TALK
Spontaneous decay of matter in Quantum Mechanics
Abstract
In Quantum Mechanics ``anything'' will decay spontaneously unless protected by a symmetry or other basic principle (examples of several decays or non-decays due to some principles/symmetries will be discussed in the talk). In the classical world an object will not decay into another classical object, at least nobody has seen a table converting itself spontaneously into, say, two chairs. Nevertheless, one can derive a classical mathematical law of decay which is given by the exponential survival probability exp(-t\T) with T=mean lifetime. For instance, such a law applies nicely to radioactive decays for most of the time. However, this law gets modified by Quantum Mechanics for very small and very large times t. After a pedagogical introduction into the subject, which among other will include the so-called Quantum Zeno effect (in simple words this effect states that a continuously monitored unstable state will never decay), I will discuss how Quantum Mechanics slows down the decay from exponential to power law, t^(-n), at the on-set and the tail of the decay. Explicit examples of most drastic deviations will be given from Nuclear and Particle Physics.
WHO: Professor Marek Nowakowski, University of Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia
WHERE: Mathematics Lecture Theater, Department of Mathematics, UWI
WHEN: 2pm (sharp!) Thursday 25th November 2010
Prof. Marek Nowakowski is a theoretical physicist who has been working in the field of General Relativity, Quantum Field Theory in curved space-times and Quantum Gravity for over 35 years. Prof. Marek Nowakowski will give a seminar and perform research activity in the framework of the project “Metrics on manifolds inspired by Quantum Gravity” together with Dr. Davide Batic. His talk is scheduled on Thursday 25th November at 2 pm at the Mathematics Lecture Theater. After the talk Prof. Marek Nowakowski will be happy to meet math and physics students for informal discussions and may be able to tell us more about studying, researching and lecturing in South America. Also, if you have any research questions of your own that you would like to discuss in an informal group setting (no problem too simple!), this would be the perfect forum.
Contact person: Dr. Davide Batic