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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: black;">The Center for Philosophy of Science invites you to join us for our upcoming lectures. Attend in person at the University of Pittsburgh or visit our live stream on YouTube
at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg" id="OWAdb0f4630-5929-fc59-0c9b-f864cde9d14c" class="x_OWAAutoLink" title="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg" data-linkindex="0" data-loopstyle="linkonly" data-auth="NotApplicable" style="margin: 0px;">
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrRp47ZMXD7NXO3a9Gyh2sg</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Lunch Time Talk</b></span><span style="font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> –
<b>Shan Gao</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Introduction video -
</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri Light", "Helvetica Light", sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://youtu.be/YhXv9Z8DqQQ" id="OWA33e5ea73-52c9-688c-e584-b49a06cb7a62" class="OWAAutoLink" data-auth="NotApplicable">https://youtu.be/YhXv9Z8DqQQ</a></span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Tuesday, March 19 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EST</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1117 Cathedral of Learning (11<sup>th</sup> Floor)</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><br>
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<div style="direction: ltr; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If you can't join us
in person then follow along via Zoom: </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://pitt.zoom.us/j/96924419429" id="OWAb75204f6-a8d6-e5eb-c027-cacd2b566068" class="x_OWAAutoLink" data-auth="NotApplicable" style="text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-bottom: 1px solid currentcolor; text-align: left;">https://pitt.zoom.us/j/96924419429</a></span></div>
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<p style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Title: What Does Quantum Mechanics
Tell Us about Reality?</b></span></p>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bolder;"><br>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bolder;">Abstract:
</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Quantum mechanics is admittedly the most difficult subject to understand. Physicists and philosophers,
let alone students and laymen, are still puzzled by it today. As Richard Feynman once famously claimed, nobody understood quantum mechanics. The crux of the matter lies in the meaning of the mysterious wave function in the theory. An electron is represented
by a wave function. But it remains unclear what physical state the mathematical wave function represents. Exactly what is an electron? Is it a localized particle or a field spreading throughout space? If the electron is still a particle, then how does it move?
e.g. how does a single electron pass through two slits?</span></p>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In this talk, I will propose a new answer to these questions. First, I will introduce my interpretation
of the wave function in terms of random discontinuous motion of particles (RDMP). According to this interpretation, a quantum system is composed of particles which undergo random discontinuous motion in three-dimensional space, and the wave function represents
the propensities of these particles which determine their random discontinuous motion. Next, I will argue that the RDMP interpretation of the wave function may help solve the notorious measurement problem. The resulting picture of reality is time division
multiverse, in which worlds exist in a time-division multiplexing way.</span></p>
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<h1 style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 2pt;"><span style="font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Annual Lecture Series –
</span><span style="font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">Nicole Yunger Halpern</span></h1>
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<h2 style="direction: ltr; margin-top: 2pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Friday, March 22 @ 3:30 pm - 6:00 pm EST</span></h2>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Join us in person in room 1008 on the 10th floor of the Cathedral of Learning at the University
of Pittsburgh </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This talk will be streamed through Zoom, found here:</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://pitt.zoom.us/j/99729209600" id="OWAc29f69fc-f59f-4807-a717-0f7807362f1e" class="x_OWAAutoLink" data-auth="NotApplicable" style="text-decoration: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: left;">https://pitt.zoom.us/j/99729209600</a></span></h2>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bolder;"><br>
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<p style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Title: Field notes on
the second law of thermodynamics from a quantum physicist</b></span></p>
<p style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br>
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<p style="direction: ltr; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-weight: bolder;">Abstract:</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Thermodynamics
reigns as queen of the physical theories, governing everything from biophysics to cosmology. The second law of thermodynamics heads her court, stipulating that time appears to flow in only one direction and limiting engines’ efficiencies. However, idealizations
curtail the original second law’s applicability: small systems violate simple, early formulations of the law, which imply quantitative predictions only about equilibrium states. The nineteenth-century law has been tightened, including within quantum thermodynamics,
a field that has taken off in the past decade. I will illustrate this progress with examples. As a spoiler alert: I know of no ways to leverage quantum phenomena to break the second law. However, quantum and other resources enable us to “bend around” the second
law: we can appear to violate the law while, in fact, subtly avoiding assumptions behind modern formulations of the law. Reference: Yunger Halpern, Quantum Steampunk: The Physics of Yesterday’s Tomorrow, Johns Hopkins University Press (2022).</span></p>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></p>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.5px; font-family: "Aptos Narrow", Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><i>Light refreshments will follow the lecture in CL 1008.</i></span></p>
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