The last Copernican Revolution: "Spacetime of the Gaps"*

by Guilherme Franzmann (Stockholm University)

Tuesday 11 Apr 2023, 13:15 → 14:15 Europe/Stockholm

FA32 (AlbaNova Main Building)

Many centuries ago, Copernicus told us that we were not in the center of the Universe. Since then, many other Copernican steps moved us away from a central place in our understanding of the Universe. Nonetheless, it still has remained a place. In this colloquium, I will argue that, perhaps, the very last Copernican revolution will melt away any fundamental notion of space, and perhaps time. We will talk about the very deepphilosophical and conceptual idea that spacetime is emergent while keeping the level as pedagogical as possible. We won't shy away from big conceptual leaps, but we will restrain ourselves from being excessively technical. By the end of this talk, I hope you will be as fascinated as I am about the current frontier in our understanding of quantum gravity and inspired by the real possibility that we may test the emergent nature of spacetime in the lab and in the sky.  

 

* A reference to the "God of the Gaps" theological perspective.