Jonathan Oppenheim is a professor of physics at University College London. He is an expert in quantum information theory and quantum gravity.

Work

Oppenheim proved the third law of thermodynamics (first conjectured by Walther Nernst in 1912) with Lluis Masanes.[1][2]

Together with Michał Horodecki and Andreas Winter, he discovered quantum state-merging and used this primitive to show that quantum information could be negative.[3] More recently he and collaborators have developed a resource theory for thermodynamics on the nano and quantum scale.[4][5]

His Ph.D. under Bill Unruh at the University of British Columbia was on Quantum time. In 2004 he was a postdoctoral researcher under Jacob Bekenstein and a Royal Society University Fellow in Cambridge before moving to University College London.

In 2023, Oppenheim published a proposal for a hybrid theory that couples classical general relativity with quantum field theory. According to this proposal, spacetime is not quantized but smooth and continuous, and is subject to random fluctuations.[6][7]

Edible ballot society

As a student, Oppenheim was involved in the Edible Ballot Society which satirically advanced eating ballots to highlight the democracy gap in electoral politics.[8] He was arrested at the 1997 APEC protests on University of British Columbia campus.[9] He withdrew from the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP following the refusal of the Prime Minister to testify.[10][11] His group was responsible for smuggling a siege catapult[12] into the medieval city of Quebec during the Summit of Americas, 2001. It was used to lob teddy bears.[13][14][15]

Papers

References

  1. ^ "Cooling to absolute zero mathematically outlawed after a century".
  2. ^ Masanes, Lluís; Oppenheim, Jonathan (2017). "A general derivation and quantification of the third law of thermodynamics". Nature Communications. 8: 14538. arXiv:1412.3828. Bibcode:2017NatCo...814538M. doi:10.1038/ncomms14538. PMC 5355879. PMID 28290452.
  3. ^ "Quantum information can be negative"
  4. ^ Horodecki, Michał; Oppenheim, Jonathan (2013-06-26). "Fundamental limitations for quantum and nanoscale thermodynamics". Nature Communications. 4: 2059. arXiv:1111.3834. Bibcode:2013NatCo...4.2059H. doi:10.1038/ncomms3059. PMID 23800725. S2CID 29768679.
  5. ^ Brandão, Fernando; Horodecki, Michał; Ng, Nelly; Oppenheim, Jonathan; Wehner, Stephanie (2015-03-17). "The second laws of quantum thermodynamics". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (11): 3275–3279. arXiv:1305.5278. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112.3275B. doi:10.1073/pnas.1411728112. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 4372001. PMID 25675476.
  6. ^ Jonathan Oppenheim (2023). "A Postquantum Theory of Classical Gravity?". Physical Review X (13): 041040. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  7. ^ Hannah Devlin (2023-12-04). "'Wobbly spacetime' may help resolve contradictory physics theories". The Guardian. Retrieved 2023-12-17.
  8. ^ Pue, W. Wesley (2000). Pepper in our Eyes: the APEC Affair. Vancouver, Canada: UBC Press. ISBN 978-0-7748-0779-1.
  9. ^ Clark, Campbell (March 27, 2002). "APEC activists deserve an apology, RCMP told". The Globe and Mail.
  10. ^ Armstrong, Jane (March 1, 2000). "Protesters withdraw complaints from APEC summit inquiry". The Globe and Mail.
  11. ^ "University of BC timeline".
  12. ^ Mitchell, Dave. "Case Study: The Teddy Bear Catapult". Beautiful Trouble. Retrieved 13 May 2015.
  13. ^ Hanes, Allison (May 1, 2001). "The great teddy-bear turn-in". The Gazette (Montreal).
  14. ^ "Group Claims Responsibility". 10 October 2008.
  15. ^ "Quantum physicist helps travellers out of a hole". 26 September 2011.

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