HEINRICH PÄS
Professor of Theoretical Physics | TU Dortmund University

Neutrinos, Cosmology & the Big Questions

Heinrich Päs works on particle physics and cosmology and doesn't shy away from asking the big questions. He is also an enthusiastic writer, teacher and science communicator. Both a tool and a subject of study for his research are neutrinos - the ghostlike particles that are a million times lighter than an electron and yet so abundant that they contribute roughly as much mass to the universe as all the stars combined. Believing that the universe is fundamentally quantum in nature, he is a many-worlder about measurements, but a strict monist when it comes to the foundations of reality.   [...more about Heinrich]
Research Questions
-How Do Neutrinos Obtain Masses?
-How Many Neutrinos Are There?
-What Is Beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics?
-What Is the Dark Matter in the Universe?
-Why Is there More Matter than Antimatter in the Universe?
-Are There More Than Three Dimensions of Space?
-What is Time?
-How Quantum is the Universe?
  [...learn more about Heinrich's Research]

Featured Writing

Rethinking reality: Is the entire universe a single quantum object?
In the face of new evidence, physicists are starting to view the cosmos not as made up of disparate layers, but as a quantum whole linked by entanglement.
- New Scientist Cover Feature, July 5, 2023


All is One
The ancient philosophy of monism and the physics of quantum entanglement agree: all that exists is one unified whole.
- Aeon, April 28, 2023


Why More Physicists Are Starting to Think Space and Time Are 'Illusions'
A concept called "quantum entanglement" suggests the fabric of the universe is more interconnected than we think. And it also suggests we have the wrong idea about reality.
- The Daily Beast, January 30, 2023


Ghostly Beacons of New Physics
Neutrinos, the strangest beasts in the particle zoo, may soon open the way to unexplored realms
- Scientific American Cover Feature, May 21, 2013

[...more writing in English or German]

Books

"A heady mix of history, philosophy and cutting-edge theory that is fascinating", "stimulating and engrossing", "provocative and at times infuriating"
- Andrew Crumey, The Wall Street Journal

Blending physics, philosophy, and the history of ideas, The One is an epic, mind-expanding journey through millennia of human thought and into the nature of reality itself.
- Basic Books 2023

[...available in English]
"Some science books are good because they tell you a lot about science. Some are good because they present their examples and argument in very well written prose. A few do both. 'The Perfect Wave' is one of the few."
- John Gribbin, The Wall Street Journal

Heinrich's first book isn't about surfing even though its author was a postdoc in Hawai'i and got pounded badly when trying to surf Oahu's North Shore. It is about the neutrino, Nature's most exotic particle and how it could serve as a probe to new physics, extra dimensions, the universe... and maybe even time travel.
- Harvard University Press 2014

[...available in English or German]