Inner space: String theory & the universes' hidden dimensions - Yau Shing-Tung

Professor Yau Shing-Tung gives this lecture entitled 'The shape of inner space: String theory & the geometry of the universes' hidden dimensions' at The Australian National University on 24 November 2010.

String theory says we live in a ten-dimensional universe, but that only four are accessible to our everyday senses. According to theorists, the missing six are curled up in bizarre structures known as Calabi-Yau manifolds. The discoverer of these manifolds, Professor Yau Shing-Tung, will describe in general terms how geometry enables the understanding of space time and trace its historical development from the ancient Greeks through Einstein to modern string theory, analysing on the way the contributions of many great geometers and physicists.

Professor Yau has been a Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University since 1987 and is the current department chair. Born in Shantou, China, he was educated in Hong Kong and from there moved to the US, where he obtained his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley in 1971, under the great geometer of the 20th century, Shing -Shen Chern. Professor Yau is one of the most famous and influential figures in modern mathematics and has won many major international prizes, including the prestigious Fields Medal of the International Mathematical Union in 1982, the US National Medal of Science in 1997 and earlier this year he was awarded the Wolf Prize.

This lecture is based upon the recent book The shape of inner space: String theory and the geometry of the universes' hidden dimensions by Professor Yau and Steve Nadis.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• maths
• physics
• science
• string theory
• yau shing-tung
• inner space
• geometry
• universes
• dimensions
• Calabi-Yau manifolds
• space time
• space
• time
• Einstein
• Fields Medal
• Wolf Prize
• ANU
• The ANU
• canberra
• education

[ImTheHaloGod]

Calabi-yau spaces are important in string theory, where one model posits the geometry of the universe to consist of a ten-dimensional space of the form M x V, where M is a four dimensional manifold (space time) and V is a six dimensional compact Calabi-yau space. They are related to Kummer surfaces.

[TomFynn]

@parabelic Fine waffle, very fine waffle.

[parabelic]

@FallofDarkness55

...

This rabbit hole ends at: the two opposite directions of a line meet/intersect each other in the eternity; however they have already met at the point on it in the middle of our horizontal and vertical amidst. The string is a reality and not so far or deep but is the light of GOD.

[SimplyPwnage]

dat audio..

[josephortizgarcia]

who's blocking my honest comments?

[CNFrostXY]

@FallofDarkness55 Answer is, forever. You can never answer a question with an absolute answer. It is how the universe is, our logic runs like that.

[chloeagnew1]

@FallofDarkness55

Your intepretation is absolutely wrong!

It seems that you are still thinking in the classical way!

"electrons orbiting this shell"---this is not true.

In quantum mechanics, there is no orbit.

They could be detected by chance. Their appearance in different places are governed by probability. They are not just orbiting in the shell, there is no such shell.

[FallofDarkness55]

okay so physicists have discovered molecules, then they discovered atoms, and within an atom they discovered a nuclei with nucleons i.e. protons and neutrons inside the nuclear shell and electrons orbiting this shell. inside protons and neutrons, they've discovered other particles including quarks. and now they're suggesting these quarks and everything in this universe is comprised of extremely tiny vibrating strings. here's the ultimate question: HOW FAR DOWN DOES THE RABBIT HOLE GO?

[LogicalFlawDetector]

He is a brilliant guy. But his lectures, at least this one, is not very clear. Read his book. No one has ever written about sophisticated mathematical ideas is such a lucid fashion that even the average lay person can understand. This book trumps Hawking's book.  But be ready to think, not just read, your way through the book.