Probing the String Landscape: Implications, Applications, and Controversies
by
Prof.Keith Dienes(NSF/U. Maryland/U. Arizona)
→
Pacific/Honolulu
Rm. 112 (UHM - Watanabe Hall)
Rm. 112
UHM - Watanabe Hall
2505 Correa Road
Honolulu, HI 96822
Description
We are currently in the throes of a potentially huge paradigm shift in
physics. Motivated by recent developments in string theory and the
discovery of the so-called "string landscape", physicists are beginning to
question the uniqueness of fundamental theories of physics and the methods
by which such theories might be understood and investigated. In this
colloquium, I will give a non-technical introduction to the nature of this
paradigm shift and the history of how it developed. I will also discuss
some of the questions to which it has led, and the nature of the
controversies it has spawned.