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CBS Seminar: C. Smeenk
March 3, 2021 @ 9:15 am - 11:00 am EST
Decoupling from the Initial State?
ABSTRACT: According to inflationary cosmology, the universe passed through a transient phase of exponential expansion that leaves several characteristic imprints in the universe’s post-inflationary state. This paradigm has enjoyed considerable phenomenological success, as a wide range of inflationary models are compatible with observations. The extent to which this success lends credibility to inflation has been a subject of ongoing debate. Here I will focus on whether the predictions of inflation are robust to changes in high-energy physics, or to features of the pre-inflationary initial state. The prospect of describing the early universe successfully without resolving the mysteries of quantum gravity has always been one of inflation’s appealing features. I will review arguments that inflation does not decouple from high energy physics in the same sense as other effective field theories in physics. Establishing how inflation can be implemented in a theory of quantum gravity is an ongoing challenge, and doing so is needed to address several long-standing foundational questions.
Part of our ongoing Cosmology Beyond Spacetime online seminar series. See the full list of talks here.
Talks in this series will be held in Zoom webinar format and pre-registration is required.
REGISTER HERE: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BYAmu_RxTeCCSU7JXYk_Ig
Details
- Date:
- March 3, 2021
- Time:
-
9:15 am - 11:00 am EST
- Event Categories:
- Conferences 2020-21, Conferences, Workshops and Programs
Venue
- Online Lecture