Speaker: Sir Roger Penrose
Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics
University of
Oxford
Titles: Before
the Big Bang: an Outrageous Solution
to a Profound Cosmological
Puzzle
Time: Wed., March 15, 7:30pm, Lewis Lab auditorium
*Abstract*
The second law of thermodynaics says, in effect, that things get more
"random" as time progresses. This tells us that the beginning of the
universe---the "big bang"---must have been an extraordinarily precisely
organized state. What was this state? How can such a state have come
about? In this talk, a novel solution is suggested, which involves an
examination of what is to be expected of the very remote future of our
universe, with its observed accelerated expansion. My suggested model
depends upon a slightly more primitive form of spacetime geometry than
Einstein's curved mertic geometry, namely conformal geometry in which it is
merely the speed of light which provides the needed strucure. (Note:
conformal geometry also lies at the basis of twistor theory, which is the the
subject of the two technical Pitcher Lectures.)