Benjamin "Ben" Schumacher is an American
theoretical physicist
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experi ...
, working mostly in the field of
quantum information theory.
He discovered a way of interpreting
quantum
In physics, a quantum (: quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This me ...
states as
information
Information is an Abstraction, abstract concept that refers to something which has the power Communication, to inform. At the most fundamental level, it pertains to the Interpretation (philosophy), interpretation (perhaps Interpretation (log ...
. He came up with a way of compressing the information in a state, and storing the information in a smaller number of states. This is now known as
Schumacher compression. This was the quantum analog of
Shannon's noiseless coding theorem, and it helped to start the field known as
quantum information theory.
Schumacher is also credited with inventing the term
qubit
In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical syste ...
along with
William Wootters of
Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...
, which is to
quantum computation as a
bit is to traditional computation.
He is the author of ''Physics in Spacetime'',
a textbook on
Special Relativity
In physics, the special theory of relativity, or special relativity for short, is a scientific theory of the relationship between Spacetime, space and time. In Albert Einstein's 1905 paper, Annus Mirabilis papers#Special relativity,
"On the Ele ...
, and ''Quantum Processes, Systems, and Information'' (with Michael Westmoreland), a textbook on
Quantum Mechanics
Quantum mechanics is the fundamental physical Scientific theory, theory that describes the behavior of matter and of light; its unusual characteristics typically occur at and below the scale of atoms. Reprinted, Addison-Wesley, 1989, It is ...
. Schumacher is a professor of physics at
Kenyon College, a liberal arts college in rural Ohio. He is the lecturer in four courses produced by the
Teaching Company: ''Black Holes, Tides, and Curved Spacetime: Understanding Gravity; Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World; Impossible: Physics Beyond the Edge;'' and ''The Science of Information: From Language to Black Holes''.
Schumacher earned his bachelor's degree at
Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Approximately 1,000 students are enrolled, mostly undergraduates. While affiliated with the United Methodist Chu ...
, where he met his wife, mathematician
Carol Schumacher.
His Ph.D. is from the
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...
, where his advisers were
Richard Matzner and
John Archibald Wheeler
John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911April 13, 2008) was an American theoretical physicist. He was largely responsible for reviving interest in general relativity in the United States after World War II. Wheeler also worked with Niels Bohr to e ...
.
Influential research papers
*
See also
*
Classical capacity
References
External links
Zeroth Order Approximation- Blog by Benjamin Schumacher
Benjamin Schumacher HomepageThe Physics of Impossible Things
Speaker: Ben Schumacher, 03/12/2008, PIRSA - Perimeter Institute Recorded Seminar Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schumacher, Benjamin
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
21st-century American physicists
Hendrix College alumni
University of Texas at Austin alumni
Kenyon College faculty
American quantum information scientists
Fellows of the American Physical Society