Collège de France visiting professor at the University of Trento with professor Gabriele Veneziano

18 May 2016
19 May 2016
18 and 19 May 2016

Where: Polo Scientifico e Tecnologico Fabio Ferrari, via Sommarive 5, Povo

Conference title:

  • 18 May, 17.30 - Room A106
    A quantum Universe before the Big Bang(s)? 
  • 19 May , 14.30 - Room A203
    Classical and quantum gravitational bremsstrahlung in ultrarelativistic particle collisions 

The lectures will be in English.

Archaeologist John Scheid, theoretical physicist Antoine Georges, medieval literature scholar Michel Zink, cognitive neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene, neurobiologist Alain Prochiantz, Italian studies scholar and literary theorist Carlo Ossola, historian and sociologist Pierre Rosanvallon, archaeologist Jean-Pierre Brun, chemist Clément Sanchez and mathematician Pierre-Louis Lions, have already given lectures at the University of Trento. Now another notable scholar from Collège de France, Gabriele Veneziano, a physicist, visits our University for a lecture that will attract students, PhD candidates and professors, in the framework of the visiting professorship agreement that binds the two universities.

The seminar A quantum Universe before the Big Bang(s)? is part of the series of seminars "Colloqui in Collina", jointly organized by the departments of Industrial Engineering, Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, Information Engineering and Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics and by the Centre for Integrative Biology and the Center for Mind/Brain sciences.

The lecture is open to professors, researchers and students from the above mentioned departments and centres.

Abstract:
A quantum Universe before the Big Bang(s)? Newton’s constant G, the speed of light c, and Planck’s constant h, can be used to define a “cube of theories” whose faces and sides correspond to regimes in which one or more aspects of a complete theory can be safely and successfully ignored. But cosmology of the early Universe lies in the interior of the cube, where all three constants play an essential role. I will review present evidence for this claim, revise the standard notion of the big bang as beginning of time, and discuss some new cosmological scenarios suggested by the leading candidate for the interior of the cube: string theory.

Scientific coordinator:
Prof. Sandro Stringari
Department of Physics
University of Trento
via Sommarive, 14 - Povo
Tel. +39 0461 281529/1560