Lisa Randall (Department of Physics)
First-Year Seminar 26J | 4 Credits (Fall 2024) | CANVAS SITE
Monday, 3:00 PM–5:00 PM
This seminar will give an overview and introduction to modern physics and cosmology. As with the books, Warped Passages, Knocking on Heavens Door, Higgs Discovery, and Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, on which it will be loosely based, the seminar will consider important developments in physics today and in the last century. We will consider the revolutionary developments of quantum mechanics and general relativity; and will investigate the key concepts which separated these developments from the physical theories which previously existed. We will then delve into modern particle physics and cosmology and how theory and experiment culminated in the Standard Model of particle physics which physicists use today as well as the current cosmological model based on the Big Bang theory and inflation. We will also move beyond the standard theories into more speculative arenas, including supersymmetry, string theory, and theories of extra dimensions of space, as well as ideas about the nature of dark matter and black holes. We will consider the motivations underlying these theories, their current status, and how we might hope to test some of the underlying ideas in the near future.