IIP News 03

news
INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTE OF
PHYSICS
Natal,
April 2017
Year II Number 03
IIP ADVISORY COUNCIL SET
STRATEGIES FOR 2018
Interview with
William Phillips
Quantum measurement
problem
Professor William Phillips (Maryland
University), 1997 Nobel Laureate,
visited the IIP last November in order to
participate in the workshop “Topological
Effects in Ultra-Cold Atoms”.
IIP Distinguished Professor, Theo M.
Nieuwenhuizen, discusses a new proposal
for the quantum measurement problem in a
recent article.

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On the last 20 and 21ft of March the International
Advisory Council (IAC) of the IIP gathered to discuss
the results achieved by the IIP in 2016, as well
as the new directives for the Institute for 2018.
The IAC is formed by renowned physicists from
different research institutions around the world.
The council meets once a year to select the new
academic programs, to discuss new academic hiring’s
and to review the past activities and results.
According to the IIP director, Professor Alvaro Ferraz,
the meeting presented some of the challenges
that the IIP must overcome next year, but also
brought up the positive outcomes of the performance
made by the Institute in 2016, specially after
the inauguration of the new building inside the
UFRN campus.
IIP News - Year II, number 03
IIP Advisory Council set strategies for 2018
“In the last year we saw a great deal of goals been
achieved here at the IIP. Our building inauguration
allowed us to have longer events and opened the
possibility for us to receive a larger number of visiting
researchers, in spite the fact that we are still
learning how to make better use of our building.
We are very confident in fulfilling the IAC expectations
for the next year by achieving even better
results.”
Part of the international events for 2018 is already
approved. Some other propositions are still to be
approved by the members of the council and may
still be added to the official program of events
in the next few weeks. The final list will be announced
in the IIP website (www.iip.ufrn.br), as
soon as possible.
IAC members discuss goals for the IIP in 2018
IIP Professor selected to represent Brazil in SBF –
APS collaboration
The newest member of the IIP
academic staff, Professor Riccardo
Sturani, will present a series
of lectures in the USA as part
of an exchange initiative, jointly
lead by the Brazilian Physics
Society (SBF) and the American
Physics Society (APS). This program
will allow students and researchers
from both countries
to visit universities overseas
in order to learn more about
each other’s research and share
teaching experience.
Professor Sturani will represent
Brazil with a mini-course
on Post Newtonian Approximation
to General Relativity.
The course will be delivered at
the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT).
Professor Sturani was the only
one selected among the researchers
registered to participate
in the program. Five students
from different Brazilian
institutions were also selected
to attend a series of courses in
the USA.
Professor Riccardo Sturani
“I am already a part of a collaboration
in the USA through the
LIGO initiative, and my 8-hour
course will focus on some of the
results obtained by the experiment.
I expect to arrive at MIT
by the end of June”, said Professor
Sturani.

April, 2017 3
Interview with Prof. William Philips
One of the most preeminent physicists in the field of cold atoms, Professor William Phillips
(Maryland University) visited the IIP last November in order to participate in the workshop
“Topological Effects in Ultra-Cold Atoms” as one of the invited speakers. During his stay at the
Institute Professor Phillips, a 1997 Nobel Physics Laureate, talked with the IIP news about his work,
pranks in the scientific community and faith.
IIP - How has been your experience in this workshop
in Natal?
PROFESSOR WILLIAM PHILLIPS - Well, I’ve learned
a lot. This is a workshop about something that I am
really interested in, ultracold atoms and topological
features in ultracold atoms. Those are really hot topic
and I’ve been learning a lot.
IIP - What was the most interesting so far?
WP - Well, that’s hard to say. I tend to be interested in
all kinds of thing, so it would be very difficult for me
to identify any single thing as having been the most
interesting. For example, the last talk that we had today
was a theoretical talk about different regimes of
response of a cold atom system to a kind of random
process of excitation, something that’s been done
strongly enough to produce turbulence and the richness
of the Phenomena that can be seen was really
intriguing to me.
Earlier we had talks about realization in a cold atom
system of an analog to magnetic poles, and that’s a
very exciting idea because in nature no one has ever
confirmed the existence of an isolated magnetic
monopole of the sort of what you may think of a particle
from which magnetic fields emanate, but in cold
atom systems we can make something that looks very
much like that, that has analog features and that’s
very exciting to see those kinds of analogies in an cold
atom system. I am just beginning to understand how
that works, so that’s really exciting too, but each of
the talks that I listened to is exciting in their own ways
IIP - Where were you when you learned about your
Nobel Prize and how did you feel at that moment?
WP - I was attending a conference in California. My
home is in the east cost of the USA, in Maryland and
I was attending a conference in the west coast. I got
a call in the middle of the night. I don’t remember
exactly when, around 3:00 a.m., the point is that they
make the decision or they announced the decision
around noon in Stockholm. That’s around 06:00 a.m.
in the east coast.
The thing that was amazing about this was that they
knew where I was. They (the Nobel Prize Committee)
told me after informing me by telephone, that probably
I wouldn’t get anymore sleep because the press
would be after me, but the press had no idea of where
I was, but they did.
So the Nobel committee had made it their business to
find out where I was going to be and they were able
Photo by Juliano Lima Barreto
Professor William Philips presents a lecture at the IIP
to call my room at 03:00 am in order to find me and
congratulate me.
Another thing that was interesting about that was
that there have been times when people have been
tricked.
Someone who thought they should win a Nobel Prize
had someone call them up with a fake Swedish accent
to tell them that they won a Nobel prize.
I think that the Nobel committee understood that
someone would be skeptical of getting a call in the
middle of the night and so after the president of the
Royal Academy, who was the one who called me and
gave me his congratulations he put on the phone two
other people who were members of the Academy and
whom I knew personally to congratulate me (giggles).
I think that part of the reason was to reassure me or,
I am sure they did a similar thing to other people, to
reassure me that this wasn’t a joke.
IIP - What do you think were the most important developments
in physics of cold atoms from 1997 until
now?
WP - I assume that you are taking 1997 as a point because
that was when the Nobel Prize was awarded (to
me). By that time it was just in the earliest days that
people had demonstrated that you can make a Bose
condensate. They were seeing some of the earliest
properties of Bose condensates.
My own group hadn’t yet made a Bose condensate.
We got it shortly after I returned from Stockholm after
the award of the Nobel Prize and then we all started
doing all kind of stuff. They were different from what
other people were doing because it was so new that

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everybody was doing something different and it was
all new, and it was all different, and it was all exciting.
In 1999 we were just doing the first experiments on
Bragg scattering, so 1997 we hadn’t even developed
the use of Bragg scattering as a tool for studying these
things, so a few years later we in my laboratory did
the first experiments on Bragg scattering and then
people started doing that sort of thing in lots of other
laboratories and now it has become a standard tool
for learning about excitations in both condensates.
But I have to mention Fermi gases. That was another
huge thing. In 1997 the idea of making degenerated
Fermi gases was still just a dream and if I think about
degenerate Fermi gases I have to talk about Debbie
Jim because she begun the quest for making a degenerated
Fermi Gas. She worked on those first experiments
for bonse condensation and then took off with
her own research program to try to make a degenerate
Fermi Gas.
Now this is important because so much of our understanding
of materials has to do with the nature of the
electrons. So if we want to understand how electrons
behave in materials one of the ways
that we can do this is by looking at the
way that fermionic atoms behave in a
cold gas, and why do we want to do
that? Because with cold atomic gases
we have different things that we
can measure and different ways that
we can control the gas compared to
what we can do in materials.
That is why is so attractive to study
cold atomic gases, because we have more control
over them, or at least we can control them in different
ways, and we can measure different things. Debbie Jin
showed that under the right circumstances the fermions
could pair, could produce cooper pairs, in the
same way that electrons could pair in superconductors.
This showed that you can change the scattering
length, that is by changing the nature of the interactions
between the fermions, she could go from having
interactions that were attractive, that could produced
cooper pairs and make something that was like a superconductor
making repulsive interactions under
which the atoms could form molecules.
One of the reasons why I spend so much time talking
about the things that Debbie Jin did was that just this
past September, at the age of 47, Debbie died. And
that was a tremendous loss to our field. I know that
she will never be forgotten because of the physics
that she did was so important that we will continue
to use it, but I think it is important to say what a big
impact she had and how sad we all are that she is not
with us anymore.
IIP - You are one of the founders of the International
Society for Science and Religion. How did your involvement
with that society begin?
“That is why it is so attractive
to study cold atomic gases,
because we have more control
over them, or at least we can
control them in different ways”
Professor William Phillips
IIP News - Year II, number 03
Source: JILA Scientific Communications
Professor Deborah Jin (1968–2016)
WP - I should tell you that being one of the founders
of this society simply means that I was one of the
original members. There were hundreds of people
who were original members. It wasn’t as if I was like
“Oh, wouldn’t it be great if we had an international
society for science and religion?” Some other people
did that and invited a number of
people who had interest on these
lines to be among the original members.
And every so often additional
members are elected to the international
society.
So, I have always been a person of
faith. I never felt that there was any
conflict between my religious faith
and my understandings of science, and when I was
invited to be part of this I was completely comfortable
with the idea of a compatibility between science
and religion. That’s the connection
IIP - Have you been able to establish positive discussions
on this subject, even in such a polarized society
that we live today?
WP - I give a number of lectures from time to time
about the question of science and religion, in which
mainly I claim that there isn’t a problem.
I don’t know whether I have ever convinced anyone
who was skeptical of the claims of religious faith, but
they should give it a little bit more thought, but what
I hope is that I have encouraged people to believe
that there are people of religious faith to believe
that scientists are not godless apostates and I hope
that I have encouraged people who believe in science
but do not believe in religious faith that people
who do believe in religious faith are not simply superstitious
fools.
So I am not so much interested in trying to convert
somebody to my way of thinking, but to try to encourage
them to believe that people who think differently
from them are not foolish.
See the full enterview at www.iip.ufrn.br

April, 2017 5
Quantum measurement problem:
New approach suggested
By Theo M. Nieuwenhuizen
IIP Distinguished Professor
Quantum mechanics is a probabilistic theory that does not describe
individual events. Yet when we perform a single measurement,
we find a well-defined outcome. This apparent contradiction,
known as the measurement problem, has a long history
going back to the early days of quantum mechanics. A research
collaboration involving the Institute of Physics proposes a new
approach to this problem.
The work produced by an international collaboration, which
consists of Armen Allahverdyan (Yerevan Physics Institute, Armenia), Roger Balian (CEA Saclay,
France) and Theo Nieuwenhuizen (IoP Amsterdam and International Institute of Physics, Natal,
Brazil) was published in January by the Annals of Physics. The researchers propose two main
ingredients that are sufficient to account for all properties of quantum measurements, including
the uniqueness of the outcome of each individual run.
Relaxation of sub-ensembles
Understanding the quantum measurement process requires describing the measured system
and the measurement apparatus as a compound quantum system governed by the rules of
quantum statistical mechanics. The dynamical process that this system undergoes appears to
be a relaxation to thermodynamic equilibrium. The final state thus reached yields information
about a large statistical ensemble of runs but does not describe individual runs of the measurement.
The authors note that decompositions of this final state may generate states which
are candidates to describe sub-ensembles of runs. Next, they employ a new mechanism called
‘poly-microcanonical relaxation’ to prove that over a very short time scale all such states reach
the form that agrees with the expected properties of ideal quantum measurements. This result
is a step towards understanding individual runs, but it is still formal.
Postulate at the macroscopic level
The formalism of quantum mechanics assigns numbers called ‘q-probabilities’ to each possible
outcome of an arbitrary measurement. Due to the specific features of quantum theory, this
set of numbers cannot in general be interpreted as actual probabilities. However, the authors
postulate such an interpretation for the specific q-probabilities pertaining to the indications
of the pointer of the measurement device. The consistency of this interpretation relies on
the macroscopic size of the pointer and on the properties of the final states associated with
sub-ensembles. The new postulate relates quantum theory to observational facts but does not
directly concern the tested microscopic system. It allows to describe properties of individual
runs, and provides a justification to all properties usually attributed to ideal measurements.
These results contribute to a deeper insight in the measurement problem.

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IIP News - Year II, number 03
Month of special colloquia at the IIP
Professors Gerrardus ‘t Hooft, Giuseppe Mussardo and David R. Nelson during the special series of colloquiums
During the month of March the
IIP hosted a series of colloquia
presented by world renowned
physicists that are part of the Institute’s
International Advisory
Council. Professors David Nelson
(Harvard University - USA), Gerardus
‘t Hooft (Utrecht University
- Netherlands) and Giuseppe
Mussardo (SISSA – Italy) delivered
special lectures for the local community.
The colloquiums “Gene Surfing
and Survival of the Luckiest”
(Prof. Nelson); “Black Holes as
Essential Ingredients of a Quantum
Gravity Theory”(Prof. ‘t
Hooft) and “Prime Suspects and
Coprime Accomplices: Quantum
Tales in Number Theory” (Prof.
Mussardo), presented views on
interesting challenges of modern
physics, including description of
population waves, quantum black
holes and number theory applications.
“All the talks were very informative
for me – says Herbert Silva,
a student from the UFRN. - The
speakers did a great job explaining
complex subjects of their
areas and although I am still improving
my English skills I was
able to understand everything. I
got to learn lots of new things, especially
in my area of interest, the
black holes.”
The three lectures filled the IIP
auditorium and were transmitted
live via the IIP Youtube channel
(www.youtube.com/iiptv). The
presentations are also available
in recording through the channel,
as well as many other talks about
many topics of modern physics.
Workshop on Topological
States of Matter opens the
IIP 2017 event program
From March 21 to April 03 the IIP hosted the
workshop Topological States of Matter, the first
event of the 2017 international program at the
Institute. During this conference, researchers
and students from many institutions discussed
the aspects and perspectives in the area of topologically
ordered phases of matter.
“The event was great. We had the main conferences
during the first week and many leading
scientists from all over the world were here, including
people from Europe, the US, Japan, China
and South America”, said one of the event
organizers, Professor Reinhold Egger, from the
Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University
of Dusseldorf.
He explained that the program was also a great
opportunity for people from different areas,
like mathematics, materials science, experiment
and theory of condensed matter to work
together.
Events like this are a key elements to the development
of collaborations, explained Professor
Carlos Egues, from the University of Sao Paulo
(USP), who presented a lecture during the workshop
but will stay at the IIP for a longer period,
collaborating with the IIP research staff.
Professor Egues said that “the event was rich in
interesting subjects, covering a wide range of
topics.” According to him, an unexpected side
of the event was learning more about the work
of his pears in Brazil.
“In an event like this you learn about lots of
things from other fields. Since in Brazil the work
with topological states of matter and Majorana
fermions is relatively new, and because of the
size of the country, there were some groups
that I didn’t know about. I hope to be able to
collaborate with these groups, as well as with
researchers from other countries, that I have
met at the conference”, he concluded.

Next Schools & Workshops
April, 2017 7
Next Conferences
Workshop Collective Spin Transport in Electrical
Insulators
April 24 to May 26, 2017
16th International Workshop on Vortex Matter
May 28 to June 03, 2017
Workshop Physics and Biology of Proteins
June 12 to June 30, 2017
Workshop Quantum Devices
July 03 to August 24, 2017
Workshop Black Holes Across the Scales
July 31 to August 18, 2017
IX Brazilian Meeting on Simulational Physics
(BMSP)
August 21 to 25, 2017
Workshop Out of Equilibrium Dynamics in Soft
and Condensed Matter
August 28 to September 10, 2017
Seminars and Colloquia to come
April 28, 2017
Seminar “Causality and the foundations of physics”
with Dr. Jacques Pienaar;
May 10, 2017
Special Talk “O Universo Visivel”
with Prof. Grazyna Stasinska.
Contact us at press@iip.ufrn.br to receive news about our seminars and colloquia in your email.

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IIP News - Year II, number 03
Post-doctoral positions in Quantum
Information and Fundations in
Quantum Mechanics
The International Institute of Physics of the Federal University of Rio
Grande do Norte (IIP-UFRN) is expecting to fill post-doctoral research positions
in the fields of Quantum Information and Foundations of Quantum Mechanics.
Successful candidates should demonstrate a high level of expertise and
strong academic record working within these or closely related areas. Strong
ability of a candidate to conduct an interdisciplinary research in those and the
other fields of research at IIP will be considered as an additional merit by the
Selection Committee.
The starting date for the positions can be negotiated but is expected to
be between May 2017 and November 2017. The post-doctoral appointments
will be for two years (extendable to two more years depending on mutual
agreement) with a tax free monthly salary of R$ 7.000,00 (seven thousand
Brazilian Reals).
Interested candidates should send their CV with a list of publications,a
short research statement and at least two letters of reference (in English) to
Mr. Rodrigo Lopes (r.lopes@iip.ufrn.br).
The IIP-UFRN is located in the city of Natal in the Northeast of Brazil. It
is a research institute of an international character, focused on the theoretical
research in the modern areas of fundamental physics. Aiming at a leading
role in the region, the Institute supports vast exchange, visitor and conference
programs.

April, 2017 9
IIP Photo Galery
Special Colloquia in March
INTERNATIONAL
INSTITUTE OF
PHYSICS
Visit our website to know more about our programs and events:
www.iip.ufrn
To see the guidelines for scientific proposals at the IIP visit:
www.iip.ufrn.br/proposalsforeventsdetail
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www.facebook.com/iipufrn
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Newsletter produced by the IIP Communication Office.
Contact us at:
+55 (84) 3342-2249 (ext. 208) / press@iip.ufrn.br.

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IIP News - Year II, number 03