Course

Epistricted Theories (Spekkens' toy model)

Effect of the dark matter in structure formation, the power spectrum.

Geometry of the Hilbert space and quantum phase transitions; quantum geometric tensor; application to the quantum XY model; scaling behaviour

The realism vs. anti-realism debate in the philosophy of physics

Cosmological constant problem, evolution of density fluctuations.

Discussion of whether symmetry can classify all possible states; distances between quantum states

Generalized formalism continued

Our universe today, supernovae and dark energy

Duality of the quantum Ising model; exact diagonalization of the quantum XY model using Jordan-Wigner transformation

Generalized formalism for quantum theory (density operators, POVMs, CPT maps)

The second Friedmann equation, equations of state, the cosmic inventory