Welcome to Causalworlds, a conference on the different facets of causality. The conference will take place at ETH Zürich from the 12th to 16th of September 2022. The schedule is now announced on the schedule page.
Understanding causality is fundamental to science and inspires wide ranging applications, yet there are several distinct notions of causation. Recently, there have been important developments on the role of causality in quantum physics, relativistic physics and their interplay. These have also unearthed a plethora of fascinating open questions regarding the nature of causation, emergence of space-time structure and the limits of quantum information processing possibilities. This conference aims to bring together experts from different areas of physics working on questions related to causality, and to provide a venue for cross-pollination of these ideas through scientific exchange between these communities. The conference will focus on the following facets of causality:
- Causal models and quantum networks
- Indefinite causality and quantum reference frames
- Cyclic causality and time symmetry
- Causality in quantum field theory and quantum gravity
- Experiments in causality and applications
Logistics
The conference will take place in hybrid mode, with about 40 in-person participants in addition to the invited speakers as well as online participants, while aiming to have as many in-person talks and discussions as possible. Please visit the logistics page for more information about how to get to the conference.
Important dates
Closing of registrations: we will notify the in-person applicants with an attendance confirmation on the 1st of June. In case we received fewer in-person applications than expected, it will still be possible to apply for in-person participation after this date.
Poster submission deadline: 20th of August.
Registration
To register for online participation or to apply for in-person participation to the conference, please visit the registration page.
Poster submissions
There will be an online poster session during the conference. If you would like to present a poster, please send us via email (causalworlds.zurich@phys.ethz.ch) a title, an abstract (at most 300 words long), and a link to a paper version if applicable. The submission deadline is the 20th of August.
The poster list can be accessed on the poster page.
Invited speakers
We summarize below the invited speakers as well as their talk titles. Please visit the schedule page for more information, including the talk abstracts.
Causal models and quantum networks
| Nicolas Brunner (University of Geneva) | Genuine network nonlocality |
| Roger Colbeck (University of York) | Causal models with fine-tuning and cycles and their compatibility with spacetime |
| Mariami Gachechiladze (TU Darmstadt) | Causality in quantum networks |
| Robin Lorenz (Cambridge Quantum Computing) | Quantum causal models – an introduction and overview |
| Rob Spekkens (Perimeter Institute) | Adjudicating between different causal accounts of Bell inequality violations |
Indefinite causality and quantum reference frames
| Veronika Baumann (University of Vienna) | Different perspectives in (non)-causal quantum processes |
| Caslav Brukner (University of Vienna) | Falling through masses in superposition: quantum reference frames for indefinite metrics |
| Flaminia Giacomini (Perimeter Institute) | Inference of gravitational field superpositions from first principles in atom interferometry |
| Marius Krumm (University of Innsbruck) | Quantum information processing with quantum causal structures |
| Ognyan Oreshkov (Université Libre de Bruxelles) | Relative subsystems and quantum reference frame transformations |
Cyclic causality and time symmetry
| Ämin Baumeler (University of Vienna) | Admissible causal structures and violations of causal inequalities |
| Eric Cavalcanti (Griffith University) | The (im)possible causalworlds of quantum mechanics |
| Yelena Guryanova (Austrian Academy of Sciences) | Time symmetric formulations as a tool to understand causally non-separability |
| Carlo Rovelli (Aix-Marseille University) | Why causation is a statistical-thermodynamic phenomenon |
Causality in quantum field theory and quantum gravity
| Charis Anastopolous (University of Patras) | Quantum field theory based quantum information: measurements and correlations |
| Chris Fewster (University of York) | Causality, measurement and quantum field theory |
| Ivette Fuentes (University of Southampton) | Clocks at the interface of quantum physics and general relativity |
| Maria Papageorgiou (University of Waterloo) | Detector models for QFT: superluminal signalling and “impossible measurements” |
| Stav Zalel (Imperial College London) | Causality in causal sets |
Experiments in causality and applications
| Gonzalo Carvacho (Sapienza University of Rome) | Experimental tests of causal structures |
| Hlér Kristjánsson (University of Tokyo) | On the practical realisability of indefinite causal order and its applications |
| Giulia Rubino (University of Bristol) | Experimental demonstrations of indefinite causality in flat spacetime |
Organisers
Main organizers:
Dr. V. Vilasini (Chair, ETH Postdoctoral Fellow)1
Dr. Esteban Castro-Ruiz (ETH Postdoctoral Fellow)1
Nuriya Nurgalieva (PhD researcher)1
Victor Gitton (PhD researcher)1
Ladina Hausmann (PhD researcher)1
1Quantum Information Theory Group, Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zürich
Supporting organisers:
Carla Ferradini
Matthias Salzger
Marcus Haberland
Daniel Ortuño González
Nathan Cohen