Physics & Astronomy
Colloquium

3:30 PM, Friday, March 12, 1999

Room 155, Chem-Phys Building

Dr. J. Richard Gott, III

Department of Astrophysical Sciences
Princeton University

``Can the Universe Create Itself?''

J. Richard Gott and Li-Xin Li have proposed a new theory for how the inflationary state at the beginning of the universe got started. They propose that the universe was not created out of nothing, but out of something, and that something was itself. Linde has shown that inflating universes can give rise to baby universes with the baby universes budding off like branches from a tree. But, one might ask: ``Where does the trunk come from?'' Gott and Li propose that one of the branches simply loops around to become the trunk. Thus, the beginning of the universe looks rather like the number ``6'' with a small loop of time at the beginning. (In this case, there was a time machine at the very beginning of the universe, but it has shut down by now.) The top of the ``6'' then expands out and becomes the inflating state out of which we can make an infinite number of inflationary universes. In this model--an alternative to the tunneling from nothing idea--the unverse is its own mother. Our model predicts that we should observe an arrow of time in the universe today (that electromagnetic causes precede their effects), otherwise the early time machine would blow up. Interestingly, we do observe just such an arrow of time.

Refreshments will be served in CP 179 at 3:15 PM

Spring Schedule