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[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium, "Probing the String Landscape: Implications, Applications and Altercations"
September 27, 2013
4pm - 5pm
Abstract:
We are currently in the throes of a potentially huge paradigm shift in physics. Motivated by recent developments in string theory and the discovery of the so-called "string landscape," physicists are beginning to question the uniqueness of fundamental theories of physics and the methods by which such theories might be understood and investigated. In this colloquium, I will give a non-technical introduction to the nature of this paradigm shift and the history of how it developed. I will also discuss some of the questions to which it has led, and the nature of the controversies it has spawned.
We are currently in the throes of a potentially huge paradigm shift in physics. Motivated by recent developments in string theory and the discovery of the so-called "string landscape," physicists are beginning to question the uniqueness of fundamental theories of physics and the methods by which such theories might be understood and investigated. In this colloquium, I will give a non-technical introduction to the nature of this paradigm shift and the history of how it developed. I will also discuss some of the questions to which it has led, and the nature of the controversies it has spawned.