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Abstract:
The 1960's ushered in a remarkable belle epoch for the University of Sydney's School of
Physics. Brokered by the indomitable Harry Messel, an experiment took
shape at the unlikely rural backwater of Narrabri in outback
NSW conceived by two equally larger-than-life figures: Robert
Hanbury Brown and Richard Twiss. Although the Narrabri Stellar
Intensity Interferometer was ultimately so wildly successful that it
is now regarded by many as the most important physics experiment
conducted in Australia, at the time it ignited a firestorm of
controversy. At stake was the ultimate nature of light, with many of
the world's most eminent Quantum physicists flatly declaring that the
experiment could not work. The surprising answers bridged the
micro-scale physics of photons and the light years to the stars,
forming the genesis of an entirely new field - Quantum Optics - that
now underpins a host of technologies enabling the modern world. The
story will come up to the present day describing efforts now underway
to celebrate this history here at the University of Sydney.
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