Speaker
Description
Modern theories of physics are elaborate, math-heavy constructions that aim to encompass the workings of the world in the largest possible scales on the one hand (relativistic cosmology), and on the deepest subatomic level on the other (quantum field theories). What they share in common is the special kind of raw, majestic beauty, which not only enthralls theorists (including Einstein and Dirac), but sometimes even drives their scientific pursuits. But what actually makes a theory "beautiful"? In order to answer this question, during this popular lecture we shall take a quick walk starting from the very dawn of (mathematical) physics all the way to the current search for grand unification. Can aesthetics really lead us closer to the truth, or is beauty a luring, but deceiptful guide that should have no place in the logical and empirical method of physics?
