Nick Herbert (physicist)

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Nick Herbert portrait

Nick Herbert (* 1937 ) is an American physicist and esoteric author.

Life

Herbert studied physical engineering at Ohio State University and received his PhD in experimental nuclear physics from Stanford University in 1967 . In the 1970s he worked as an industrial physicist, including at the typewriter manufacturer Smith Corona (SCM) in Palo Alto (including modeling inkjet printing and xerography ) and at the storage media manufacturer Memorex in Santa Clara . At times he also taught as Assistant Professor of Physics at Monmouth College in Illinois.

He was best known in the early 1980s through a thought experiment he devised, according to which it would be possible to transmit information at faster than light speed using quantum mechanically entangled systems , contrary to the teachings of the theory of relativity . His proposal sparked a lively discussion at the time, as his reasoning seemed coherent. It was published in a physical journal. Herbert used entangled states in his thought experiment and a hypothetical quantum copier, which should allow the perfect reproduction of a quantum mechanical state . When observer A made a measurement on the entangled state, observer B (with copier) could make statements about A's test arrangement by measuring the copies. Since this was independent of the distance between A and B, the information about the experimental setup would potentially have been transmitted at faster than light speed. Wojciech Zurek and William Wootters, and independently of them Dennis Dieks, finally solved the problem with the no-cloning theorem , which showed the impossibility of such perfect quantum copiers.

According to Herbert, the shortest proof of Bell's theorem (three lines) also comes from Herbert .

Herbert has been part of California's esoteric culture since the 1970s and lives in Boulder Creek near Big Sur . At that time there were already regular workshops on the connection between psychological phenomena and quantum mechanics. a. with Jack Sarfatti , Saul-Paul Sirag, Fred Alan Wolf, Fritjof Capra and, for example, in the "Fundamental Physics Group" (which originated with physicists from the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) and in workshops at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, which lasted over 10 years ran and had great influence in esoteric circles. This resulted in a wave of popular books on these subjects, beginning with Capra (Tao of Physics 1975) and also with contributions from Herbert (Quantum Reality 1985). Herbert later organized his own discussion groups. He also published books of poetry (Physics on all fours) and a quantum version of Alice in Wonderland.

Fonts

  • Quantum Reality - Beyond the New Physics , Birkhäuser 1987, Goldmann 1990 (English: Quantum Reality - beyond the new physics, Doubleday 1985)
  • Faster than light- superluminal loopholes in physics , Dutton 1988
  • Elemental Mind-human consciousness and the new physics , Dutton 1993
  • with Bill Shanley: Alice Between Worlds , DVA 1999

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Dagmar Bruß "Quantum Information Theory", Fischer
  2. ^ N. Herbert: FLASH-A Superluminal Communicator Based upon a New Type of Quantum Measurement . In: Foundations of Physics . tape 12 , 1982, pp. 1171 , doi : 10.1007 / BF00729622 .
  3. ^ WK Wootters, WH Zurek: A single quantum cannot be cloned . In: Nature . tape 299 , 1982, pp. 802 , doi : 10.1038 / 299802a0 . and D. Dieks: Communication by EPR device . In: Phys. Lett. A . tape 92 , 1982, pp. 271 , doi : 10.1016 / 0375-9601 (82) 90084-6 .
  4. ↑ Herbert: "Cryptographic Approach to Hidden Variables", American Journal of Physics, Vol. 43, 1975, p. 315, "How to be in Two Places at One Time", New Scientist Vol. 1522, 1986, p. 41 and in his book "Quantum Reality" and here Herbert "See spot Run: A simple proof of Bell's theorem"
  5. ↑ largely the EPR Paradox and Bell's Theorem
  6. ↑ Those around you, including Nick Herbert, are described in David Kaiser’s book , How the Hippies saved physics. Science, counter culture and the quantum revival , WW Norton 2011
  7. ↑ financed by various sponsors, including the psycho-guru Werner Erhard (formerly Jack Rosenberg)
  8. ↑ They also provided "physical tutoring" for authors like Gary Zukav "The dancing Wu-Li-Masters"
personal data
SURNAME Herbert, Nick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist and esoteric author
DATE OF BIRTH 1937