Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures- The Roger Penrose Lecture

Carlo Rovelli – Spin networks: the quantum structure of spacetime from Penrose’s intuition to Loop Quantum Gravity

Monday 2 December 2019

In developing the mathematical description of quantum spacetime, Loop Quantum Gravity stumbled upon a curious mathematical structure: graphs labelled by spins. This turned out to be precisely the structure of quantum space suggested by Roger Penrose two decades earlier, just on the basis of his intuition. Today these graphs with spin, called “spin networks” have become a common tool to explore the quantum properties of gravity. In this talk Carlo will tell this beautiful story and illustrate the current role of spin networks in the efforts to understand quantum gravity.

Carlo Rovelli is a Professor in the Centre de Physique Théorique de Luminy of Aix-Marseille Université where he works mainly in the field of quantum gravity and is a founder of loop quantum gravity theory. His popular-science book ‘Seven Brief Lesson on Physics’ has been translated into 41 languages and has sold over a million copies worldwide.

5.30pm-6.30pm, Mathematical Institute, Oxford

Please email external-relations@maths.ox.ac.uk to register.

Watch live:
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livestream.com/oxuni/rovelli

The Oxford Mathematics Public Lectures are generously supported by XTX Markets.