11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 2019, Wednesday 20 February 2019 at the Embassy of Austria, Tokyo.
11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 2019 Speakers: Peter Zoller, Hiroshi Nakamura, Noriko Osumi, Takaaki Kajita, Gerhard Fasol
Program
Welcome by the Ambassador of Austria, Hubert Heiss.
Gerhard Fasol, CEO and Founder Eurotechnology Japan K, Guest-Professor Kyushu University, former faculty Cambridge University and Tokyo University, Past-Fellow Trinity College Cambridge “Today’s agenda. Entropy, information and Ludwig Boltzmann“
11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 2019: Ambassador of Austria, Huber Heiss (left), and Gerhard Fasol (right)Gerhard Fasol: agenda of the 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum. Entropy, information and Ludwig BoltzmannNoriko Osumi: Towards understanding the mystery of neuro-development disorders: lessons from animal modelsTakaaki Kajita: Neutrino research in Kamioka and the status of Japanese basic science with large research infrastructuresHiroshi Nakamura: NTT DOCOMO driving digital transformation in the 5G era – co-create new values with partnersPeter Zoller: Quantum Computing and Quantum Simulation with Cold Atoms11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 2019: Noriko Osumi and Gerhard Fasol11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 2019: Ambassador of Austria, Huber Heiss (left), Noriko Osumi (center), Gerhard Fasol (right)11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, 20 February 2019
The Ludwig Boltzmann Forum is invitation only. Contact us here for enquiries and cooperation
Entropy, information and Ludwig Boltzmann. 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 20 February 2019
Gerhard Fasol, Eurotechnology Japan KK, Founder and CEO. Guest Professor, Kyushu University. Former tenured faculty at Cambridge University and Tokyo University, Past Fellow Trinity College Cambridge.
Gerhard Fasol: agenda of the 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum. Entropy, information and Ludwig Boltzmann
Agenda of the 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum
Purpose of the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum is to bring outstanding leaders in different areas, technology, science, medicine, business, finance together to create new ideas, new research, new business, new initiatives. Over the last 10 Ludwig Boltzmann Forum conferences we have created many new partnerships in this way.
Some participants – also here today – have told me that they know of no better forum in Japan to freely discuss ideas and exchange views.
Today Noriko Osumi (Vice-President of Tohoku University) will show us results of her genetic research concerning autism. Neurological disorders are sometime coupled with fantastic creativity in the same person, and Ludwig Boltzmann may be an example. Takaaki Kajita (Nobel Prize in Physics 2015) will explain his discovery of neutrino oscillations and how it is linked to our understanding of the origin of our universe. Hiroshi Nakamura (Board Director and General Manager for R&D Innovation at NTT DOCOMO) will show us what 5G mobile communications mean for us users, and how important partners are to bring 5G to market. Peter Zoller (Director at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the University of Innsbruck) will explain his work on optical quantum computing and how quantum computing can create new levels of computation and secure data transmission. Gerhard Fasol (Eurotechnology Japan KK and Guest Professor at Kyushu University) will explain some of Ludwig Boltzmann’s work, and why we use his results and tools every day in our lives and work, and what we can learn from Ludwig Boltzmann today.
Physicist. Mathematician. Philosopher. Leader. Venture investor (in aircraft research)
I am creating and developing the Ludwig Boltzmann Forum as a platform for leaders, driving improvements based on logic and science and mathematics – inspired by Ludwig Boltzmann: physicist, mathematician, philosopher, leader and venture investor – Ludwig Boltzmann was a venture investor in aircraft research and experimentation at a time when it was not yet clear whether air travel will be with balloons, zeppelins, bird like flapping wings, air-screws or other devices.
Inspire leaders by Ludwig Boltzmann’s example. Honesty, humility, asking profound questions and working towards answers using logic, mathematics, science – understanding nature and systems, and creating new tools to solve practical problems.
We use Ludwig Boltzmann’s results every day
S = k log W – Ludwig Boltzmann linked the macroscopically defined Entropy, which was introduced from work to optimize steam engines for the first industrial revolution, to the statistical mechanics of molecules and thus also to information theory. Boltzmann’s statistically defined Entropy was rediscovered independently by Shannon, and is fundamental to understand information moving through “channels” including the internet.
For his work, Ludwig Boltzmann was proposed many times (1903, 1905, three times in 1906) for the Nobel Prize, but died in 1906 before any potential Nobel Prize could have been decided for him.
Ludwig Boltzmann started early: published his first work in 1865 at the age of 21
Boltzmann’s first published work is entitled “Über die Bewegung der Elektrizität in krummen Flächen” (Electricity on curved surfaces), published in 1865 at the age of 21. About 20% of Boltzmann’s work is about electro-magnetism. It was the time when Maxwell created Maxwell’s equations in 1861-1862. It is also the time when electricity started to replace gas and steam engines. Tokyo Dentou KK received the license to produce and sell electricity in Tokyo on 15 February 1883.
Ludwig Boltzmann’s teachers and the “reversibility paradox”
Ludwig Boltzmann studied in the midst of a very active physics school in Vienna. Among his teachers where Josef Loschmidt, who proposed structures for 300 chemical compounds including benzene, who determined the number of gas molecules in a unit volume, today called the Loschmidt constant, and Jozef Stefan, who was the first to determine the temperature of the sun, and created what is known today as the Stefan -Boltzmann Law together with his student Ludwig Boltzmann. Josef Loschmidt conflicted with Ludwig Boltzmann and challenged him with the “reversibility paradox”: how can completely reversible microscopic laws, based on Newton’s laws, cause irreversible macroscopic phenomena as expressed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says that an isolated system spontaneously evolves to the state of greatest entropy – but never reverses to lower entropy, (at least not within finite time).
The mechanical meaning of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Important research starts by asking the right questions. Ludwig Boltzmann asked how the Second Law of Thermodynamics is linked to mechanics of particles. He published one of his most important publications at the age of 22 in 1866 “Über die mechanische Bedeutung des zweiten Hauptsatzes der Wärmetheorie” (About the mechanical meaning of the second law of thermodynamics), linking the macroscopically defined Entropy – a quantity created to improve the design of steam engines – to the microscopic statistical mechanics of molecules. Thus Ludwig Boltzmann created some of his most important work at the age of 22.
Boltzmann’s transport equations and optimal transport
The French mathematician Gaspard Monge started the field of optimal transport in the year 1781.
Monge worked for the French military on a very important problem: given a number of quarries at different locations, and the need to build a number of fortifications at other locations, what is the optimal way to transport sand and rocks from the quarries to the building sites for these fortifications.
Boltzmann created what is today called “Boltzmann’s transport equations” to calculate how particles (molecules or atoms) forming a gas move from one particular state to another. Taking into account the statistical nature of this problem, Boltzmann” transport equations are partial differential equations for the density in location and momentum space.
Boltzmann’s transport equations today are used in a wide are of applications from electrons in semiconductor electronic devices to the design of aircraft wings and racing cars.
Optimal transport results are used for many modern big data applications, image processing and many more, and two Fields Medals have been awarded:
Cédric Villani, Fields Medal 2010 “for his proofs of nonlinear Landau damping and convergence to equilibrium for the Boltzmann equation”
Alessio Fialli, Fields medal 2018 “for his contributions to the theory of optimal transport, and its application to partial differential equations, metric geometry, and probability”
What can we learn from Ludwig Boltzmann?
There is much to learn from Ludwig Boltzmann far beyond the enormous impact his scientific work has on our daily lives and on the daily work of every engineer, physicist, scientist.
empower young people, recognize and support talent early:
LB published his first scientific work at age 21 – I am sure that should be possible today also (also I am ashamed to say my own first scientific publication was published when I was 24 years old)
LB became Full Professor at 25
Head of Department at 32
President of University at 43
talent is not linear, its exponential
move around the world. Connect. Interact.
Empower women
Don’t accept authority for authority’s sake
science/physics problems need to be treated with the methods of physics/science
no dogmas
support entrepreneurs (LB supported aircraft developers before it was clear which technology will win: flapping wings? balloons? Zeppelins?)
Summary
Boltzmann’s thoughts and ideas are a big part of our understanding of the world and our universe.
His results and mathematical tools are used every day by today’s engineers, bankers, IT people, physicists. The definition of 1 degree Kelvin/Celsius/Fahrenheit with which we measure temperature since 2018 is directly via Boltzmann’s constant k.
Ludwig Boltzmann stood up for his ideas and conclusions and did not give in to authority.
Gerhard Fasol: agenda of the 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum. Entropy, information and Ludwig BoltzmannGerhard Fasol: agenda of the 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum. Entropy, information and Ludwig BoltzmannGerhard Fasol: agenda of the 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum. Entropy, information and Ludwig BoltzmannTakaaki Kajita: Neutrino research in Kamioka and the status of Japanese basic science with large research infrastructures
Towards understanding the mystery of neuro-development disorders: lessons from animal models, 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, 20 February 2019
Noriko Osumi, Tohoku University, Vice-President. Professor of Neuroscience. Executive Director, United Centers for Advanced Research and Translational Medicine (ART). Director of the Center for Neuroscience.
Noriko Osumi: Towards understanding the mystery of neuro-development disorders: lessons from animal models
summary written by Gerhard Fasol
The Autism enigma
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Leo Kanner first described autism in 1943 based on a study of 11 children. Autism includes a wide range of brain disorders with three core symptoms:
social difficulties: uncommon social behavior
communication disorders
unusual patterns of highly restricted interests and repetitive behaviors
Despite such uncommon behavior and disorders, an astonishing number of people with ASD show extraordinary achievements in science, arts and other fields. Many historic scientists are thought to have displayed signs of autism or Asperger’s disorder, although it is difficult to diagnose people who are not alive anymore.
Stephen Wiltshire, who was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for services to the arts, was diagnosed with autism at the age of three years, and did not speak fully until the age of 9. He is globally famous for his artwork: https://www.stephenwiltshire.co.uk
Asperger’s disorder and other pervasive developmental disorders are also included in the range of ASD.
The prevalence puzzle: an autism pandemic?
Genetic versus environmental?
Studies show a dramatic increase in the occurrence of autism. Research shows an increase from around 1 case of autism among 5,000 in 1975 to 1 case among 110 in 2009, thus a 45 times increase over 34 years.
The causes for autism and the causes for the dramatic rise in occurrence are not understood. Both genetic and environmental causes are investigated.
Concordance rates of ASD for monozygotic twins are several times higher than for dizygotic twins pointing to the importance of genetic factors.
Genetics of autism: the Pax6 gene in the 11p13 chromosome region
The Pax6 gene encodes a transcription factor that is essential both for brain and neurodevelopment, and also throughout life in certain regions of the brain. The human Pax6 gene has also been linked to the WAGR (Wilm’s tumor, Aniridia, Genito-urinary malformations and mental Retardation) syndrome, which is a rare genetic disease caused by chromosomal deletion of the 11p12-p14 chromosome region. Studies have identified Pax6 mutations in patients with mental retardation and autism. Professor Osumi’s recent research also indicates that autistic patients carry rare Pax6 mutations, and that Pax6 dysfunction during neurodevelopment might cause autistic disorder.
Offspring from aged fathers show abnormal brain structure and impaired behavior
Professor Osumi introduced research on laboratory mice as a model for the influence of aging fathers on abnormalities in brain development and behavior.
Paternal age has been shown in human studies to be related to higher risks for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and ASD, bipolar disorder, reduced IQ, and impaired social functioning. In rodents, paternal aging causes learning deficit, impaired social behavior and hyper anxiety. Professor Osumi explained her research to clarify underlying molecular mechanisms.
Professor Osumi’s studies on mice showed that paternal aging influenced
body weight
maternal separation-induced vocal communication (USV = ultrasonic vocalization)
sensorimotor gating
spatial learning
and abnormalities were observed in the brain regions related to behavioral impairment.
Genetic mutation versus epigenetic mechanisms
Studying mice over three generations, eg. aged grandfather, young father, can indicate whether aging leads to genetic mutation or to epigenetic changes, ie heritable changes that do not involve changes to genes.
In recent studies on mice, Professor Osumi found support for a model, where paternal aging induces leaky expression of REST/NRSF [RE1-silencing transcription factor (REST), neuron-restrictive silencer factor (NRSF)] target genes, that have been marked with hypo-methylation in a sperm cell.
Evaluation of Pax6 mutant rat as a model for autism, Toshiko Umeda, Noriko Takashima, Ryoko Nakagawa, Motoko Maekawa, Shiro Ikegami, Takeo Yoshikawa, Kazuto Kobayashi, Kazuo Okanoya, Kaoru Inokuchi, Noriko Osumi, PLoS ONE, 5, e15500 (December 2010) http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0015500
The Role of the Transcription Factor Pax6 in Brain Development and Evolution: Evidence and Hypothesis, Noriko Osumi and Takako Kikkawa, R. Kageyama and T. Yamamori (eds.), Cortical Development: Neural Diversity and Neocortical Organization, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-54496-8_3, Springer Japan 2013, Chapter 3.
Conserved and divergent functions of Pax6 underlie species-specific neurogenic patterns in the developing amniote brain, Wataru Yamashita, Masanori Takahashi, Takako Kikkawa, Hitoshi Gotoh, Noriko Osumi, Katsuhiko Ono and Tadashi Nomura, Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd | Development (2018) 145, dev159764. doi:10.1242/dev.159764
Role of Fabp7, a Downstream Gene of Pax6, in the Maintenance of Neuroepithelial Cells during Early Embryonic Development of the Rat Cortex, Yoko Arai, Nobuo Funatsu, Keiko Numayama-Tsuruta, Tadashi Nomura, Shun Nakamura, and Noriko Osumi, The Journal of Neuroscience, (October 19, 2005),25(42):9752–9761
Paternal age affects offspring’s behavior possibly via an epigenetic mechanism recruiting a transcriptional repressor REST, Kaichi Yoshizaki, Tasuku Koike, Ryuichi Kimura, Takako Kikkawa, Shinya Oki, Kohei Koike, Kentaro Mochizuki, Hitoshi Inada1, Hisato Kobayashi, Yasuhisa Matsui, Tomohiro Kono, Noriko Osumi, bioRxiv preprint first posted online Feb 15, 2019, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/550095 , https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/550095v1
Noriko Osumi: Towards understanding the mystery of neuro-development disorders: lessons from animal modelsNoriko Osumi: Towards understanding the mystery of neuro-development disorders: lessons from animal modelsNoriko Osumi: Towards understanding the mystery of neuro-development disorders: lessons from animal modelsNoriko Osumi: Towards understanding the mystery of neuro-development disorders: lessons from animal modelsNoriko Osumi: Towards understanding the mystery of neuro-development disorders: lessons from animal modelsNoriko Osumi: Towards understanding the mystery of neuro-development disorders: lessons from animal modelsNoriko Osumi: Towards understanding the mystery of neuro-development disorders: lessons from animal modelsleft to right: Professor Noriko Osumi and Gerhard Fasolleft to right: Professor Noriko Osumi and Gerhard Fasolleft to right: Ambassador of Austria to Japan, Hubert Heiss, Professor Noriko Osumi and Gerhard Fasolleft to right: Ambassador of Austria to Japan, Hubert Heiss, Professor Noriko Osumi and Gerhard Fasol
Neutrino research in Kamioka and the status of Japanese basic science with large research infrastructures, 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum, 20 February 2019
Takaaki Kajita, University of Tokyo, Professor and Director of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research. Nobel Prize in Physics 2015 for the discovery of neutrino oscillations
Takaaki Kajita: Neutrino research in Kamioka and the status of Japanese basic science with large research infrastructures
Summary of Professor Takaaki Kajita’s keynote talk written by Gerhard Fasol.
Nobel Prize in Physics 2015 for Takaaki Kajita and Arthur B McDonald
Professor Takaaki Kajita was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics for “for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass.” See:
Neutrinos are elementary particles such as electrons and quarks, but unlike electrons they have no electric charge. Thus they have very weak interactions with atoms and their nuclei, and have very weak interactions with matter and can pass easily through earth. Neutrinos have been assumed to have no mass.
Neutrinos come in three flavors (= lepton family number, leptonic charge):
electron-neutrinos
muon-neutrinos
tau-neutrinos
Neutrino oscillations
If neutrinos have mass, neutrinos would change their flavor, eg a muon-neutrino would change its flavor to tau-neutrino. The probability of measuring the neutrino in a particular flavor state would oscillate as the neutrino propagates through space.
Neutrino oscillations were predicted by
Maki, Nakagawa and Sakata, (Z. Maki; M. Nakagawa; S. Sakata (November 1962). “Remarks on the Unified Model of Elementary Particles”. Progress of Theoretical Physics. 28 (5): 870.)
Bruno Pontecorvo (“Neutrino Experiments and the Problem of Conservation of Leptonic Charge”. Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 53: 1717–1725. Reproduced and translated in B. Pontecorvo (May 1968). “Neutrino Experiments and the Problem of Conservation of Leptonic Charge”. Sov. Phys. JETP. 26: 984–988.)
How can we detect neutrinos?
Neutrinos only interact very weakly with matter, therefore they are very hard to measure, and neutrino detectors have to be very large. Several different types exist. The Super Kamiokande detector measures the Cherenkov radiation with a large number of photomultipliers emitted when a neutrino creates an electron or muon in water.
Kamiokande: Kamioka nucleon decay experiment
The elementary particles protons and neutrons, which constitute the nuclei of atoms, were thought to have infinite lifetimes. In the 1970s it was predicted that protons and neutrons have finite lifetimes on the order of about 10^30 years.
The Kamiokande experiment was designed in the 1980s to measure proton decay and consists of a 3000 ton water tank, 15.5m diameter and 16m high.
The Kamiokande experiment is located in the Mozumi Mine of the Mitsui Mining and Smelting Co. near Kamioka, Hida in Gifu Prefecture. For details and the 1300 year history of this mine, see:
The Kamiokande detector achieved a number of important results:
detection of supernova neutrinos (1987)
observation of atmospheric neutrino deficit (1988)
observation of solar neutrinos (1989)
and led to the 2002 Nobel Prize for Masatoshi Koshiba “for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos.” See:
The Super-Kamiokande detector has about 20 times larger mass than the Kamiokande detector, a 50,000 ton water Cherenkov detector (22,500 ton fiducial volume, “fiducial volume” is that part of the detector space used for the measurements), with 39m diameter and 42m height, located about 1000m underground. The Super-Kamiokande laboratory is a cooperation with about 170 collaborators from 10 countries. For details, see:
Experimental evidence for neutrino oscillations obtained at the Super-Kamiokande detector were first reported at the NEUTRINO’98 (XVIII International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics in Takayama, Japan June 4-9, 1998).
Solar neutrino oscillations
The solar neutrino problem: the Homestake solar neutrino experiment in the 1960s (B. T. Cleveland; et al. (1998). “Measurement of the Solar Electron Neutrino Flux with the Homestake Chlorine Detector”. Astrophysical Journal. 496 (1): 505–526), and subsequent experiments in the 1980s and 1990s observed solar neutrinos at 1/3 of predicted rates. Later experiments, including experiments at Super-Kamiokande, showed that this apparent deficiency found in the Homestake experiments was due to neutrino oscillations, leading to the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics for Raymond Davis Jr., Masatoshi Koshiba and Riccardo Giacconi.
Many nuclear power stations are located within a distance of about 180km of KamLAND, enabling the measurement of the energy spectrum of neutrinos from these nuclear reactors, see:
The KamLAND Collaboration, “Constraints on θ13 from A Three-Flavor Oscillation Analysis of Reactor Antineutrinos at KamLAND”, Phys.Rev.D83:052002,2011, https://arxiv.org/abs/1009.4771
Why are neutrinos important?
Neutrino masses are approximately 10 billion (10^10) times smaller than the masses of quarks and charged leptons.
Understanding neutrinos is the key to better understanding elementary particles and the universe.
A neutrino burst of 13 seconds length was observed by the Kamiokande II detector on 27 February 1987, see “Observation of a neutrino burst from the supernova SN1987A” , K. Hirata, T. Kajita, M. Koshiba, M. Nakahata, Y. Oyama, N. Sato, A. Suzuki, M. Takita, Y. Totsuka, T. Kifune, T. Suda, K. Takahashi, T. Tanimori, K. Miyano, M. Yamada, E. W. Beier, L. R. Feldscher, S. B. Kim, A. K. Mann, F. M. Newcomer, R. Van, W. Zhang, and B. G. Cortez, Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 1490 – Published 6 April 1987, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.58.1490
The Super-Kamiokande experiment is now waiting for the next supernova neutrinos, no observations so far, and improvements of the detector are under way.
Future neutrino experiments in Kamioka: Hyper-K
The Hyper-K detector will be used to study:
Neutrino oscillations (CP violation) with J-PARC neutrino beam (1.3MW beam)
atmospheric neutrino oscillations
solar neutrino oscillations
proton decay
supernova neutrinos, and more
Hyper-K has a diameter of 74m and a height of 60m. The total mass is 0.26 million tons, and the fiducial volume is 0.19 million tons. Construction is planned to begin in 2020, and experiments will begin around 2017. Hyper-K is a cooperation of about 300 people from 15 countries. For details see:
Japanese basic science with large research infrastructures
Before 2000 the Japanese government approved a number of large science projects:
12GeV Proton Synchrotron (1971~),
Nobeyama 45m Radio Telescope (1980~),
TRISTAN e+e- collider (1981~),
Large Helical Device (LHD, 1990~),
Super-Kamiokande (1991~),
Subaru Telescope (1991~),
KEK-B (1994~),
J-PARC (2001~),
ALMA(2004~), and more
Building new large scale research infrastructure has almost stopped since 2000. Therefore the Science Council of Japan proposed a new program:
“on the promotion of large scale projects in basic science” (2007)
the Science Council of Japan established the “Large-scale scientific projects study subcommittee” (2008), with scientific evaluation of the large scientific projects, leading to the Master Plan 2010.
Master Plans of the Science Council of Japan
2010: 43 high priority large projects
2011: 46 high priority large projects
2014: 27 high priority large projects, 192 large projects
2017: 28 high priority large projects, 163 large projects
The total budget of Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) for the Large Science Project area has been shrinking over recent years, from around 39 billion yen in 2004 to 32 billion yen in 2017.
Summary
Experiments at Kamiokande, Super-Kamiokande and KamLAND contribute to neutrino physics and astrophysics
Hyper-Kamiokande will continue to contribute
Japan has established a system of a Master Plan and a Roadmap to select and support large science projects now and in the future.
Takaaki Kajita: Neutrino research in Kamioka and the status of Japanese basic science with large research infrastructuresTakaaki Kajita: Neutrino research in Kamioka and the status of Japanese basic science with large research infrastructuresTakaaki Kajita: Neutrino research in Kamioka and the status of Japanese basic science with large research infrastructures
NTT DOCOMO driving digital transformation in the 5G era – co-create new values with partners, 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 20 February 2019
Hiroshi Nakamura, NTT DOCOMO Inc. Executive Vice-President & CTO, Member of the Board of Directors, Executive General Manager of R&D Innovation Division
Hiroshi Nakamura: NTT DOCOMO driving digital transformation in the 5G era – co-create new values with partners
Summary written by Gerhard Fasol
Sharing our future around 202x – 5G is just around the corner in 2020
Driving digital transformation with 5G and AI
The main benefits to be expected from driving the digital transformation forward is (1) new value creation for customers, and (2) resolution of social issues, via drastic improvement of UI/UX, creation of innovative services and productivity improvement. Tools for this transformation are IoT, AI, 5G, AR/VR, and the cloud.
The most important characteristics of 5G enabling new services are:
high speed, high capacity, peak rate to 20Gbs
low latency, transmission delay in radio segment around 1 ms, necessary eg for remote control of equipment
massive device connectivity, concurrent connections up to 1 million (10^6) devices/square kilometer.
5G standardization recommendations can be found here:
M.2083 : IMT Vision – “Framework and overall objectives of the future development of IMT for 2020 and beyond”, Recommendation M.2083-0 (09/2015)
5G communication experiment in the world’s first ultra high-speed mobile environment at 300 km/h in April 2018
Japan’s Shinkansen high-speed trains travel at speeds up to 300 km/h therefore NTT DOCOMO rented a racetrack for experiments of 5G communications at 300 km/h.
New value creation via co-creation with partners
DOCOMO 5G Open Lab (TM)
Since February 2018 NTT DOCOMO operates the DOCOMO 5G Open Partner Program to develop 5G solutions with partners. “DOCOMO 5G Open Labs” have been opened in Tokyo, Yotsuya (April 2018), Osaka (September 2018) and in Okinawa (January 2018), and so far 2,052 companies and organizations have joined from a wide range of industries.
DOCOMO 5G Open Cloud (TM)
DOCOMO 5G Open Cloud links DOCOMO assets, partner assets, public cloud (Amazon AWS and Google) and directly connects with DOCOMO 5G Open Labs in Yotsuya, Osaka and Okinawa.
5G Open Partnership
As of 7 January 2019, DOCOMO has 2052 partners in the 5G Open Partnership from a wide range of industries:
service (24%)
retail and restaurants (21%)
manufacturing (15%)
media (12%)
finance and insurance (5%)
local governments (4%)
construction (4%)
transportation (4%)
infrastructure (3%)
medical (3%)
other (5%)
DOCOMO has created 122 business cases through co-creation with partners. Application areas include:
health disparities
factory, hazardous work
work style reform
regional vitalization
tourism
disaster preparedness
eduction
mobility
sports
Service example (1): remote control of construction equipment to resolve shortage of operators
Operating excavation equipment and bulldozers is highly skilled work, and such work is needed all over Japan. Remote operation from central control rooms would allow a skilled operator to remotely operate equipment at construction sites without needing to travel to these locations saving time. 5Gs high data speed and short latency is necessary for remote operation.
Service example (2) medical examination of pregnant women using next-gen examination vehicle
Service example (3) sports stadium solution – provide new sports viewing experience
Example: 4K public viewing at the ANA Windsurfing World Cup Yokosuka (10-15 May 2018)
TV crews have to carry large amounts of cables and heavy equipment to enable live transmissions. 5G enables high resolution movies and close-ups, for example using drones.
Hiroshi Nakamura: NTT DOCOMO driving digital transformation in the 5G era – co-create new values with partnersHiroshi Nakamura: NTT DOCOMO driving digital transformation in the 5G era – co-create new values with partnersHiroshi Nakamura: NTT DOCOMO driving digital transformation in the 5G era – co-create new values with partnersHiroshi Nakamura: NTT DOCOMO driving digital transformation in the 5G era – co-create new values with partners11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 20 February 2019Takaaki Kajita: Neutrino research in Kamioka and the status of Japanese basic science with large research infrastructures11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 201911th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 2019
Quantum Computing and Quantum Simulation with Cold Atoms, 11th Ludwig Boltzmann Forum 20 February 2019
Peter Zoller, University of Innsbruck, Professor of Physics, Director at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information
Peter Zoller: Quantum Computing and Quantum Simulation with Cold Atoms
summary written by Gerhard Fasol
Entanglement and Schrödinger’s cat
In his 1935 article, “Die gegenwärtige Situation der Quantenmechanik” Erwin Schrödinger introduced “Schrödinger’s cat” in a thought experiment, where he couples quantum mechanics with the macroscopic world. For his thought experiment took a mechanism which would couple radioactive decay of a single atom to the killing of a cat via a flask with poison activated by a Geiger counter measuring the radiation from radioactive decay, killing the cat in case decay is detected. Since the quantum mechanical wave function of the atom is an oscillating superposition of the decayed and non-decayed state, the coupling (Verschränkung, entanglement) enforces a superposition of the wave function for the dead cat with that of the life cat inside the box.
Rolf Landauer: “information is physical”
All information processing is governed by the law of physics, all computers are governed by the laws of physics (Rolf Landauer, IBM):
our present computers process information according to the laws of classical physics
“at a fundamental level nature obeys the laws of quantum theory. At a fundamental level information science must be a quantum information science.” (David Deutsch, Oxford)
Quantum computing has several functions:
Technology: to beat Moore’s law, limited when devices approach single atom levels
Computer science: compute problems with new complexity classes, e.g. in encryption which currently relies on the complexity of splitting integers into its prime number factors with computers using classical physics
Physics: learn about quantum theory
First and second quantum revolution
First quantum revolution (1900-1926):
Max Planck
Niels Bohr
Erwin Schrödinger
Werner Heisenberg
Second quantum revolution (1935- ):
Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen paradox (EPR paradox) (A. Einstein, B. Podolsky, N. Rosen, “Can quantum-mechanical description of physical reality be considered complete?”, Physical Review, 47, 777 (1935))
Schrödinger’s cat (1935)
Richard Feynman (Richard P Feynman, “Simulating physics with computers”, International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 21, (No. 6/7), 467 (1982))
Peter Shor: Shor’s algorithm
David Deutsch
Classical bit versus quantum-bit (quit)
a classical bit has two states: 0 or 1
a quantum bit (quit) consists of a superposition of the wave functions for |0> and |1>
Classical register versus quantum register
a classical register consisting of n bits (flip-flops) can be in 2^n states, e.g. a register consisting of 3 bits can be in 2^3 = 8 states (eg 011 -> number 3, 100 -> number 4, 101 -> number 5). However, a classical register can only store one number at a particular time.
a quantum register of size n consists of n qubits. A quantum register is able to store all possibilities spanned by all n qubits at the same time.
Which technologies for quantum computers?
Different technologies are explored to develop quantum computers including: cavity OED, quantum dots, Nitrogen vacancy (NV) centers in diamonds, superconducting devices, trapped ions…
What can we do with a quantum computer?
Encryption and secure communications
Quantum computers are vastly more efficient for certain types of problems. As an example, modern encryption technology relies on an asymmetry: it is very fast to multiply two prime numbers, but it takes impossibly long to factorize a very large integer into its prime number components.
As an example, factorizing a 500 digit number into its prime number components would take the age of the universe with current classical computers, while a quantum computer using Shor’s algorithm can perform this task in 2 seconds.
Therefore quantum computers can be used to build new systems for secure communications.
Quantum simulation of quantum materials
Quantum simulators can be envisaged as special purpose quantum computers to design new quantum materials, new drugs, and study fundamental physics.
An example from fundamental physics investigations using quantum computers is recent work by a cooperation including Professor Peter Zoller’s Innsbruck group:
Esteban A. Martinez, Christine Muschik, Philipp Schindler, Daniel Nigg, Alexander Erhard, Markus Heyl, Philipp Hauke, Marcello Dalmonte, Thomas Monz, Peter Zoller, and Rainer Blatt, “Real-time dynamics of lattice gauge theories with a few-qubit quantum computer”, Nature 534, 516-519 (2016), DOI: 10.1038/nature18318
This work is in the spirit of Richard Feynman’s proposal to use computers based on quantum mechanics to simulate nature.
The Innsbruck Quantum Cloud
The Innsbruck University Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information has built the “Innsbruck Quantum Cloud”, consisting of a quantum feedback loop between classical computers and a 20-qubit trapped ion quantum co-processor to investigate physics problems. Here an example of recent work: C. Kokail, C. Maier, R. van Bijnen, T. Brydges, M. K. Joshi, P. Jurcevic, C. A. Muschik, P. Silvi, R. Blatt, C.F. Roos and P. Zoller, “Self-Verifying Variational Quantum Simulation of the Lattice Schwinger Model” https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.03421
Quantum internet
Satellite links have been built between China and Austria, secured by the laws of quantum physics.
David J. Wineland, Nobel Lecture: Superposition, entanglement, and raising Schrödinger’s cat, Reviews of Modern Physics, 85, 1103, (2013), DOI: 10.1103/RevModPhys.85.1103
Peter Zoller: Quantum Computing and Quantum Simulation with Cold AtomsPeter Zoller: Quantum Computing and Quantum Simulation with Cold AtomsPeter Zoller: Quantum Computing and Quantum Simulation with Cold AtomsPeter Zoller: Quantum Computing and Quantum Simulation with Cold Atoms
