On Grave Matters About Gravity

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Speaker(s): Vatche Sahakian

A few months ago, Erik Verlinde, a string theorist from the Netherlands, conjectured a new principle in physics — one with potential to ruin the careers and lives of many physicists… In short, Verlinde proposes that gravity is really not a force! The claim is inspired from works in general relativity and string theory during the past decades, but can actually be excised from both and be seen instead as a counterpoint. And it is surprisingly simple and easy to understand. But is it correct? Or, as Niels Bohr would say, is this idea crazy but not crazy enough to be true? I will present a critical look of this conjecture.

Colloquium

Junior and senior physics majors attend our biweekly colloquium series, held on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30 p.m. in Shanahan B460. The talks are open to all students and to the public, and are frequently attended by scientists from the other Claremont Colleges, Cal Poly Pomona, and others. The series features speakers from a broad range of institutions and fields of physics.