Physics Frontiers

Feb 09 2025 80 ep. 45 mins 2.3k

Physics Frontiers Podcast artwork

Jim Rantschler and Randy Morrison discuss physics from elementary particles to cosmological effects at the limits of our theoretical knowledge or have recently emerged.

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Episode 81: Pixelated Space Time with Philip Tee

Feb 09 2025 62 mins

Jim talks with Philip Tee about the effects of a fundamental length scale. Phil uses doubly special relativity to try to find observable effects of the pixelization of space, including its effect on light bending and the Casimir effect.Show notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/81

Episode 80: Emergent Decoherent Histories with Philipp Strasberg

Dec 29 2024 73 mins

Jim talks with Philipp Strasberg about his simulations of branching and recombining processes in the evolution of quantum states, and their meaning for not only for the many worlds interpretation but also for understanding quantum mechanics in general.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/80

Episode 79: Primordial Black Holes with QCD Color Charge with Elba Alonso-Monsalve and David Kaiser

Sep 03 2024 59 mins

Jim talks with Elba Alonso-Monsalve and David Kaiser about the prospects to describe dark matter as tiny black holes that were created at the end of cosmic inflation. Due to the large inhomogeneities in the distribution of matter at that time, the black holes could form directly from the matter distribution and not be color neutral (in the sense of QCD).Show notes: http

Episode 78: Quantum Machine Learning with Bruna Shinohara

May 31 2024 51 mins

Jim talks with Bruna Shinohara of CMC Microsystems. Quantum computing and machine learning are both currently making huge strides. So it is not strange that people are trying to use quantum computing for machine learning.

Episode 77: Maxwellian Ratchets with Alex Jurgens

Mar 31 2024 81 mins

Jim talks with Alex Jurgens about Maxwellian ratchets, automata that are similar to Maxwell's Demon. They talk about their implications for information processing and entropy.http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/77

Episode 76: Undeciability and Theories of Everything with Claus Kiefer

Jan 28 2024 49 mins

Jim talks with Claus Kiefer about the implications of Goedel's incompleteness theorems on the search for the theory.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/76

Episode 75: Categorical Probability and the Measurement Problem

Aug 20 2023 67 mins

Jim talks with Nick Ormrod and V. Vilasini about their use of categorical probability theory to analyze the measurement problem. We discuss categorical probability theory, which allows them to abstract from particular mathematical formulations of quantum mechanics to more general ideas about states and measurements and observers than found in Hilbert space formulations.

Episode 74: Stochastic Thermodynamics with David Wolpert

Jul 09 2023 50 mins

Jim talks with David Wolpert about the non-equilibrium behavior of computation, what it means for entropy, and how it relates to traditional thermodynamics.Show Notes: http://frontiers.physicsfm.com/74

Episode 73: Quantum Money with Jiahui Liu

Jun 18 2023 60 mins

Jim discusses quantum money with Jiahui Liu. Quantum money is a linchpin of quantum cryptography. The ability to create secure banknotes using quantum computers would allow even more secure methods of encryption for communications.

Episode 72: Born Rule and Gravity with Antony Valentini

Apr 23 2023 73 mins

Jim talks with Antony Valentini about the difficulties of interpretation of quantum mechanics in light of quantum gravity. In particular, Antony discusses the failure of the Born Rule due to the impossibility of normalization (the fact that probabilities must sum to 100%) at that scale, and therefore the need to interpret the wavefunction as something more than merely the kno