Scientific Series

One of the main science objectives for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is to quantitatively map the strong field regions around compact objects using Extreme-Mass-Ratio Inspirals (EMRIs). This idea has been shown to be possible in principle, however in practice only inspirals in a Kerr spacetime have been studied in detail. A spacetime mapping algorithm for an EMRI inspiral into a generic compact object is formulated using ideas from integrable systems. I discuss several aspects of the theoretical development required to make the problem tractable. Some recent results about particle orbits around "Bumpy Black" holes are highlighted.

It is a prime interest to understand gravitational physics and to develop cosmological applications exploiting the next generation of surveys, scheduled to be launched in the near future, such as SDSS3, DES, XCS, JDEM or EUCLID. The future precision surveys are promising to resolve outstanding problems in modern physics. With the level of precision available in future surveys, we can use the high resolution maps expected to be gained from next-generation surveys to test the foundations of gravity and particle physics. The gravity known to us at solar system scales (GR: general relativity) is possibly challenged at cosmological scales. The measured cosmic acceleration that we have ascribed to the presence of dark energy (DE) could be a signal that GR is broken in some way.

I will describe a new connection between supersymmetry, geometry and computer science. An exploration of the equations of supersymmetry has revealed a geometrical sub-structure whose classification depends on self-dual error correcting codes.

The BCFW recursion relations define Yang-Mills and gravity amplitudes in terms of lower-point amplitudes. I will discuss several connections between the internal consistency of this recursive definition and the allowed interactions of massless, higher-spin particles.

Although the observational evidence for cosmological inflation is growing, the physical mechanism behind it is still unknown. In part this is because inflation probably occurred at energy scales many orders of magnitude higher than that at man-made or astrophysical particle accelerators. So how can we learn about inflation? How does it constrain microphysical theory? One approach to answering these questions is primarily theoretical: attempting to embed inflation in fundamental theories of quantum gravity, such as string theory. Another approach is primarily observational: looking for signatures left by light fields that existed during inflation, such as isocurvature fluctuations from the QCD-axion. In this talk I discuss work on these two approaches.

For a quantum system with a d-dimensional Hilbert space, a symmetric informationally complete measurement (SIC) can be thought of as a set of d^2 pure states all having the same overlap. Constructions of SICs for composite systems usually do not make use of the composite structure but treat the system as a whole. Indeed for some cases, one can prove that a SIC cannot have the symmetry that one naturally associates with the composite structure. In this talk I give one example showing how a SIC for three qubits can be constructed from SICs for the individual qubits. I ask whether the strategy used in this example might apply to other composite cases.

The problem of the quantum backreaction in expanding spaces is an old, as yet unresolved, question. In this talk I will consider the one-loop backreaction of a massless scalar which couples to the Ricci scalar in an expanding space with constant deceleration. I will show that the infrared divergences, which generically plague the one loop stress energy, can be removed by matching onto an earlier radiation era. An insignificant backreaction occurs, unless the coupling to the Ricci scalar is negative. Similar results hold for the graviton backreaction.

Recent data from the PAMELA, Fermi/LAT and INTEGRAL/SPI experiments, among others, give evidence of excess electrons and positrons in the galaxy, which might be due to annihilation of dark matter. Models in which the dark matter transforms under a hidden nonabelian gauge symmetry can naturally account for the unusual features needed to fit these data. I will discuss generic features of such models, some of their distinctive consequences for cosmology, and new results for reconciling their predictions with the anomalous observations. Special attention will be given to the 511 keV gamma ray excess observed by INTEGRAL, and to the possibility that high energy lepton excesses get significant contributions from dark matter annihilation in subhalos rather than the main halo of our galaxy.

I will discuss the qualitative differences between the single-field and multifield cyclic universes, in particular the resulting global "phoenix" structure and its relation to dark energy. The multifield cyclic universe arises naturally from embedding the cyclic universe in supergravity and leads to distinct observational predictions regarding non-gaussian signatures in the CMB. I will present a simplified derivation of these predictions.