Black Hole Horizons: The Gravity of Paradigms

Lezing door Sebastian de Haro, woensdag 9 maart, CREA, Turfdraagsterpad 17 1012 XT. Aanvang 20.00 uur, toegang €5 (gratis voor studenten).

No one can really tell, but falling into a black hole is not likely to be a pleasant experience. Black holes are the most massive objects in our universe. The center of our galaxy is likely to host a black hole that is millions of times heavier than the sun. Black holes are thought to hold some of the keys to reconciling quantum mechanics with general relativity. In this talk I will review Stephen Hawking’s conjecture that black holes may be in conflict with most of what we know about the laws of nature and how those difficulties have been overcome in the context of string theory. The key idea is that observers who fall into or stay outside of a black hole hold complementary views on what they see. Their views can be seen as irreconcilable, but complementary paradigms. This is an extension of the old idea of quantum mechanics that the wave and particle descriptions are dual but complementary descriptions of nature