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Looking Back on the Story of the Space-Time Odyssey

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Looking Back on the Story of the Space-Time Odyssey INAUGURATION Looking back on the story of the space-time odyssey The formal inauguration of the Center for In the beginning... Theoretical Physics at the University of "Returning to my Ann Arbor attempts, I became immediately Michigan brought together distinguished very eager to see how far the mentioned analogy reached, first trying to find out whether the Maxwell equations for the speakers from a range of disciplines to look electromagnetic field, together with Einstein's gravitational equations, would fit into a formalism of five-dimensional back on the achievements of physics in the Riemann geometry." 20th century, as well as to anticipate new Oskar Klein, "From my life of physics" in the anthology From a Life of Physics (1989 World Scientific). developments in the 21st. The inaugural conference of the Michigan Center for Theoretical dieting the existence of the new particle, which was then accepted Physics (MCTP), entitled 2001: a Spacetime Odyssey, was held in by Physical Review Letters. He ended his talk with the hopeful men­ Ann Arbor on 21-25 May. In keeping with the MCTP's mission to pro­ tion of "indications of H at about 115 GeV" at CERN's LEP elec­ vide a venue for interdisciplinary studies in theoretical physics and tron-positron collider. related mathematical sciences, the conference brought astron­ Joseph Silk (Oxford), Robert Kirshner (Harvard-Smithsonian omers, cosmologists, particle physicists and mathematicians Center for Astrophysics), Alan Guth (MIT), Paul Steinhardt together to share their different perspectives on space-time at the (Princeton), Andre Linde (Stanford), Wendy Freedman (Carnegie beginning of the 21st century. Observatories) and Michael Turner (Chicago) each offered different Two theories revolutionized the 20th-century view of space and perspectives on the universe. While new data pinpoint cosmological time: quantum mechanics and Einstein's General Theory of parameters with more and more accuracy, and evidence for the Relativity. The union of these theories provides a context for elem­ current acceleration of the expansion of the universe and the entary particle theories with extra space-time dimensions, such as mysterious "dark energy" now seems convincing, controversy over the inflationary model of Big Bang cosmology; dark matter and dark their origins continued to swirl with Steinhardt's presentation of the energy in the universe; radiation from quantum black holes; and novel "ekpyrotic" alternative to inflation. Inspired by the the fuzzy space-time geometry of superstrings and M-theory.These Horava-Witten picture of an 11-dimensional M-theory universe developments, which are derived in part from the 19th-century sandwiched between two 10-dimensional boundaries, this scenario mathematics of Riemannian geometry and Lie groups, have in their ascribes the Hot Big Bang to a smashing together of two three- turn inspired new directions in the pure mathematics of topology dimensional surfaces (three-branes) in a five-dimensional universe: and knot theory. All of these different strands of the space-time the Big Crash. story were represented at the conference. Linde championed the old inflation with a vigorous deflation of Steinhardt's ideas. Freedman then reported a new result - the first The dawn of space-time measurement of extragalactic background light, which turned out to Ann Arbor was a particularly appropriate place for such a celebration be about twice that of individual galaxies.The mass associated with because it was here that Oskar Klein first came up with the idea of starlight was thus measured to be about 1% of critical density. Guth extra space-time dimensions and of using Riemmanian geometry to emphasized the evidence for inflation and its robustness. explain not only gravity but also electromagnetism. Shing-Tung Yau (Harvard), Isadore Singer (MIT), Arthur Jaffe The conference began with "My life as a boson", a historical rec­ (Harvard) and Bruno Zumino (Berkeley) gave us a glimpse into the ollection by Peter Higgs (Edinburgh) on the discovery of the particle realm of higher mathematics and its intriguing applications to prob­ that bears his name. Higgs described the history leading up to his lems in quantum field theory, superstrings and M-theory. For Singer, 1964 paper, the controversy over the Goldstone theorem, and some this was a sentimental journey, and he recalled his arrival as an interesting reactions to his paper. Only after Physics Letters had undergraduate in physics at the University of Michigan in 1941. rejected his original version did Higgs produce a revised text pre- Checking into his dormitory, he was told to go upstairs and make his 22 CERN Courier October 2001 INAUGURATION bed. Sure enough, he discovered a erotic string on a six-dimensional hammer, some nails and a pile of Calabi-Yau manifold. Veltman was two-by-four planks where his bed broadly critical of current research was supposed to have been. directions, casting doubt on black Quantum gravity was the common holes, the acceleration of the uni­ theme of talks by James Hartle (UC verse and superstring theory, Santa Barbara), Jacob Beckenstein although he was positive about the (Jerusalem) and Stanley Deser construction of the superconducting (Brandeis). Hartle discussed the rec­ Tesla linear electron collider. onciliation of Ein-stein's general rela­ tivity with quantum mechanics, Superstrings including the many-worlds interpre­ Space-time odyssists, left to right: Michael Duff, Bruno Superstring theory and its succes­ tation, wormholes in space and the Zumino and Gordon Kane. (Alfred C T Wu.) sor, M-theory, were covered by John possibility of time travel. Beckenstein Schwarz (Caltech) and Alexander presented the case for discrete Polyakov (Princeton). Schwarz re­ energy levels for quantum black viewed the phenomenon of anom­ holes as a way of understanding their aly cancellation from the Standard thermodynamics, which was pio­ Model to the superstring, while neered by him and Hawking in the Polyakov discussed the Plato's cave 1970s; and Deser gave an overview "holographic" universe, in which our of gravity's century, from Einstein to four-dimensional space-time is a M-theory. boundary of a five-dimensional anti-de Sitter space. Discoveries overlooked One of the missions of the MCTP Particle phenomenology was cov­ is to convey the excitement of ered by Lev Okun (ITER Moscow), physics to the general public. The John Bahcall (Princeton IAS), Helen 2001: A Spacetime Odyssey confer­ Quinn (SLAC), Mary K Gaillard ence achieved this very successfully (Berkeley), Paul Frampton (North with the collaboration of the Physics Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Martinus Department and the School of Art Veltman (Michigan). Okun recalled and Design at the University of his early days in Moscow, the discov­ Michigan.Ten new works by profes­ eries made there, such as the calcu­ sional artists, with inspiration from lation of asymptotic freedom by physicists, were created for exhibi­ Khriplovich in 1969 and the reaction tion at the conference. (or lack thereof) in the West. He also Most speakers agreed that par­ recalled Sakharov's reaction to the ticipating in such a meeting had possibility of vacuum bubble cre­ broadened their horizons, and per­ ation by colliders: "Such theoretical haps even influenced their work. In work should be forbidden." his after-dinner speech at the Bahcall presented an overview of conference banquet, Sheldon our understanding of solar neutrinos Glashow (Boston) assessed the and described how upcoming data, current state of particle and astro­ particularly from SNO would sharpen physics, and whether society cared it (as indeed happened soon after enough to sustain it. After a good the conference; CERN Courier meal and fine wine, the future September p5). One of the artworks that were designed and made for looked rosy. Quinn reviewed the theoretical sta­ the conference. The image is drawn from the original The conference talks and a selec­ tus of CP violation and current cloud chamber event in which the kaon was discovered. tion of photographs are available at attempts to test it experimentally, The artist is Prof. Sherri Smith of the University of "http://www.umich.edu/-mctp/ while Frampton presented a model of Michigan School of Art and Design, whose work has sto2001". spontaneous CP violation. Gaillard been shown at a number of venues, including the put the case for a derivation of the Museum of Modern Art and the Contemporary Crafts Michael Duff and Gordon Kane, Standard Model from the compact- Museum in New York, and the Centre International de la Michigan Center for Theoretical ification of the 10-dimensional het- Tapisserie in Switzerland. (Carol Rabuck.) Physics, University of Michigan. CERN Courier October 2001 23 Swiss Headquarters Tel ++41 81 771 61 61 Fax ++41 81 771 48 30 Email [email protected] VAT France Tel 01 69 20 69 11 Fax 01 69 20 90 08 Email [email protected] VAT Germany Tel (089)46 5015 New Catalog Fax (089) 46 37 65 Email [email protected] VAT U.K. Tel 020 8346 1999 Fax 020 8343 1104 Email [email protected] Pump Isolation VAT Japan Tel (045) 333 11 44 Fax (045) 333 70 24 Email [email protected],]p • VAT USA Tel (781)935 1446 XHV Fax (781) 935 3940 Email [email protected] Roughing Specialities Request our new catalog today! www. vatvalve.com Over 1000 standard products! 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