Patrick Peter
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (Paris, France)
Amphithéâtre Henri Mineur, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
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| « The quantum meaning of the Big-Bang singularity and its observable consequences. » |
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Patrick Peter |
| According to general relativity, the Universe began with a singularity, i.e. a point at which this classical theory ceases to make sense. Just like the Rayleigh-Jeans ultraviolet catastrophe for blackbody radiation pointed towards quantization of Maxwell classical electrodynamics, could it be that this cosmological catastrophe similarly demands that Einstein gravitation theory should be quantized? As simple and appealing as this idea sounds, its consequences can be somewhat unsettling, potentially turning the entire Universe into a Schrödinger cat! Unexpectedly, this leads to observable predictions, e.g. in the form of non-gaussianities in the primordial fluctuations or as short-wavelength modifications in the power spectrum of the stochastic background of gravitational waves. Having discussed these issues, I will argue that taking quantum cosmology seriously can also shed some light on the meaning of quantum mechanics itself and suggest experiments to distinguish between different proposals. |
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vendredi 6 novembre 2026 - 11:00 Amphithéâtre Henri Mineur, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris |
| Page web du séminaire / Seminar's webpage |