Cosmoparticle Hub researchers collaborate in CERN-curated Arts/Science exhibition

7 October 2019

Professor Hiranya Peiris contributes a 鈥榣iving scientists鈥� blackboard to complement historical blackboards such as Einstein's, Rudolf Steiner鈥檚 and Joseph Beuys鈥� in a sci/art collaboration.

In August 2018 Professor Hiranya Peiris was among a group of scientists invited to contribute to an exhibition curated by , founder of, the interdisciplinary arts/science/technology programme based at the world鈥檚 largest particle physics research laboratory, the home of the Large Hadron Collider.

EntanglePhysics and the Artistic Imagination

The exhibition, entitled 鈥樷€�, ran from November 2018 鈥� April 2019 at the , Sweden, capturing how particle physics is inspiring the work of contemporary artists. The project is captured in the book by the same name and edited by Ariane Koek, published by Hatje Cantz Verlag (19 Sept 2019).

Professor Peiris invited colleagues to participate in a collaborative science discussion and captured it on the blackboard. The result was entitled 鈥楾he Quantum Origin of the Universe鈥�.听She provides an explanation of the creative impulse behind the work:

鈥淲hat event gave birth to our universe? The theory of 鈥榠nflation鈥� might hold the answer. It听conjectures that the early universe went through a time of accelerated expansion, ironing out听any lumps听and bumps to leave it nearly uniform with just very slight irregularities. In fact, its听predictions have been startlingly accurate as, over the last decade, we have mapped the universe听on the largest听scales 鈥� and so inflation is now a highly-favoured scenario for the very-early universe.听Yet inflation is so powerful that, once unleashed, it might continue indefinitely, ending only inside a听few听isolated 鈥榖ubbles鈥�; our own universe would then be contained within one of these rare patches.听Looking back in time from within the bubble, we see the beginning of the universe as a mysterious听鈥楤ig Bang鈥� event. We could uncover more about what that event means if we can understand the听physics of the bubble formation. In order听to shed light on the originating event of the cosmos听itself requires understanding the quantum nucleation event 鈥� for which current techniques are not adequate.鈥�

鈥淭he blackboard depicts the conception of a collaboration aiming to answer these difficult questions. The collaborators involved include (other than myself) Jonathan Braden and Andrew Pontzen at 911爆料网, Silke Weinfurtner at the University of Nottingham, and Matt Johnson at the Perimeter Institute in Canada. It is one of the most wide-ranging and enjoyable collaborations of my career so far, and has led us to try to gain further understanding of the origin of the Universe by means of studying analogue condensed matter systems that can be built in the lab.鈥�

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Images from the exhibition

Figure 1 Installation by Goshka Macuga

Fig 2听Equations by contemporary physicists (Peiris blackboard听top right)听& Einstein and Beuys blackboards

Fig 2 Equations by contemporary physicists.& Einstein and Beuys blackboards

Figure 3听Rudolph Steiner blackboards