Neil Turok, Perimeter Institute
Observations reveal the cosmos to be astonishingly simple, and yet deeply puzzling, on the largest accessible scales. Why is it so nearly symmetrical? Why is there a cosmological constant (or dark energy) and what fixes its value? How did everything we see emerge from a singular “point” in the past? Many lines of evidence point to a quantum beginning of spacetime. Hitherto, proposals for such a beginning were connected to cosmic inflation. However, new mathematical techniques for describing quantum effects in gravity have revealed flaws in these proposals. More positively, they provide a glimpse of a more minimal and predictive quantum cosmology. Exciting consequences include the simplest-yet explanation of the dark matter - as comprising stable, right handed partners of the known left handed neutrinos - and a simpler, non-inflationary explanation of the origin of the large scale structure of the universe.