Some of the most notable achievements in the study of materials have led to technological breakthroughs which have shaped modern society; take, for example the solid-state transistors which are the foundation for computation. But apart from useful applications, the study of the quantum mechanical properties of crystalline materials, or “hard condensed matter physics”, is in fact a rich playground for fundamental physics. In complex, strongly-interacting systems, exotic properties emerge which do not simply follow from the physical laws governing particles in a vacuum. A classic example is the phenomenon of superconductivity—which took scientists nearly 50 years to explain. In this talk, Arielle will try to convince you that condensed matter physics, on a fundamental level, is cool too.

In recent years a connection has emerged between the physics of information in black holes and the theory of quantum error correction. We are beginning to realize the technology to explore this connection experimentally. In this talk, Vinay will describe a recent experiment being performed at his lab in UC Berkeley in this vein.