[The University of Texas at Austin: What starts here changes the world]
Theory Group
Special Colloquium, 02 December 2011


Prof. J. Richard Bond, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, CITA

Cosmic Information: IT from BIT, from BITs in IT

abstract

We consider the Universe to be fundamentally quantum and statistical, the many-paths/many-worlds story. Cosmic Information Theory and Analysis, CITA, is a unifying theme underlying the vast sweep of our current ideas of the Universe and the experiments we use to probe them, ranging from the ultra-early beginnings to our far-future fate. I describe the intimate entanglement of theory with precision "first-light" and other cosmic data, in particular from the cosmic microwave background satellite Planck and the Andes-based Atacama Cosmology Telescope. Such data are the BITs in IT informing us of the physics that defines the BIT of the Universe accessible to us from which we hope to learn of that vast IT which encodes all Cosmic Information. The mysterious dark energy that drives the cosmic acceleration we observe happening now and its early universe counterpart, inflation, will be a focus.



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