The physics of communication

This volume serves as the official proceedings of the 22nd Solvay Conference on Physics, held in 2001 in Delphi, Greece. The conference series, established by Ernest Solvay in the early 20th century, has historically served as a high-level forum for leading physicists to address fundamental problems in the field. The theme of this specific assembly focused on the physics of communication, bridging the gap between information theory, quantum mechanics, and the practical constraints of signaling at the atomic and subatomic levels.

Published by World Scientific in 2003, the book captures the discourse between preeminent researchers as they navigated the transition from classical information processing to the era of quantum computation. The editorial direction was designed to maintain the rigorous standards associated with the Solvay tradition, providing an archival record of the lectures and subsequent discussions. Within the physics community, the work is regarded as a technical milestone that reflects the early 21st-century shift toward treating information as a physical entity.