member following receipt of US citizenship in Aug.2001 (dual with UK).

Awards:

Maxwell Medal and Prize (Institute of Physics,UK) 1975

Fritz London Memorial Award 1981

Simon Memorial Prize 1981

Paul Dirac Medal and Prize( Institute of Physics, UK) 1992

John Bardeen Prize (with G.M. Eliashberg) (M^2S) 1994

Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal, 1999

Wolf Prize in Physics (with B.I. Halperin) 2003

Nobel Prize in Physics (with A.A. Abrikosov and V.L. Ginzburg),2003

Main visiting appointments since 1973:

Visiting Professor, Cornell University April 1973--July 1974

University of Illinois April 1975

Royal Society Japan Fellow, University of Tokyo 1973-1974

Visiting lecturer at US T, Kumasi, Ghana Sept.-Dec.1976--1977

Bethe Lecturer, Cornell University April 1980

Visiting Scientist, Cornell University Jan.-Aug.1983

Morris Loeb Lecturer, Harvard University Feb.1985

Visiting Professor, Inst. of Theoretical Physics, University of Minnesota

Mar.-Jun.1990

BBV Foundation Professor,Universidad Autonoma de Madrid June 1996

Visiting Professor,ENS,Paris June-July 1997 Astor Lecturer,Oxford University June 1998

Mueller Lecturer,Penn State University Nov.2001

Cave Memorial Lecturer,Queens

University,Kingston,Ont. March 2002

Visiting Professor,Univ.of Florida Jan-Feb.2003

Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Distinguished

Visiting Professor,University of

Waterloo,Ontario,Canada Oct.2006-

Community roles:

Co-organizer,ITP program on Quantum

Noise in Macroscopic Systems,spring 1984

Divisional Associate Editor,Physical

Review Letters,1987-93

Co-organizer,ITP program on Bose Einstein

Condensation,Feb.-June 1998

External examiner,National University

of Singapore,1997-8

Co-organizer,Benasque workshop on Physics of

ULtracold Dilute Atomic Gases,June 2002.

Editorial Board,New Journal of Physics,2002(?)-

Board of Reviewing Editors,Science,2003(?)-

Editorial Board,Proc.Nat.Acad.Sci.,2005(?)-

Books:The Problems of Physics,OPUS series,

Oxford University Press,1987 (reissued 2006)

Quantum Liquids:Bose Condensation and

Cooper Pairing in Condensed Matter Systems,

Oxford University Press,Oxford,2006

Papers:about 100 full papers in refereed

journals,about 50 in conference proceedings etc.

编辑：文尚