Talks

The theory of cosmological perturbations provides a bridge between theoretical models of the early universe (often motivated by string theory) and astrophysical observation, e.g of the CMBR. Since extra dimensions are pivotal to string theory, the known lore of perturbation theory needs to be adjusted accordingly. After introducing the needed formalism, I will illustrate its use on an example within the framework of String Gas Cosmology

We calculate analytically the highly damped quasinormal mode spectra of generic single-horizon black holes using the rigorous WKB techniques of Andersson and Howls. We thereby provide a firm foundation for previous analysis, and point out some of their possible limitations. The numerical coefficient in the real part of the highly damped frequency is generically determined by the behavior of coupling of the perturbation to the gravitational field near the origin, as expressed in tortoise coordinates. This fact makes it difficult to understand how the (in)famous ln(3) could be related to the quantum gravitational microstates near the horizon.

We consider the problem of bounded-error quantum state identification: given one of two known states, what is the optimal probability with which we can identify the given state, subject to our guess being correct with high probability (but we are permitted to output "don't know" instead of a guess). We prove a direct product theorem for this problem. Our proof is based on semidefinite programming duality and the technique may be of wider interest. Using this result, we present two new exponential separations in the simultaneous message passing model of communication complexity. Both are shown in the strongest possible sense: -- we describe a relation that can be computed with O(log n) classical bits of communication in the presence of shared randomness, but needs n^(1/3) communication if the parties don't share randomness, even if communication is quantum; -- we describe a relation that can be computed with O(log n) classical bits of communication in the presence of shared entanglement, but needs (almost) n^(1/3) communication if the parties share randomness but no entanglement, even if communication is quantum.

The scientific approach to consciousness is a relatively new pursuit, but it has already revealed some startling facts about the cavalcade of feelings, images and thoughts that stream through our heads every waking moment. Jay Ingram will present some of the most surprising of these in a talk based on his best-selling book, Theatre of the Mind. Jay Ingram is the author of several bestselling books, including The Science of Everyday Life, The Barmaid’s Brain and The Velocity of Honey. He is producer and co-host of the Discovery Channel’s award-winning show Daily Planet, and also contributes a weekly science column to the Toronto Star. He holds two ACTRAs, the Royal Society of Canada McNeil Medal, the Sandford Fleming Medal from the Royal Canadian Institute, the Michael Smith Award for Science Promotion and three Canadian Science Writers Awards. Are you Conscious?, Jay Ingram, conscious, unconscious, change blindness, inattentional blindness, childhood amnesia

A swashbuckling tale of greed, deception, and quantum data hiding on the high seas. When we hide or encrypt information, it's probably because that information is valuable. I present a novel approach to quantum data hiding based this assumption. An entangled treasure map marks the spot where a hoard of doubloons is buried, but the sailors sharing this map want all the treasure for themselves! How should they study their map using LOCC? This simple scenario yields a surprisingly rich and counterintuitive game theoretic structure. A maximally entangled map performs no better than a separable one, leaving the treasure completely exposed. But non-maximally entangled maps can hide the information almost perfectly. Warning: contains pirates.

The phenomenology of quantum gravity can be examined even though the underlying theory is not yet fully understood. Effective extensions of the standard model allow us to study specific features, such as the existence of extra dimensions or a minimal length scale. I will talk about some applications of this approach which can be used to make predictions for particle- and astrophysics, and fill in some blanks in the puzzle of quantum gravity. A central point of this investigations is the physics of black holes. I will comment on possible ways to proceed and on the missing pieces I find most important to look for.

How do you advise a scientist who says she has information that could be vital to the event health but she’s been told to keep it a secret? In this talk Dr. Shuchman will discuss the dramatic act of blowing the whistle in science. Drawing on the extensive information in her best-selling book including interviews with whistleblowers, surveys of scientists and public testimony - and adding new material that isn’t in the book –Shuchman will outline the benefits of scientific whistleblowing over the past 40 years. Then she will describe its aftermath. In case after case, Shuchman will give audience members the information and ask their opinions of what should have happened. Miriam Shuchman is a psychiatrist with a background in medical ethics, who teaches at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her features on ethics and psychiatry have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and the Globe and Mail, as well as on CBC Radio and National Public Radio in the United States. Her articles on medical whistleblowers have appeared in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the British Medical Journal and the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Dr. Shuchman trained in psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and studied ethics at Dartmouth College. Her book, “The Drug Trial”, tells the full story of the Olivieri affair, Canada’s biggest science scandal, and exposes problems that should concern us all in the systems of scientific research, corporate financing and peer review. Drug trial, Miriam Shuchman, whistle blowers, Sissela Bok, Nancy Olivieri, David Kern, Cesare Maltoni, Justine Sergent, moral, responsibility, indefensible, scientists

The origin of the chemical elements that make up our world is one of the oldest most fundamental scientific questions. The universe after the Big Bang consisted only of hydrogen and helium with traces of lithium. All the other elements, including the carbon in our bodies, the iron, silicon, and oxygen that makes up most of our earth, have been created later by nuclear reactions in stars. However, the origin of many elements beyond iron, including gold and uranium, is still a mystery. These elements are attributed to a process called the r-process (rapid neutron capture process) which is of fundamental importance in explaining the origin of stable nuclei and isotopes beyond the iron group (A>90-100). The site of the r process is not known but supernova explosions and/or colliding neutron stars are prime suspects. The problem is that none of the models (related to these sites) can produce r-process elements in the correct proportions as we find them, for example, in the solar system or in certain very old stars. I will discuss an exciting alternative related to quark stars, a new class of compact stars that contain matter at the highest densities. Proposed observational features of quark stars, the probability of their detection, as well as some interesting connections to r-process nucleosynthesis will be presented. I will focus on an alternative based on a dynamical picture of decompressing neutron matter from the surface of quark stars in the scenario termed the Quark-Nova, which is particularly effective for producing the r-process pattern of heavy elements.