Inflationary cosmology and fundamental physics
Name
713577063-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
14.58 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
fe587c9a85d74a717f0c0ce18659fd41
Author(s)
Hertzberg, Mark Peter
Advisor(s)
Frank Wilczek and Max Tegmark.
Date Issued
2010
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
This thesis is a collection of several papers at the interface between cosmology, particle physics, and field theory. In the first half, we examine topics that are directly related to inflation: axions, string theory, and non-minimally coupled fields. In particular, we constrain the allowed parameter space of inflationary axion cosmology, identifying a classic window and an anthropic window; we discuss inflation in string theory, proving a no-go theorem for a class of string models; and we examine the quantum field theory governing inflation driven by non-minimally coupled fields, which is relevant to Higgs-inflation. In the second half, we examine other topics: oscillons, entanglement entropy, and the Casimir effect. In particular, we compute the quantum decay of oscillons, finding it to be dramatically different to the classical decay; we establish finite contributions to the entanglement entropy between a pair of regions, including a finite area law; and we compute the Casimir force in a closed geometry, finding an attractive force and invalidating claims of repulsion.
Description
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Physics, 2010.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
Subjects
Physics.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but
reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written
permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.
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