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Carlton M. Caves

Distinguished Professor Emeritus
University of New Mexico


PhD in Physics, California Institute of Technology, 1979

Center for Quantum Information and Control
Department of Physics and Astronomy
MSC07 4220
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
USA

Phone:  (505) 350-8963
FAX: Don't bother. Photo or scan to pdf and e-mail.
E-mail:  ccaves at unm.edu

Phys 572   Quantum Information Theory    Spring 2017

Tutorial introduction to quantum mechanics and quantum information
Lecture 1    Lecture 2    Lecture 3

Quantum metrology: An information-theoretic perspective (3 introductory lectures) (pptx or ppt or pdf)

Phys 366   Mathematical Methods of Physics    Fall 2016

Phys 572   Quantum Information Theory    Fall 2014

Phys 503  Classical Mechanics I    Fall 2013

Phys 521  Quantum Mechanics I    Fall 2011

Phys 522  Quantum Mechanics II    Spring 2010

Phys 571  Quantum Computation    Fall 2009

Commentary on anything I find interesting

New Mexico Diaries

For each event is revealed to us only at the surrender of every alternate course.

I think ... that the dreamer imagined himself at some crossroads. Yet there are no crossroads. Our decisions do not have some alternative. We may contemplate a choice but we pursue one path only. The log of the world is composed of its entries, but it cannot be divided back into them. And at some point this log must outdistance any possible description of it and this I believe is what the dreamer saw.

Cormac McCarthy, Cities of the Plain

Ask, "How does the incredible variety of the world come to be?" and a disembodied voice replies enigmatically, "Rolls of the quantum dice." Puzzled, ask, "But what does that mean?" and the answer is whispered soundlessly in your ear, "Rolls of the quantum dice plumb a bottomless well of information, giving rise to the variety of the world around you." Still puzzled, but sensing the important question, ask haltingly, "So, where is that well?" and no answer comes forth, not even a whisper, for there is no answer, only a description, the phrase that Gertrude Stein used to damn her native Oakland, "There is no there there."

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You can try to please all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you generally can't please anyone but yourself (and even that's hard, so you better pay attention to it).

Copyright 2020 Carlton M. Caves. Material on my web pages (URL http://info.phys.unm.edu/~caves or any of its descendants) can be used for noncommercial purposes, provided any such use acknowledges me and cites the URL http://info.phys.unm.edu/~caves as the source.