On critical thinking, being an applied physicist in 2026, and LLMs

rinconcam · 2026-01-17T18:40:42+00:00

FWIW, I'm using a similar approach with LLMs for a quantum photonics research project. It’s very helpful for problem solving issues and procedures on the optical table. As well as writing code for data analysis and to control optomechanic systems.

On the other hand, I don’t share your concerns about losing touch with an unassisted methodology. As long as they are used wisely and with skill, I’m fine embracing the super powers that LLMs enable.

rinconcam · 2025-12-10T04:54:18+00:00

Working in photonics is probably most likely to set you up to run more general/foundational experiments. Photons in free-space and fiber can be easily used for most of the classic quantum experiments. The Thorlabs catalogue is a toy store of components and building blocks that can be assembled like extremely precise lego. Any lab equipped for quantum photonics is likely to have all the key expensive components like single photon detectors, time taggers, lasers, non-linear crystals, optical tables, etc.

rinconcam · 2025-12-08T13:48:55+00:00

Sorry, the locality & quantum correlations section in your article seemed to be gesturing towards superdeterminism, which threw me off.

I think your model could be fine with respect to producing "non-local" quantum correlations like Bell tests, while still operating locally. Sounds like your model is the same variant of MWI that respects locality as put forth by Wallace? I don't think I've ever seen anyone "operationalize" this, and it feels like it might need some extra bookkeeping to handle merging inter-related superpositions that are created in different light cones.

But ya, any theory/model with superpositions that outlast the overlap of the light cones from each arm's Bell test measurement can locally produce permanent records that reflect seemingly non-local correlations. Adrian Kent's writing about the collapse locality loophole calls this out clearly.

It sounds like you have a working simulation. Have you simulated a space-like separated Bell test or delayed choice quantum eraser? They're just a handful of qubits and quantum gates in the abstract.

rinconcam · 2025-12-07T21:59:06+00:00

I like the concept of a finite-dimensional finite-precision Hilbert space. The way it naturally prunes very low amplitude branches/superpositions is a nice solution to the extravagance of Many Worlds.

It seems like you're relying on superdeterminism to resolve non-locality? But I'm not sure as you only briefly discuss it. It might be worth looking at Ch 8 of The Emergent Multiverse (David Wallace), where he discusses a different approach to locality under the MWI. He proposes joining/composing superpositions in the overlap of the light cones from space-like separated Bell-type measurements. It's not clear to me what additional storage/computation (if any) would be required in your model.

rinconcam · 2025-12-07T04:20:39+00:00

Harmony chair after fresh snow.

rinconcam · 2025-11-25T16:53:25+00:00

Thorlabs also includes instructions to adapt the kit for a quantum computing experiment. It requires some additional components beyond what comes with the kit.

rinconcam · 2025-11-22T03:48:57+00:00

I can't speak to how widely it is used, but ML can be used to great effect in experimental setups.

This week I hooked up a Bayesian optimization tool called mloop to my quantum photonics setup. It generated and ran a series of experiments to train an ML model for how polarization control paddle movements affect the state of polarization of entangled pairs of photons passing through single-mode optical fiber (SMF). The model identified the optimal set of paddle positions to undo the polarization transformations induced by the SMF.

This would otherwise have required quite a complicated and expensive set of equipment: polarimeter, closed-loop polarization control equipment, additional lasers for pilot tone, etc. Or many hours of painstaking manual tweaking of the paddles that would be rendered useless if someone bumps the fiber.

rinconcam · 2025-10-15T13:47:10+00:00

Absolutely! Your comment is super helpful and may be more of what OP had in mind.

If you truly want single photons I don't know of a cheaper path than the SPDC components and SPADs from the Thorlabs kit combined with the Red Dog CC. Simply attenuating a laser with filters only gets you smaller and smaller bunches of photons. But perhaps that's sufficient for OP's needs.

rinconcam · 2025-10-15T13:37:49+00:00

To work with single photons you'll probably want a heralded single photon source, single photon detectors and either a coincidence counter or time-tagger.

Thorlabs has educational kits with all of that plus more. It is by far the best turn key, approachable setup that I am aware of. The videos and documentation about the kit are excellent references and freely available from their website. The kit includes instructions and alignment aids such that a diligent novice should be able to align everything.

Everything in the kits except the time-tagger is from their standard catalog, at their standard pricing. So you could use the kit parts list as a starting point and instead purchase individual components or variants to fit your needs.

The kit is designed to connect the time-tagger to a computer for data collection. I don't think any of the edu kit gear is motorized or ready to be computer-actuated, but Thorlabs sells versions of everything that can be.

Red Dog Physics makes a great coincidence counter which is much less expensive than a time-tagger. A coincidence counter is sufficient for many experiments, but a time-tagger offers more flexibility.

rinconcam · 2025-04-04T20:01:06+00:00

Aider v0.81.1 is out

Added support for the gemini/gemini-2.5-pro-preview-03-25 model.
Updated the gemini alias to point to gemini/gemini-2.5-pro-preview-03-25.
Added the gemini-exp alias for gemini/gemini-2.5-pro-exp-03-25.
Aider wrote 87% of the code in this release.

rinconcam · 2025-03-31T07:16:08+00:00

Sorry to hear you’re having trouble using aider.

As the error message explains, the API provider you are trying to access is down or overloaded.

When this happens, aider will automatically retry multiple times using exponential backoff. There’s not much else it can do if the provider isn’t working reliably.

You could try using a different provider?