Why Is the Universe Big? - Nima Arkani-Hamed

As part of the IAS-DIAS organised conference, The Amplituhedron at 10: Hidden Mathematical Structures of the Amplituhedron, Prof. Nima Arkani-Hamed (IAS, Princeton) will give a public lecture at the Royal Irish Academy on the evening of Monday 24 April.
One of the leading particle physics phenomenologists of his generation, Nima Arkani-Hamed is concerned with the relation between theory and experiment. His research has shown how the extreme weakness of gravity, relative to other forces of nature, might be explained by the existence of extra dimensions of space, and how the structure of comparatively low-energy physics is constrained within the context of string theory.
Abstract: Perhaps the most obvious fact about our universe is that it is enormously big, populated with huge objects -- stars, planets and people -- that are also all much bigger than the minuscule size of molecules, atoms and elementary particles that make up all matter. Why is this? In this talk, we will see that in trying to answer this simplest of questions -- "why is the universe big?", we are forced to confront some of the deepest mysteries confronting fundamental physics today, challenging the foundations of our understanding of spacetime, quantum mechanics and the vacuum.