ITP2022 O'Raifeartaigh Lectures - Thursday 26 May, 18:30-20:00

The O’Raifeartaigh Lecture is held annually in honour of Lochlainn O’Raifeartaigh (1933 – 2000). Throughout his career O’Raifeartaigh made seminal contributions to fundamental physics, which continue to influence the landscape of theoretical physics today. Following a DIAS research fellowship to work with the great Irish relativist J. L. Synge, O’Raifeartaigh obtained his PhD from the University of Zurich. After rejoining DIAS as an assistant professor, O’Raifeartaigh spent time at the Mathematical Science Institute in Madras, the University of Syracuse and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 1968 O’Raifeartaigh returned to DIAS on a permanent basis as a Senior Professor and went on to build an internationally renowned group in theoretical high energy physics.

As part of the Irish Theoretical Physics conference 2022 (formerly the Irish Quantum Foundations meeting) DIAS is proud to host two lectures, to run in succession on the night, from celebrated physicists Fay Dowker and John Ellis.

Thursday 26 May - 18:30-19:15: Fay Dowker (Imperial College, London)

Title: What we talk about when we talk about the Quantum World.

Abstract: Quantum mechanics is famously strange and counter-intuitive, differing from what we might expect based on our everyday experiences. But what, exactly, lies at the core of this strangeness? The particle physicist Richard Feynman remarked that we seem to have to walk "a logical tightrope" when we talk about a quantum system. I will suggest what Feynman might have meant by this and why he brought the question of "logic" into the discussion of the implications of quantum theory. I will describe a way of thinking and talking about a quantum system, influenced by Feynman's perspective, in which we must pay careful attention to logic if we want a picture of the physical quantum world. And in which, maybe, quantum-ness is not as counter to everyday thinking as one might suppose.

Thursday 26 May - 19:15-20:00: John Ellis (CERN & King's College, London)

Title: What are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?

Abstract: Gauguin posed these questions in a famous painting of people pondering these metaphysical questions. Particle physicists seek scientific answers to these fundamental questions, analysing the structure of matter and its origins, the nature of dark matter and questioning whether the expansion of the Universe will continue forever. Central role in answers to these questions involve the Higgs boson discovered 10 years ago and possibly supersymmetry, a theory to which Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh made many fundamental contributions.

Lectures will run in succession. Tickets cover both talks.