You are cordially invited to attend a colloquium presented by the distinguished
4:00 PM, Friday Nov. 14, Room 111 (the Fishbowl) Jadwin Hall
Come listen to Professor Callan present this colloquium geared towards the undergraduate, and find out his motivations for pursuing physics through his Retrospective on his career. Refreshments will be provided for all.
String theory's main claim to fame at the moment is that it could be a satisfactory theory of quantum gravity. One of the more puzzling mysteries of that subject is the origin and interpretation of the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy (and its close companion, Hawking radiation). Recent developments in string theory (string duality in particular) have have revealed a set of degenerate quantum black hole states whose existence makes possible a convincing statistical mechanical explanation of black hole entropy. Many (but not all!) of the basic physical ideas underlying these remarkable developments are surprisingly elementary. I will present a summary of the current state of the subject which I hope will be accessible (or at least inspirational) to undergraduate physics majors.
The Undergraduate Math and Physics Colloquium organization is a group dedicated to bringing colloquia to the undergraduate math and science community that are educational, entertaining, and inspirational. By presenting cutting-edge topics by distinguished lecturers in a fashion accessible to undergraduates, we hope to enhance the Princeton experience and provide a perspective on careers in math and science.
For more information on our colloquia or lectures, feel free to mail us at umpc@princeton.edu.
President: Tamar Friedman, Vice President: Ed Peterlin, Treasurer: Justin Werfel
Last modified on 11/12/97, 10:43.