Talks

The question of the existence of gravitational stress-energy in general relativity has exercised investigators in the field since the very inception of the theory. Folklore has it that no adequate definition of a localized gravitational stress-energetic quantity can be given. Most arguments to that effect invoke one version or another of the Principle of Equivalence. I argue that not only are such arguments of necessity vague and hand-waving but, worse, are beside the point and do not address the heart of the issue. Based on an analysis of what it may mean for one tensor to depend in the proper way on another, I prove that, under certain natural conditions, there can be no tensor whose interpretation could be that it represents gravitational stress-energy in general relativity. It follows that gravitational energy, such as it is in general relativity, is necessarily non-local. Along the way, I prove a result of some interest in own right about the structure of the associated jet bundles of the bundle of Lorentz metrics over spacetime.

Over the last decade there has been strong interest in the theory and phenomenology of particle propagation in quantum spacetime. The main results concern possible Planck-scale modifications of the "dispersion" relation between energy and momentum of a particle. I review results establishing that these modifications can be tested using observations of gamma rays from sources at cosmological distances. And I report recent progress in the understanding of the implications of spacetime expansion for such studies. I also discuss recent preliminary results suggesting that the same Planck-scale modifications of the dispersion relation might have an unexpected role in gravitational collapse.

Over the last twenty years, quantum information and quantum computing have profoundly shaped our thinking about the basic concepts of quantum physics. But can these insights also shape the way we /teach/ quantum mechanics to undergraduate physics students? A recent adventure in textbook-writing suggests some strategies and dilemmas.

A Majorana fermion is a particle that is its own antiparticle. It has been studied in high energy physics for decades, but has not been definitely observed. In condensed matter physics, Majorana fermions appear as low energy fractionalized quasi-particles with non-Abelian statistics and inherent nonlocality. In this talk I will first discuss recent theoretical proposals of realizing Majorana fermions in solid-state systems, including topological insulators and nanowires. I will next propose experimental setups to detect the existence of Majorana fermions and their striking properties.