McGill.CA / Science / Department of Physics

Informal Pizza Seminar

Is a past finite order the inner basis of spacetime?

Rafael D Sorkin

Perimeter Institute & Syracuse University

The causal set - mathematically a locally finite ordered set or `poset' - is a candidate discrete substratum for spacetime. I will introduce this idea and describe some aspects of causal set kinematics, dynamics, and phenomenology, including, as time permits, a notion of fractal dimension, a stochastic growth dynamics, and an idea for explaining some of the puzzling large numbers of cosmology. I will also mention some questions of mathematical interest that have arisen in this connection.

Tuesday, November 16th 2004, 13:00
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, room 326