Causal Sets, Discrete Gravity
Causal Sets, Discrete Gravity
- Event time: 1:00pm until 2:00pm
- Event date: 16th March 2018
- Speaker: Fay Dowker (Imperial College London)
- Location: Higgs Centre Seminar Room, Room 4305, James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) James Clerk Maxwell Building Peter Guthrie Tait Road Edinburgh EH9 3FD GB
Event details
Quantum gravity is the name of a problem, not a theory. The problem is that we do not have a unified framework for fundamental physics in which both gravity and quantum theory are incorporated. Causal Set Theory is an approach to the problem based on the hypothesis that spacetime is fundamentally discrete or atomic. I will explain the motivation behind this approach and map out some of the frontiers of current research in the area. I will describe how causal set theory has already had one empirical success and suggest that more may be coming as the standard cosmological model (Lambda-Cold-Dark-Matter) comes under pressure from more data.
About Higgs Centre colloquia
The Higgs Centre Colloquia are a fortnightly series of talks aimed at a wide-range of topical Theoretical Physics issues..