Our next Physics Colloquium will take place on Monday, January 19, 2026, at 12 noon c.t. Dr. Mikhail Fistoul will present the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics: "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2025: How a 40-Year-Old Discovery Led Us to a New Era of Quantum Information."
The 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three great scientists, John Clarke, Michel Devoret, and John M. Martinis "for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunneling and energy quantization in an electric circuit." What is macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT)? What is the difference between the quantum tunneling phenomenon, well known for many years in the microworld of atoms/molecules, MQT, and macroscopic quantum coherence? Can we increase the size of systems whose behavior is governed by quantum mechanical laws even further? How does the "classical" world try to "kill" macroscopic quantum mechanical behavior, and how can smart scientists avoid it?
In this talk, I will provide the answers to these and other questions and explain how the field of macroscopic quantum phenomena has come a long way in 40 years, from unique laboratories to mature and diverse applications in the field of quantum information, e.g., quantum computing, quantum simulations, and quantum technology. In particular, I will present both the most important discoveries preceding the discovery of the Nobel laureates, i.e., the phenomenon of superconductivity, tunneling in semiconductors/superconductors, the Josephson effect, and subsequent discoveries in the field of coherent macroscopic quantum-mechanical phenomena with superconducting devices such as Rabi oscillations and Ramsey fringes of superconducting qubits, the gate control of qubits, networks of interacting qubits.
Abstract of the lecture by Dr. Mikhail V. Fistul
Prof. Dr. Ilya Eremin gives an introduction to the lecture.
The faculty cordially invites all interested parties. The event will take place in lecture hall HZO 20.
Photo: © Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences