麻豆社区

Why did you become a researcher?

I excelled early on in mathematics and physics. One day in primary school, at the municipal library in Frederiksberg, I pulled a book off the shelf – Ruth Moore’s biography of Niels Bohr – and was fascinated by the fact that quantum mechanics had essentially been discovered and developed right in my own neighborhood in and around Copenhagen and Northern Zealand. The photos were from Old Carlsberg and Tisvilde. I grew up in Frederiksberg, went to school on Rahbeks Allé next to Carlsberg, and my family had a summer house in Tisvilde.

When I read about Bohr’s discoveries and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, I decided I wanted to be a physicist and try to understand quantum mechanics.

What else did you dream of becoming?

I didn’t have many dreams beyond becoming a physicist. For a short while, I wanted to be a conductor, and I also briefly flirted with philosophy. When I told my philosophy teacher at Frederiksberg Gymnasium that I was considering philosophy, he replied: “Aren’t you good at physics? Stick with that.” I followed his advice—and I haven’t regretted it.

What question would you most like to answer?

Initially, I just wanted to understand quantum mechanics, but that grew into an interest in the fundamental problems of particle physics and quantum gravity/string theory, and eventually into cosmology. Today, I’m focused on fundamental questions about the origin of the universe and the origins of dark matter and dark energy.

The most acute issue right now is what’s known as the “Hubble tension”: measurements of the universe’s expansion rate don’t agree with what we expect from the standard cosmological model. That suggests the model is missing something.

We’ve proposed that dark energy may have undergone a phase transition—much like the transition from ice to water—and that a new phase of dark energy could resolve the problem. Our idea, New Early Dark Energy (NEDE), currently looks very promising and has attracted strong international interest. I’m collaborating with colleagues in Munich, Stockholm, Cambridge, Oslo, and Aarhus to further develop and test our ideas.

How do you hope others can benefit from your research?

I hope it will lead to a deeper understanding of the universe and the fundamental forces of nature, and that it will inspire other researchers and students — teaching students new methods and new ways of thinking. In the end, curiosity and the pursuit of new knowledge are the bedrock of the Enlightenment ideal on which much of our society and development rest.

What do you have in your office that most other people don’t?

I have two blackboards, which I use when discussing with colleagues or students. It’s quite common for theoretical physicists to have blackboards in their offices.

Who do you admire?

In the preface to my PhD thesis, I included a quote from Václav Havel: “Seek the company of those who are looking for the truth, but run away from those who have found it.”

I admire people who pursue the truth without compromise—who stay true to themselves and their ideals and don’t yield to political or economic pressure. Those who fight nonsense and remain authentic. I have many role models, but this is what unites them.

What do you do when you’re not doing research?

My family means the most to me, and I spend most of my time with them when I’m not researching or teaching. I also enjoy books, and we have a small, old sailboat.

We lived abroad for many years, including in California and Switzerland. When we lived in the Geneva area, our home was 600 meters up in the Jura Mountains, with a view over Geneva, Lake Geneva, and Mont Blanc from the living room. There was a path up to the top of the Jura just behind our house. When we moved back to Denmark, we wanted to stay close to nature. In Denmark, the sea is one of the wildest forms of nature we have—so we bought a sailboat, which the whole family has greatly enjoyed.