Lecture Starts at 13:53
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PSW 2478
June 2, 2023
Einstein's Real Equation: Mass, Energy, and the Curvature of SpaceTime
Sean Carroll
Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy
Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy
Johns Hopkins University

Albert Einstein is indelibly associated with a famous equation: E=mc2, relating the mass of an object to its energy. But that is not what physicists have in mind when they say “Einstein’s Equation.” The “real” Einstein’s Equation – the one physicists have in mind – is part of general relativity, which relates the curvature of spacetime to the mass and energy distributed within it. This lecture will explain why the geometry of spacetime has anything to do with gravity, and how the Einstein Equation expresses how spacetime curves.

Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, and he is a member of the Fractal Faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. Previously he was Research Professor at Caltech and before that he was on the faculty at the University of Chicago.

Sean is well known for his work in theoretical physics and the philosophy of science. His theoretical work focuses on the foundations of physics, including issues in quantum mechanics and spacetime, and on cosmology. His research publications include work on Lorentz invariance, closed timelike curves in general relativity, topological defects in field theory; extra spacetime dimensions, dark energy and its interactions with ordinary matter and dark matter, and on modifications of general relativity and aspects of quantum mechanics, including the manyworlds interpretation and a derivation of the Born rule for probabilities.

Sean is an author on many technical and general publications and books, including the wellreceived textbook Spacetime and Geometry, An Introduction to General Relativity and his most recent book is The Biggest Ideas in the Universe, Vol. 1: Space, Time, and Motion. Sean also has made two lecture series on physics on Wondrium/The Great Courses. And he hosts Mindscape, a weekly podcast.

Among many other honors and awards, Sean has been awarded prizes and fellowships by the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Sloan Foundation, the Packard Foundation, the American Physical Society, the American Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of London, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Sean earned a BS in Astronomy and Astrophysics with a minor in Philosophy at Villanova University and a PhD in Astronomy at Harvard University.

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