Simon Fraser University
SFU Cosmology Seminars

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Tuesday, 10 September 2019, 14:30 in P8445B

Prof. Gabor Kunstatter (University of Winnipeg/SFU)

What can quantum gravity tell us about the beginning and end of time?

Despite remarkable advances in observational astrophysics and cosmology, fundamental mysteries about our universe remain. General relativity, which describes the dynamics of space and time, predicts its own demise near the Big Bang singularity (the beginning of time) and near the future singularity at the center of all black holes (the end of time). These singularities lead to the horizon loss problem and information loss conundrum, respectively. Quantum mechanics is expected to cure all singularities but no complete, testable theory of quantum gravity exists as yet. It is therefore useful to tackle these issues using simplified, highly symmetric models. After an introduction to the horizon problem and information loss conundrum, I will describe recent attempts by myself and collaborators to model quantum gravitational dynamics near cosmological and black hole singularities.

Seminars in 2019:

2019-09-10 14:30 in P8445B - Gabor Kunstatter (University of Winnipeg/SFU): What can quantum gravity tell us about the beginning and end of time?
2019-09-17 14:30 in P8445B - Andrei Frolov (SFU): Dust is everywhere
2019-10-08 14:30 in P8445B - Douglas Scott (UBC): Evaporating evidence for Hawking points
2019-10-22 14:30 in P8445B - Arif Babul (UVic): Cosmology with galaxy clusters
2019-11-19 14:30 in P8445B - Richard Shaw (UBC): Probing Dark Energy with CHIME
2019-11-26 14:30 in P8445B - Joanna Woo (SFU): Primer on machine learning for astronomy
2019-12-03 14:30 in P8445B - Ludovic Van Waerbeke (UBC): Axion Quark Nuggets: a candidate for baryonic, cold and strongly interacting dark matter
2020-01-20 15:00 in P8445B - Francesc Ferrer (Washington University): Gravitational wave signals of early universe axion dynamics
2020-02-14 14:30 in C9000 - Katie Mack (North Carolina State University): Dark matter: a cosmological perspective (physics colloquium)
2020-02-26 14:30 in P8445B - Paul Wiegert (University of Western Ontario): Interstellar asteroids and comets: what are they and where do they come from?
2020-02-28 14:30 in C9000 - Sara Ellison (University of Victoria): Clash of the Titans: Galaxy mergers in the nearby Universe (physics colloquium)
2020-05-12 12:00 in Zoom - Levon Pogosian (SFU): Relieving the Hubble tension with primordial magnetic fields
2020-05-19 12:00 in Zoom - José Tomas Gálvez Ghersi (University of Mississippi): Numerical renormalization group-based approach to secular perturbation theory
2020-06-02 12:00 in Zoom - Leo Stein (University of Mississippi): Gravitational-wave tests of GR with simulations of beyond-GR theories
2020-06-16 12:00 in Zoom - Andrei Frolov (Simon Fraser Univeristy): Primordial non-Gaussianity from preheating
2020-07-02 14:30 in Zoom - Jack Gegenberg (University of New Brunswick): Collapse of a rotating shell in 3+1 dimensions (special seminar)
2020-07-07 12:00 in Zoom - Joanna Woo (Simon Fraser Univeristy): Machine learning as a tool for astrophysics
2020-07-28 12:00 in Zoom - José Tomas Gálvez Ghersi (University of Mississippi): A fixed point for black hole distributions

[ See complete seminar archives | iCal feed ]

Modified by Andrei Frolov <frolov@sfu.ca> on 2023-11-01