Laura Mersini-Houghton
| Laura Mersini-Houghton | |
|---|---|
| Born | Tirana |
| Nationality | Albanian |
| Institutions | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University of Cambridge |
| Alma mater | Tirana University University of Maryland University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee |
| Doctoral advisor | Leonard Parker |
Dr. Laura Mersini-Houghton (née Laura Mersini) is a theoretical physicist-cosmologist and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since January 2004.[1]
Laura Mersini-Houghton received her undergraduate degree from the University of Tirana, Albania, her M.Sc. from the University of Maryland and was awarded a PhD in 2000 by the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Contents |
[edit] Education
- B.S., University of Tirana, Albania
- M.S., University of Maryland
- Ph.D., University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
[edit] Research
She has worked on a variety of topics on the particle physics-cosmology interface. She was particularly interested in the possibility of generating dark energy from transplanckian physics in string theory, gravity and quantum field theory in curved space, and higher-dimension braneworlds.
One of her major contributions is her theory that explains the selection of the Initial Conditions of our Universe from the multiverse.[2][3] This theory explains that the only way the universe can survive the Big Bang is if it bangs at high energies. As such, high energy initial states for the universe are more probable than their low energy initial patches, since the latter are terminal. This theory addresses one of the big mysteries of nature, the birth of the low entropy universe in compliance with the arrow of time. It also offers observational signatures of all the surviving universes that comprise the multiverse. She says that when it comes to what we know about the universe, current physics theory is lagging a little behind. For example, the Big Bang theory might not be enough to explain the origin of all the matter in the universe (everything from the universe's large-scale structure — galaxies and the like — to cosmic microwave background radiation, dark matter, and the rest). A Copernican extension of our physical theories to a multiverse framework may be required for probing the most fundamental questions and best kept secrets of nature.
In 2006, Mersini-Houghton with collaborators predicted a series of observational imprints of her theory [4] for the birth of our high energy universe from the multiverse, by using the unitarity principle of quantum mechanics (no information loss). They predicted the existence of a giant void far away of size about 12 degrees in the southern hemisphere of the sky; the 'tilting' of the gravitational potential in the universe, which gives rise to a Dark Flow of structure, caused by superhorizon entanglement of our universe with all else in the multiverse; the suppression of the overall amplitude of inflationary fluctuations due to the same interaction of our Hubble volume with others in the multiverse, etc. A second void was predicted for the northern hemisphere of the sky as reported in the New Scientist.[5]
In 2007, Mersini-Houghton claimed that the observed CMB cold spot was "the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own",[6] just as she and her collaborator had predicted in her theory 8 months earlier.[7]
In Nov. 2008, a NASA team led by Alexander Kashlinsky[8] observed the Dark Flow of galaxy clusters in the universe at exactly the velocity and alignment predicted by her [9] earlier in the 'Cosmological Avatars of the Landscape I, II' papers in 2006.[4]
In the same year (2006) WMAP reached agreement with SDSS experiment, that the overall amplitude of fluctuation is less than 1. If these observational findings, predicted in the 2006 papers by Mersini-Houghton et al. are confirmed over the next few years, then they may offer the first evidence of a world beyond our own. Such confirmation would tie the standard model of cosmology into a more coherent picture where our universe is not at the center of the world, but part of it.[citation needed]
After the observational confirmation of the three predictions (the Void, Dark Flow and Sigma8) her work continues to attract international media attention, GCHEP/UNC, and Discover magazine, October 2009.
Two astrophysicists reported recently that they have found evidence of the northern hemisphere void in analysis of WMAP data,.[10]
[edit] Media coverage
On October 11, 2010, Laura Mersini-Houghton appeared in a BBC programme What Happened Before the Big Bang (along with Michio Kaku, Neil Turok, Andrei Linde, Roger Penrose, Lee Smolin and other notable cosmologists and physicists) where she propounded her theory of the universe as a wave function on the landscape multiverse.[11] The programme referred to three observational tests of her theory's predictions, which makes it the only theory on the origins of our universe ever to offer predictions and have them successfully tested.
Mersini-Houghton's work on multiverse theory is discussed in the epilogue of a recently published biography of Hugh Everett III.[12]
[edit] References
- ^ Laura Mersini-Houghton
- ^ arxiv:hep-th/0511102
- ^ see also arxiv:hep-th/0410213, arxiv:hep-th/0504026
- ^ a b Cosmological Avatars of the Landscape I, II; Phys. Rev. D, 77,063510, 063511; arxiv:hep-th/0611223, arxiv:hep-th/0612142
- ^ The void: Imprint of another universe?, New Scientist, 2007-11-24
- ^ Marcus Chown, The void: Imprint of another universe?, New Scientist, 2007-11-24
- ^ arxiv:hep-th/0612142
- ^ A. Kashlinsky, F. Atrio-Barandela, D. Kocevski, and H. Ebeling, A measurement of large-scale peculiar velocities of clusters of galaxies: results and cosmological implications, ApJ 686 L49, doi:10.1086/592947, arxiv:0809.3734,(same paper at nasa.gov)
- ^ arxiv:0810.5388
- ^ arxiv:0811.2732v3/astro-ph
- ^ "Two Programmes - Horizon, 2010-2011, What Happened Before the Big Bang?". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vdkmj. Retrieved 2011-01-02.
- ^ "The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III",ISBN 9780199552276
