THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS
SPECIAL COLLOQUIUM
SPONSORED BY
THE PHYSICS DEPARTMENT AND SIGMA XI
PROFESSOR WOLFGANG RINDLER
Cosmic Repulsion-Einstein's Biggest Blunder?
Wednesday, April 29, 1998
3:00 pm
Founders North 2.102 (Kusch Auditorium)
Coffee 2:45 pm, Founders Lobby
WINE AND CHEESE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING
THE TALK IN THE TEXAS ROOM
(3RD FLOOR, FOUNDERS NORTH)
Abstract
In 1917, to make possible a static model of the universe, Einstein added the famous "lamda-term" to his 1915 field equations of general relativity. By 1931 he had come to reject this step and called it "his greatest blunder". But the lamda-term-- representing a universal cosmic repulsion--had by then acquired a life of its own. It remained in the armory of a minority of cosmologists, who felt that its value should be fixed by observation rather than by edict. And, indeed, some recent observations seem to imply that cosmic repulsion exists.
The lecture will fill out this story and should be understandable to people with a basic knowledge in science.
Professor Rindler has been at UT Dallas since 1963. He received his Ph.D. from the University of London. Professor Rindler is internationally known for his contributions to relativity theory and cosmology.
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