Surrey Speaks Quantum - The Lewis Elton Lecture: 'A Simple Cosmology'

'A Simple Cosmology' is the third lecture in the Surrey Speaks Quantum Series, being delivered by Neil Turok, Professor at Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Edinburgh and Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Canada.

We live in a golden age for learning about the universe and the quantum laws which govern it. Our most powerful telescopes show the cosmos to be surprisingly simple on the largest scales. Likewise, our most powerful “microscope”, the Large Hadron Collider, finds no deviations from known physics on the smallest scales probed. The unexpected simplicity suggests that the known physical laws might hold right back to the big bang. If so, cosmic observations provide us with a direct view of our own quantum origins. Professor Turock outlines a new approach to unifying all physical laws with cosmology based on the hypothesis that the universe respects the most basic quantum symmetry of matter, space and time, known as CPT symmetry, so that the Big Bang is, in effect, a mirror at the beginning of time. This picture neatly accounts for the dark matter and the observed synchronous pattern in the cosmic microwave background. Using Hawking’s powerful ideas, we explain thermodynamically why the universe is so large, smooth and symmetrical without any need for cosmic inflation, extra dimensions or a multiverse. The new theory suggests minimal, testable resolutions of longstanding puzzles involving black holes, dark matter, quantum gravity and the vacuum. We are fortunate to be alive at a time when the answers to some of the most basic questions in physics may be staring us in the face.

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Rik Medlik Building (University of Surrey), The University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom

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