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Department of Public Affairs
University of Toronto
Toronto, Canada

CONTACT:

U of T Public Affairs
ph: (416) 978-6974; email: nicolle.wahl{at}utoronto.ca

Feb. 24, 2003

Relatively speaking
Physicist John Moffat hopes to rewrite the history of the universe
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By Nicolle Wahl

Professor emeritus John Moffat of physics has his own ideas about 
relativity. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Albert Einstein's 
famous theory has formed the backbone upon which cosmology experts 
have sought to explain how the universe began and eventually how it 
will end.

But in spite of Einstein's genius, his theories have presented several 
problems for physicists such as how to explain the expansion of the 
universe and the existence of mysterious "negative-mass" matter. In 
1981 the inflationary universe model was proposed to solve some of 
these problems. It suggested that for a fraction of a second at the 
beginning of the universe, it expanded at an exponentially fast rate. 
But even this theory left some questions unanswered.

In the early 1990s Moffat proposed a radical alternative theory: that 
the speed of light was faster closer to the time of the big bang. His 
early calculations suggested that light travelled as much as 1,030 
times faster than its present value (186,000 miles per second) just
following the explosive beginning of the universe.

Moffat's unconventional theory sent waves through the physics 
community. "When you start to change physics on a fundamental level, 
when you start to change Einstein's theory, you're changing our whole 
understanding of space-time," Moffat says.

Last month theoretical astrophysicist Joao Maguelijo of Imperial 
College London published Faster than the Speed of Light, a new book 
describing his theories on a variable speed of light and acknowledging 
Moffat's groundbreaking work. In August 2002 the journal Nature
published a paper by Paul Davies from the Australian Centre for 
Astrobiology, a followup on other papers based on Moffat's theory.

"Had I not been aware of John's work, I would not have myself made a 
small contribution to this field," Davies says. "John has shown how it 
is possible to think outside the square when confronting some of the 
puzzles of cosmology. In particular, his cosmological solutions seem 
to be in good agreement with the remarkable new astronomical results 
showing that the fine structure constant seems to have varied over 
cosmological history."

This work may herald a major reinterpretation of cosmological data, 
Davies adds, and require important changes to the conceptual scheme 
used as a framework for cosmology over the last half century. But 
Moffat has his detractors within the physics community. Michael Duff,
director of the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics at the 
University of Michigan and a long-time friend of Moffat, has published 
rebuttals of Moffat's theory.

"Moffat has lots of provocative ideas," says Duff. "He's contributing 
to the debate, so although I have to disagree with him, he's every bit 
entitled to express his opinion, and he does so quite effectively. I 
happen to disagree with him."

Duff suggests that proponents of the changing speed of light theory 
are confusing a change in physics with a change in the units used to 
measure it. Asking whether the speed of light has changed over 
cosmological time scales is like asking whether the number of litres 
to a gallon has changed," he says, adding that those who take Moffat's 
view are at risk of drawing false conclusions.

But the publication of Davies' paper, along with the increased profile 
of the changing speed of light theory, gives Moffat a certain sense of 
vindication. Although retired, he regularly publishes papers on the 
topic and recently spoke at international conferences in France and 
Portugal. And while he acknowledges that his controversial theory has 
detractors, he is pleased that his model is undergoing rigorous 
scientific testing.

"The physics community is a very conservative community, and so it 
should be," says Moffat. "This is not a trivial matter. You don't just 
go around changing paradigms in science willy-nilly."

[Nicolle Wahl is a news services officer with the department of public 
affairs.]

RELATED STORIES:

* Speed of light may not be constant, physicist suggests
  (Sept. 30, 1999)
  http://www.newsandevents.utoronto.ca/bin/19990930b.asp
* Challenging Einstein (Oct. 25, 1999)
  http://www.newsandevents.utoronto.ca/bin/19991025g.asp

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