TODAY

Poster: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/colloquia/Colloquia%20Notices/2011_2012/BOYLE%20Theoretical%20Physics%20Colloquium.pdf

The University of Western Ontario
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

THEORETICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR

Date:               FRIDAY, 18^th November 2011
Time:              2:30 p.m.
Location:        Physics & Astronomy Seminar Room 22

Dr. Latham Boyle
Cosmology & Gravitation

Perimeter Institute

“New windows on black holes and the very early universe”

ABSTRACT

The following two assertions are widely believed by physicists, but have been hard to confirm convincingly:

(i)       the space-time near a black hole is described by Kerr’s beautiful 1963 solution of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity; and

(ii)      the very early universe experienced a burst of accelerated expansion (“inflation”).

I will discuss new strategies to test these statements. First, I will suggest a strategy to detect light rays that are bent by large angles as they pass near a black hole. Second, I will explain how forthcoming cosmological observations may align in a way that would convince even a hardened skeptic that inflation is correct.