Cosmology from conformal symmetry – Austin Joyce
Date: Tue. October 29th, 2013, 11:30 am-12:30 pmLocation: Rockefeller 221
We will explore the role that conformal symmetries may play in cosmology. First, we will discuss the symmetries underlying the statistics of the primordial perturbations which seeded the temperature anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background. I will show how symmetry considerations lead us to three broad classes of theories to explain these perturbations: single-field inflation, multi-field inflation, and the conformal mechanism. We will discuss the symmetries in each case and derive their model-independent consequences. Finally, we will examine the possibility of violating the null energy condition with a well-behaved quantum field theory.