The Shape of Space, from Black Holes to the Universe
Jean-Pierre Luminet
Laboratory Universe & Theories (LUTH)
Observatoire de
Paris (
The description of the shape of
our physical space at various scales (length scales or energy scales) involves
a rich variety of geometrical models, each depending on the underlying physical
theory. Imaging distorted space and time by gravitational and quantum fields is
a big challenge of modern fundamental physics. I shall discuss such space
representations for describing the shape of space around black holes, next the
global shape of our universe in the framework of cosmic topology, and
eventually give hints on the shape of space-time at the quantum scale. Striking
movies and color visualizations will be displayed.