Varying Constants and Fundamental Cosmology – VARCOSMOFUN’16

Session

[Phil] Philosophy and cutting edge of physics and cosmology

Phil

17 Sept 2016, 09:30

Room 7 (Maritime University of Szczecin Campus, Szczerbcowa 4)

Conveners

[Phil] Philosophy and cutting edge of physics and cosmology

• Mariusz Dabrowski (University of Szczecin)

[Phil] Philosophy and cutting edge of physics and cosmology

• Mariusz Dabrowski (University of Szczecin)

91. Plato and Modern Physics

Krzysztof Meissner (Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Warsaw)

17/09/2016, 09:30

plenary

The talk is devoted to the discussion why modern fundamental physics is closer to the objective idealism of Plato than to the Aristotelian empiricism, after more than 2 thousand years of the domination of the latter in classical physics.

90. Where do the laws of physics come from?

Prof. Paul C. W. Davies (Arizona State University, USA)

17/09/2016, 10:30

plenary

Since the time of Newton, the laws of physics have generally been regarded as absolute, universal, eternal and immutable. In the era of modern cosmology, early versions of the big bang theory assumed the laws were magically imprinted on the universe at the moment of its origin. Quantum cosmology, however, requires the laws to transcend the physical universe, while eternal inflation cosmology...

7. Do we live in the Best of all Worlds? - The fine tuning of the constants of Nature

Prof. Thomas Naumann (Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DE))

17/09/2016, 12:00

plenary

On the occasion of the 300. anniversary of the death of G.W. Leibniz

Einstein once said: "What really interests me is whether God could have
created the world any differently." Our existence depends on a variety
of constants which appear to be extremely fine tuned to allow for the
existence of Life. These include the number of spatial dimensions, the
strengths of the forces, the masses...

89. How to justify the history of the universe?

Prof. Michael Heller (Vatican Astronomical Observatory; Copernicus Center, Kraków, Poland)

17/09/2016, 12:30

plenary

The laws of physics not only allow for, but also enforce, in a sense, the origin of structures, even of such complex structures as living organisms. However, they mercilessly watch the balance: the grow must remain in agreement with the second law of thermodynamics – everything has to tend to the thermodynamical equilibrium, that is to say to the thermal death. Even the most stable structures...