Latham Boyle: Special Lectures

I will begin with the Penrose tiling -- the most famous example of a self-similar quasi-periodic pattern. In addition to its beauty and mathematical interest, this pattern has a classic physical application to exotic materials called quasicrystals. But, in this talk, I will explain two new physical contexts in which such ...

After reviewing some key hints and puzzles from the early universe, I will introduce recent work with Neil Turok suggesting a rigid and predictive new approach to addressing them. Our universe seems to be dominated by radiation at early times, and positive vacuum energy at late times. Taking the symmetry ...