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Nobel Prize in Physics: Seeing the Light
lidden writes "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2005 has been awarded Roy J. Glauber "for his contribution to the quantum theory of optical coherence". And John L. Hall and Theodor W. Hänsch "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique"."
Quantum coherence? Sometimes it is, sometimes it is not, until curiosity kills the (Shrödinger's) cat???
The ambiguity of light (wave and/or particle) has always made my head spin. To think that a bulb gives off light in "infinite" (lower limit time angle of tau) blows my mind.
Affiliating light with quantum theory seems like a stretch as quantum theory answers seem deus ex machina to me. I'm sure "wiser" people give this discovery merit, but even the "advanced information" link is ambiguous.
If we can now comb out light frequencies to within 15 digits of accuracy, it seems like we can increase bandwidth over laser optics by many orders of magnitude. The long term gain in communications bandwidth could be huge if the technique is feasible cheaply by industry.
If this technique can somehow be utilized with the radio spectrum instead of light, I wonder if similar increases in data space could be realized. I never contemplated light to radio in the physical sense.
First, we have the sonic toothbrush, and now we have the optical frequency comb!
I can't wait to see what the future holds for us next!
It took the Nobel committee 42 years to decide that Glauber's work in quantum theory was worthy of their prize. Now that's what I call uncertainty.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
I believe that the number of particles physicists currently use is not enough. Therefore I am now creating the foo-on, bar-on, and baz-on. Use 'em however ya like. You can send the Nobel stuff anytime.
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
PhysOrg has a pretty good rundown of the physics involved in the discoveries. Worth a look...
There are already three articles about those outstanding scientists in the english wikipedia at [[Roy J. Glauber]], [[John L. Hall]] and [[Theodor W. Hänsch]].
The German wikipedia and the Indonesian one has also three articles. Some of them are still to be considered stubs.
I would like you to invite to translate them into other languages (oops, I forgot Esperanto, there are already articles about them) and to contribute to those articles. We need freely licensed pictures of them and more details about their CV and their work.
Thanks you very much in advance.
The inventor of the comb-over patented his work in 1977, and won the igNobel prize last year. I'm sure the comb-over technique operates in an optical frequency range in order to be effective.
RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
I searched for Glauber & this is what I found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glauber
If this guy is good enough to win the Nobel, how come
he isn't in Wikipedia?
Glauber didn't discover the laser, if this is what you mean. He provided the theory for quantum optics, which deals with quantum electrodynamical interactions of light and matter. Hall and Hänsch instead developed laser-based precision spectroscopy: in other words they used laser for high precision frequency measurements. Coherent optics is not just about laser, but what you can do with them.
I have missed out for yet ANOTHER year on physics prize. I think I will just re-train and become an economist or peace campaigner or something.
The Nobel site clearly shows via pie-chart icons that each of the three winners only gets a fraction of that little medal. I hope they seriously do cut it and mail them the parts, because to give each a medal would be mathematically dishonest at best.
I also hope jealous laureates fight one another to gain their medal-pieces and complete the artifact Triforce-style. Mostly because the mental image amuses me.
I support the separation of oil and state.
Mitch: This is coherent light.
Mitch's dad: Oh, so it talks.
I was an undergraduate student in one of Professor Glauber's courses at Harvard two years ago, and though I'm certainly no specialist on light or physics, I really enjoyed his course (The Nature of Light and Matter). It's one of the many Core Curriculum courses at Harvard, but it's taught by one of the few professors there worthy of calling himself a teacher. He has a great sense of humor. I'm glad someone who deserves some credit was able to earn it.
Germany, the traditional powerhouse in physics and America shared this 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics. The interesting thing is the Glauber, the american scientist, was awarded 1/2 of the prize money (approx. 1.1 Million Euro), while Hänsch, from Germany, and Hall, from America, had to share the other half.
Hall, 71, of Colorado University and Hänsch, 63, of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University, share the other half of the prize "for their contributions to the development of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique".
Hänsch told reporters in Stockholm via telephone that he was at his Munich office when he learned he had won the prize.
"I was speechless and very, very ecstatic," he said. "I'm now trying to get used to the idea.
"I have learned that you don't have to know everything in your field. But you have to know what has previously not been known," he added.
I wish I'd thought of that: post a useful link, get it wrong, repost. Double your karma. Nicely done!