Lucien Hardy

Hardy studied for his doctorate at Durham University (1989–1992) under the supervision of Euan J. Squires.{{MathGenealogy|id=204149}}

In 1992, he became lecturer in mathematical physics at Maynooth College, part of The National University of Ireland. He was subsequently a Royal Society postdoctoral fellow at the University of Innsbruck (1993–1994), then returned to Durham as Lecturer (1994–1996), and was a postdoctoral fellow at La Sapienza University (1996–1997).{{cite web |title=Lucien Hardy |url=https://perimeterinstitute.ca/people/lucien-hardy |website=Perimeter Institute |access-date=6 May 2023 |language=en}}

Starting in 1997, he was a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Oxford until 2002.

Hardy is now affiliated with the University of Waterloo and is among the faculty of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

In 1992, Hardy published a thought experiment that "makes nonsense of the famous interaction between matter and antimatter" — that when a particle meets its antiparticle, the pair "always annihilate one another" in a burst of energy.{{cite web |title=I'm not looking, honest! |url=https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2009/03/05/im-not-looking-honest |website=The Economist |access-date=6 May 2023 |date=7 March 2009}} Hardy proposed the possibility that in some cases when said interaction is not observed a particle and an antiparticle could interact with one another and survive. But since the interaction has to remain unseen, no one would notice this happening, which is why the result came to be known as Hardy's paradox.{{Cite journal |last=Hardy |first=Lucien |title=Quantum mechanics, local realistic theories, and Lorentz-invariant realistic theories |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=68 |issue=20 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.68.2981 |pages=2981–2984 |year=1992 |pmid=10045577 |bibcode=1992PhRvL..68.2981H}}{{Cite journal |last=Hardy |first=Lucien |title=Nonlocality for two particles without inequalities for almost all entangled states |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=71 |issue=11 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.71.1665 |pages=1665–1668 |year=1993 |pmid=10054467 |bibcode=1993PhRvL..71.1665H}}

In 2001, Hardy published Quantum Theory From Five Reasonable Axioms, a paper that offered an axiomatic reconstruction of quantum theory. His proposal represented an "operational" approach made famous by Albert Einstein, but applied to quantum mechanics.{{cite web |last1=Wolchover |first1=Natalie |title=Quantum Mischief Rewrites the Laws of Cause and Effect |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/quantum-mischief-rewrites-the-laws-of-cause-and-effect-20210311/ |website=Quanta |access-date=6 May 2023 |date=11 March 2021}}

In subsequent years, other authors built upon Hardy's work by proposing their own variants.{{cite arXiv|last=Hardy|first=Lucien|date=2001-01-03|title=Quantum Theory From Five Reasonable Axioms|eprint=quant-ph/0101012}}{{cite journal |last1=Darrigol |first1=Olivier |title=‘Shut up and contemplate!’: Lucien Hardy׳s reasonable axioms for quantum theory |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics |date=November 2015 |volume=52, Part B |pages=328-342}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.perimeterinstitute.ca/people/Lucien-Hardy Lucien Hardy] at the Perimeter Institute
• [http://pirsa.org/index.php?p=speaker&name=Lucien_Hardy Lectures given by Lucien Hardy]

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Category:Living people

Category:British theoretical physicists

Category:British quantum physicists

Category:Academic staff of the Sapienza University of Rome

Category:Academics of Durham University

Category:Alumni of Durham University Graduate Society

Category:1966 births

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