PHYSICS SEMINAR
QUANTUM COSMOLOGY: A TALE OF COSMIC ORIGINS
Dr. Valerio Faraoni
Physics Department
Bishop's University
Friday, October 9, 2009
1.30 p.m.
Nicolls 1
The question posed by Bryce DeWitt in 1967: ``What does a quantum universe look like?'' leads to the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, the basic tool for investigating further questions such as ``Can Quantum Mechanics remove the classical Big Bang singularity?'', or ``Where does the universe come from?''Two celebrated solutions of the WDW equation will be presented: Vilenkin's ``tunneling of the universe from nothing'' proposal and the Hartle-Hawking ``no-boundary'' proposal. These solutions are modern attempts to address the origin of the universe problem without advocating religion but, nevertheless, with a philosophical flavour.
