Cosmology

I'll discuss recent work on finding time-dependent solutions of a black hole interacting with a scalar field. I'll discuss two distinct cases where the back-reaction of the scalar can be found. First, in the case that the scalar is slowly rolling (such as in inflation) the scalar field can be found in terms of super-advanced time coordinate, regular on both horizons. The scalar back-reacts on the geometry, with the black hole accreting and growing more or less as expected. The second case I'll describe briefly is scalar hair in modified gravity - giving a scalar-dressed rotating black hole that is finite on both horizons. 

Quasars are among the most powerful light sources in the universe and, as such, can be seen at cosmological distances. Is some rare occasions (although not that rare), a massive galaxy on their line of sight can act as a gravitational lens and produce multiple images of distant quasars. These can be used both for cosmology and astrophysics by measuring the so-called time delays between the lensed images from photometric monitoring, a quantity directly related to the Hubble-Lemaître parameter H0. The same data, affected by microlensing by stars in the lensing galaxy, can be used to measure the size and energy profile of quasar accretion disks on spatial scales of the order of the light-day, i.e. inaccessible to even the largest interferometers, including the SKA. The results in this talk are on behalf of the COSMOGRAIL and H0LiCOW collaborations. 

Quantum decay of false vacuum states via the nucleation of bubbles may 
have played an important role in the early history of our Universe.  For 
example, in multiverse models that utilize false vacuum eternal 
inflation, the Big Bang of our observable Universe corresponds to one of 
these bubble nucleation events.  Further, our observable Universe may 
have undergone a series of symmetry-breaking first-order phase 
transitions as it cooled, which may have produced a remnant background 
of gravitational waves.

I will present results from a new real-time picture of false vacuum 
decay which, in contrast to existing semiclassical techniques, does not 
rely on classically forbidden tunneling paths.  Lattice simulations are 
used to evolve initial realizations of fluctuations around the false 
vacuum forward in time via the classical equations of motion.  In these 
simulations, we observe the false vacuum decay via the formation and 
subsequent expansion and coalescence of true vacuum bubbles.  By 
sampling initial field realizations, we build up ensembles of these 
decay histories and empirically determine the bubble nucleation rate.  
The rates agree well with standard Euclidean techniques, which cannot 
provide a time-dependent description of the decay.  Some novel 
applications of our new approach include investigation of bubble-bubble 
correlation functions, decay of time-evolving metastable states, decay 
of non-vacuum initial states, and the regime of rapid decays.