Speaker: Prof. Pisin Chen (Department of Physics, National Taiwan University)

Time: 15:00, Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Place: 1F Auditorium, Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica

We know that the Universe began with a Big Bang and a period of inflation, but their details are still unresolved. To reach a deeper understanding of these, a quantum theory of gravity that unifies general relativity and quantum field theory maybe necessary. Quantum gravity is also needed in another extreme spacetime condition, the black hole, a prediction by general relativity, where the Hawking evaporation may lead to the loss of information, which violates a sacred principle of quantum theory.

Over the past 40 years, the investigations of this information loss paradox were essentially theoretical. Recently Gerard Mourou, a 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics Laureate, and the speaker proposed an experiment with the hope to shed lights on this extremely fundamental issue. In this talk, the speaker will tour through our amazing universe at a pedagogical level. This speech will also explain how to create analog black holes in the lab, and why Prof. Mourou deserves that year’s Nobel Prize.