Quantum mechanics and the geometry of spacetime

 

Abstract: Quantum mechanics is important for determining the geometry of spacetime. We will review the role of quantum fluctuations that determine the large scale structure of the universe. In some model universes we can give an alternative description of the physics in terms of a theory of particles that lives on its boundary. This implies that the geometry is an emergent property. Furthermore, entanglement plays a crucial role in the emergence of geometry. Large amounts of entanglement are conjectured to give rise to geometric connections, or wormholes, between distant and non-interacting systems.

 Refreshments at 3:15 in CP179.

About the speaker: Juan Maldacena is the leading string theorist of his generation. His 1998 discovery of the AdS/CFT correspondence set off a revolution in string theory, and has found applications in many areas of physics and mathematics. Maldacena's work since then has included groundbreaking work in particle physics, cosmology, and quantum gravity. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999, the 2007 APS Dannie Heineman Prize, the 2008 Dirac Medal, the 2012 Fundamental Physics Prize, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

 

About the van Winter Memorial Lecture in Mathematical Physics

The van Winter Memorial Lecture honors the memory of Clasine van Winter, who held a professorship in the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 1968 to her retirement in 1999. Professor Van Winter specialized in the study of multiparticle quantum systems; her contributions include the Weinberg-van Winter equations for a multiparticle quantum system, derived independently by Professor van Winter and Professor Steven Weinberg, and the so-called HVZ Theorem which characterizes the essential spectrum of multiparticle quantum systems. She died in October of 2000.

 

Date:
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Location:
CP155

Stargazing at MacAdam Observatory with Tim Knauer

The University of Kentucky's own MacAdam Observatory provides students with the opportunity to use the most powerful telescopic lenses on campus and see the universe. On clear nights, students are welcome to join director Tim Knauer and his graduate assistants as they look out into the stars and observe those celestial bodies.

Here, Tim and assistants Kyle and Aaron join us to talk about running the observatory and their experiences there.

Anthro Colloquium: Dr. William Y. Adams, "The Boasians"

Professor Emeritus, U Kentucky. He is the winner of the 1978 Herskovits Prize for his history of Nubia, Nubia: Corridor to Africa. In 2005 Adams was awarded the Order of the Two Niles, Sudan's highest civilian honor, for his contributions to Nubian history. Adams's work in Nubia began in 1959 as part of the UNESCO archaeological salvage campaign to excavate sites threatened by the rising flood waters of Lake Nasser following the construction of the Aswan Dam.

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