An alternative history of the discovery of gravity: insights from an alien race

by Joakim Flinckman

Friday 9 Feb 2024, 16:00 → 17:30 Europe/Stockholm

Albano 3: 6203 - Floor 6 Large Lunch Room (44 seats) (Albano Building 3)

We will go on an imaginative exploration of an advanced alien race emerging from a subsurface ocean, who suddenly discover a new force, the force of gravity. With their superior understanding of nuclear and particle physics, they put their most brilliant scientists to work. Their experiments lead them to a set of fundamental properties characterizing the new force and an initial understanding akin to Newtonian gravity. We will follow several groups of alien scientists on their journey to describe the new phenomenon in terms of the theoretical framework familiar to them, culminating in the prediction of a new particle, the graviton, as the mediator of this force. This journey not only guides them to Einstein's theory of general relativity but also nudges them beyond. Propelled by emerging theoretical hints, they start exploring theories with multiple different gravitons.