George Ellis
Dept. Mathematics Applied Mathematics, Univ. Cape Town (Le Cap, Afrique du Sud)
Amphithéâtre Henri Mineur, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
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| « The Existence of the Multiverse - is it provable? Is it science? » |
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George Ellis |
| The idea that there is a multiverse rather than a single universe is being increasingly proposed. I will review the motivations for this idea and the problems regarding its testability, either directly or through known physics. There is one situation where it may be disprovable (small universes) and one where we may find evidence that it's foundations may be true (evidence for bubble collisions). It has also been suggested it will be disproved if spatial curvature K = +1, but this may not be conclusive. Claims of existence of a multiverse test the boundaries of what is science - particularly when these claims involve supposed existence of infinities of entities. The most pressing problem claimed to be solved by them is the small effective value of cosmological constant, as opposed to the huge calculated value of vacuum energy; but this discrepancy can be solved more simply by using the trace-free version of the Einstein Field Equations (which is closely related to unimodular gravity). |
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vendredi 16 novembre 2012 - 11:00 Amphithéâtre Henri Mineur, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris |
| Page web du séminaire / Seminar's webpage |