Colloquium Seminar: Open Quantum Systems for Observers

Speaker: Sarah Shandera, Penn State

Title: Open Quantum Systems for Observers

Abstract: Techniques for modeling quantum systems that interact with an environment, open quantum systems, are increasingly used for problems in cosmology and gravity. I will discuss how the open-quantum-systems approach not only allows us to revisit old problems using new tools but also enables a significant change of framework for how we organize theories of the fundamental degrees of freedom for gravity and matter. For cosmology, open-systems tools need to be tailored to observers rather than experimentalists. I will show why this matters, and how an observer-oriented approach also illuminates interesting features of laboratory open systems.