Valery A. Rubakov, chief scientist at the Institute for Nuclear Research at the Russian Academy of Sciences, will give a BSA Distinguished Lecture - "Extra Dimensions of Space: Are They Going to be Found Soon?"

 

In his lecture, Rubakov will discuss superstring theory and M-theory, which attempt to explain all the particles and basic forces of nature. While space is normally thought to be three-dimensional, these theories suggest that there may be many more dimensions in space, perhaps as many as ten. These theories have never been proven, but discoveries at the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, may provide data to elucidate them. Rubakov will discuss the possibility of new findings at the LHC related to these theories, and, if new dimensions were verified, what the implications would be related to scientists' current understanding of the basis of matter.