相关论文: Is the Universe Really So Simple?
The quantum-mechanical description of the world, including human observers, makes substantial use of entanglement. In order to understand this, we need to adopt concepts of truth, probability and time which are unfamiliar in modern…
We continue to explore, in the context of a toy model, the hypothesis that the interacting universe we see around us could result from single particle (undergraduate) quantum mechanics via a novel spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) acting…
Classical black holes are defined by the property that things can go in, but don't come out. However, Stephen Hawking calculated that black holes actually radiate quantum mechanical particles. The two important ingredients that result in…
A simple description of the vacuum energy (cosmological constant) problem for non-experts is presented. Basic features of cosmology with non-zero vacuum energy are discussed. The astronomical data which indicate that the universe is filled…
For a few years now, cosmology has a standard model. By this term, we mean a consistent theoretical background which is at the same time simple and broad enough to offer coherent explanations for the vast majority of cosmological phenomena.…
Quantum mechanics---the theory describing the fundamental workings of nature---is famously counterintuitive: it predicts that a particle can be in two places at the same time, and that two remote particles can be inextricably and…
The universe we observe is homogeneous on super-horizon scales, leading to the ``cosmic homogeneity problem''. Inflation alleviates this problem but cannot solve it within the realm of conservative extrapolations of classical physics. A…
In this talk I summarize the topics addressed during the conference. We have discussed the most relevant cosmological observations of the last say 10 years and their implications for our understanding of the Universe. My finding throughout…
Despite its apparent complexity, our world seems to be governed by simple laws of physics. This volume provides a philosophical introduction to such laws. I explain how they are connected to some of the central issues in philosophy, such as…
The dark energy problem may have a simple solution in the model of cosmology based on the space-time interaction hypothesis. The hypothesis throws light on the nature of time (see Time-Transcendence-Truth, Monograph published in 2006).
On a scientific meta-level, it is discussed how an overall understanding of the physical universe can be built on the basis of well-proven theories, observations, and recent experiments. In the light of almost a century of struggle to make…
Matters falling into and consisting of a blackhole can oscillate periodically across instead of accumulate statically on the central point and form singularities there. In quantum language, this oscillation not only resolves central…
What can we know about the universe? I outline a few of the fundamental limitations that are posed to our understanding of the cosmos, such as the existence of horizons, the fact that we occupy a specific place in space and time, the…
Two thermodynamic "paradoxes" of black hole physics are re-examined. The first is that there is a thermal instability involving two coupled blackbody cavities containing two black holes, and second is that a classical black hole can swallow…
Cosmology is living through fascinating times, where new observations from ground and space telescopes are questioning the established paradigm, the so-called Lambda Cold Dark Matter model. The particle nature of Dark Matter is severely…
It is argued that Hawking's `greatest mistake' may not have been a mistake at all. According to the canonical quantum theory of gravity for Friedmann type universes, any time arrows of general nature can only be correlated with that of the…
Recently, string theory has provided some remarkable new insights into the microphysics of black holes. I argue that a simple and important lesson is also provided with regards to the information loss paradox, namely, pure quantum states do…
These lectures aim to highlight the remarkable symbiosis that currently exists between the physics of the very small and the physics of the very large, using the unsolved puzzle of the nature of Dark Energy as a vehicle for so doing. The…
The question of how irreversibility can emerge as a generic phenomena when the underlying mechanical theory is reversible has been a long-standing fundamental problem for both classical and quantum mechanics. We describe a mechanism for the…
Following Hawking, it is usual to mimic the effect of collapse space-time geometry on quantum fields in a semi-classical approximation by imposing suitable boundary conditions at the origin of coordinates, which effectively becomes a moving…