A new picture of the Cosmos: A two-sheeted, CPT-symmetric universe

Event Date:
2022-02-10T16:00:00
2022-02-10T17:00:00
Event Location:
Connect via zoom
Speaker:
Latham Boyle (Perimeter Institute)
URL:
Zoom link
Related Upcoming Events:
Department Colloquia
Intended Audience:
Undergraduate
Local Contact:

Douglas Scott

Event Information:

After reviewing some key hints and puzzles from the early universe, I will introduce recent work with Neil Turok suggesting a rigid and predictive new approach to addressing them.

Our universe seems to be dominated by radiation at early times, and positive vacuum energy at late times.  Taking the symmetry and analyticity properties of such a universe seriously suggests a picture in which spacetime has two sheets, exchanged by a symmetry that, in turn, selects a preferred (CPT-symmetric) vacuum state for the quantum fields that live on the spacetime.  In this picture, the Big Bang may be regarded as a kind of mirror.  

This line of thought suggests new explanations for a number of observed properties of the universe, including: its homogeneity, isotropy and flatness; the arrow of time; several properties of the primordial perturbations; and the existence of dark matter (which, in this picture, is one of the three right-handed neutrinos, radiated from the Big Bang like Hawking radiation from a black hole).  It also makes several observational predictions that will be tested in the coming decade.

Add to Calendar 2022-02-10T16:00:00 2022-02-10T17:00:00 A new picture of the Cosmos: A two-sheeted, CPT-symmetric universe Event Information: After reviewing some key hints and puzzles from the early universe, I will introduce recent work with Neil Turok suggesting a rigid and predictive new approach to addressing them. Our universe seems to be dominated by radiation at early times, and positive vacuum energy at late times.  Taking the symmetry and analyticity properties of such a universe seriously suggests a picture in which spacetime has two sheets, exchanged by a symmetry that, in turn, selects a preferred (CPT-symmetric) vacuum state for the quantum fields that live on the spacetime.  In this picture, the Big Bang may be regarded as a kind of mirror.   This line of thought suggests new explanations for a number of observed properties of the universe, including: its homogeneity, isotropy and flatness; the arrow of time; several properties of the primordial perturbations; and the existence of dark matter (which, in this picture, is one of the three right-handed neutrinos, radiated from the Big Bang like Hawking radiation from a black hole).  It also makes several observational predictions that will be tested in the coming decade. Event Location: Connect via zoom