Quantum Mechanics

Research activity in the field of Quantum Mechanics at the Department of Physics has a long and world-renowned tradition, going back to GianCarlo Ghirardi's studies into the source of irreversibility in the otherwise unitary and time-invertible behavior of quantum systems and, in particular, into the problem of measurement in Quantum Mechanics. Those studies created a school, and over the years, laid the basis for the scientific framework needed to respond to the challenges posed by Quantum Mechanics today.

Indeed, Quantum Mechanics is once again at the centre stage of a whole series of investigations, both theoretical and experimental, concerning typical quantum effects such as coherence and entanglement and their impact in a vast variety of fields. These range from information, communication and computation theory, and cryptography, on the one hand, to elementary particle physics and energy transfer processes, on the other, including those of biological interest, as well as the processes of transition from micro to macrophysics and, more in general, the mesoscopic interface where classical and quantum behaviors coexist and interfere.