An Invitation to Imagine Something from Nothing

Join us at 5pm for Tea & Cookies prior to the lecture.

Abstract

Is the glass half-full or half-empty? The glass is full of particle fields. Although you cannot see it, even the empty space around you is filled with particle fields. They form the fabric of our universe — forming everything you see, from the stars and far-away galaxies to the cup of coffee you are drinking. They push and pull in an expressive “dance” with each other, following specific rules to operate the visible and invisible world.

Particle physicists put on a show of the fields “dancing” through experiments and observe the performance over and over again to gain a deeper appreciation of their rules for interaction. Today, particle physicists are using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)  to collide protons with unprecedented energy, to put on a show unlike any previous experiments have. Through this experimental quest, we have discovered the Higgs field, which led to the Nobel Prize. Now we are on a quest to understand the rules of the Higgs field — and more.

We invite the audience to imagine with Professor Chang the particle fields that exist in empty space, to share the deep appreciation that particle physicists have for the natural world, and to imagine together the possible future in this quest to understand particle fields.