EPSS Colloquium fall-2016

Journey to the Beginning of Time: Turning Metaphysics into Physics

Even a generation ago, fundamental existential questions such as, 'How did the Universe Begin?, How will it End?, Are we Alone, and, Are there other Universes?’ , and other less grand but no less interesting questions such as “Do Black Holes Exist?’ may have appeared as forever inaccessible metaphysical questions. Gravitational waves have now been discovered by LIGO, opening up a vast new window on the Universe. I will explain we might eventually detect a signal from the Big Bang itself, pushing our empirical handle on the Universe back in time by 49 orders of magnitude. I will describe how these exotic waves in space and time are everywhere around us, how we can detect them, and the possibility of revealing insights into our own origins, the nature of gravity, and even the possible existence of other universes.