Abstract: Over a century ago, Boltzmann and others provided a microscopic understanding for the tendency of entropy to increase. But this understanding relies ultimately on an empirical fact about cosmology: the early universe had a very low entropy. Why was it like that? Cosmologists aspire to provide a dynamical explanation for the observed state of the universe, but have had very little to say about the dramatic asymmetry between early times and late times. I will discuss cosmological models that attempt to address this problem, and some ways that the arrow of time plays out in cosmic evolution.
Speaker:
Sean Carroll
Sean Carroll's official title is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins, and he is also Fractal Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is interested in how the world works at the deepest levels, which leads him to do research in physics and philosophy. His current interests include foundational questions in quantum mechanics, spacetime, statistical mechanics, complexity, and cosmology, with occasional dabblings elsewhere.
This is lecture 1 of 3 in the 2026 Heilborn Lecture Series. Please visit our website for more information.
Keywords: Physics, Heilborn
Laura Nevins
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