BUFFALO-CASE-CORNELL-SYRACUSE WORKSHOP
ON COSMOLOGY AND ASTRO-PARTICLE PHYSICS
DECEMBER 8-9, 2008
Cleveland, Ohio
Program
| Time | Monday, Dec.8 (Rockefeller 309) | Tuesday, Dec.9 (Sears 435) |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00-9:30 | Coffee | Coffee |
| 9:30-11:00 | Greeting/ Gong Show | Talks |
| 11:00-11:30 | Coffee | Coffee |
| 11:30-1:00 | Talks | Talks |
| 1:00-2:30 | Lunch (Pizza) | (Boxed) Lunch |
| 2:30-4:00 | Talks | Workshop ends |
| 4:00-4:30 | Coffee | |
| 4:30-5:30 | Talks | |
| 7:00- | Dinner at Li Wah Restaurant (2999 Payne Ave) |
Registration
Registration is now closed. If you need assistance, email bccs08@phys.case.edu or talk to Pascal.
You can find a list of registered participants here
DO NOT FORGET TO SUBMIT YOUR ONE SINGLE-SLIDE PDF TALK FOR THE GONG-SHOW BY FRIDAY, DEC.5, 6PM TO BCCS08@PHYS.CASE.EDUDetailed Schedule
Monday, 9:30am: Greeting/ Gong Talks
| Welcome |
|---|
| Glenn Starkman |
| Buffalo |
| Dennis Bessada |
| De-Chang Dai |
| Eric Greenwood |
| Evan Halstead, Robert Poltis |
| Will Kinney |
| Dejan Stojkovic |
| Case |
| Dan Akerib |
| Adam Bradley |
| Sean Bryan |
| Ross Burton |
| Yi-Zen Chu |
| Craig Copi |
| Tamas Csorgo |
| David Jacobs |
| Kate Jones-Smith |
| Lawrence Krauss |
| Irit Maor |
| Harsh Mathur |
| Reijiro Matsuo |
| Santiago Patiri |
| Zak Staniszewski |
| Glenn Starkman |
| Pascal Vaudrevange |
| Amanda Yoho |
| Idit Zehavi |
| Cornell |
| Jolyon Bloomfield |
| Naresh Kumar |
| Eran Rosenthal |
| Dan Wohns |
| Gang Xu |
| Syracuse |
| Cristian Armendariz-Picon |
| Richard Schnee |
| Ohio State University |
| Mandeep Gill |
| Carsten Rott |
| Julia Young |
Monday, Dec.8
Location: Rockefeller 309| Time | Speaker | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Monday, 11:30 | Dan Wohns | Coleman-de Luccia Tunneling and the Hawking Temperature (paper) (hand-written slides) |
| We study Coleman-de Luccia tunneling in some detail. We show that, for a single scalar field potential with a true and a false vacuum, there are four types of tunneling, depending on the properties of the potential. A general tunneling process involves a combination of thermal (Hawking temperature) fluctuation part way up the barrier followed by quantum tunneling. The thin-wall approximation is a special limit of the case (of only quantum tunneling) where inside the nucleation bubble is the true vacuum while the outside reaches the false vacuum. Hawking-Moss tunneling is the (only thermal fluctuation) limit of the case where the inside of the bubble does not reach the true vacuum at the moment of its creation, and the outside is cut off by the de Sitter horizon before it reaches the false vacuum. We estimate the corrections to the Hawking-Moss formula, which can be large. In all cases, we see that the bounce of the Euclidean action decreases rapidly as the vacuum energy density increases, signaling that the tunneling is not exponentially suppressed. In some sense, this phenomenon may be interpreted as a finite temperature effect due to the Hawking temperature of the de Sitter space. As an application, we discuss the implication of this tunneling property to the cosmic landscape | ||
| Monday, 12:00-12:30 | Dejan Stojkovic | Connecting cosmology and collider physics (pdf) |
| Abstract: TBA | ||
| Monday, 12:30-1:00 | Richard Schnee | Direct Searches for WIMP Dark Matter (pdf) |
| Abstract: TBA | ||
| 1:00-2:30 Lunch | ||
| Monday, 2:30-3:00 | Bob Poltis and Evan Halstead | Dark Energy, the Electroweak Vacua and Collider Phenomenology (pdf) (ppt) |
| Higher dimensional non-renormalizable operators may modify the Standard Model Higgs potential in many interesting ways. Here, we consider the appearance of a second vacuum which may play an important role in cosmology. For a certain range of parameters, the usual second order electroweak phase transition is followed by a first order phase transition that may drive the late time accelerated expansion of the universe. Such a potential contains kink-like solutions which in turn may play a crucial role in reconstructing the global shape of the Higgs potential. | ||
| Monday, 3:00-3:30 | Reijiro Matsuo | Birkhoff's theorem in MOND (pdf) (ppt) |
| Abstract: TBA | ||
| Monday, 3:30-4:00 | Will Kinney | Reconstructing DBI (paper) (blackboard talk) |
| Abstract: TBA | ||
| 4:00-4:30 Coffee break | ||
| Monday, 4:30-5:00 | Sean Bryan | Measuring CMB Polarization with SPIDER (pdf) |
| Abstract: SPIDER is a balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the polarization of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) on large angular scales. During a long-duration flight around the world from Australia, the array of ~2000 polarization-sensitive bolometers in the payload will make a half-sky map of the CMB. The primary goal of SPIDER is to detect on the curl component (B-mode) of the CMB polarization pattern on the sky, which is a signature of the gravity wave background generated by inflation. The instrument will also measure the curl-free (E-mode) polarization pattern to high precision, which will improve measurements of the reionization history of the universe. | ||
| Monday, 5:00-5:30 | Eric Greenwood | Quantum Mechanical Effects in Gravitational collapse (pdf) |
| Abstract: TBA | ||
Tuesday, Dec.9
Location: Sears 435 (across the quad, follow the signs)| Tuesday, 9:30-10:00 | Gang Xu | Signatures of Modulations in Axion Monodromy Inflation (pdf) |
| We study the CMB observables in axion monodromy inflation. Models in this class generically have monomial potentials over super-Planckian field ranges, with superimposed sinusoidal modulations from instanton effects. One therefore expects modulations in the two-point function and the three-point function. We find that microphysical constraints rule out the possibility of detectably-large non-Gaussianity produced via resonance. The scalar power spectrum is generically modulated, and we constrain the amplitude and frequency of this modulation using current data. Our results rely on relations between the axion decay constant and other scales in the theory, these relations are computable in string theory, and we speculate on their form in more general effective field theory realizations | ||
| Tuesday, 10:00-10:30 | De-Chang Dai | Neutralino dark matter stars can not exist (pdf) |
| Abstract: TBA | ||
| Tuesday, 10:30-11:00 | Zak Staniszewski | Cosmology with the South Pole Telescope (ppt) |
| Abstract: TBA | ||
| 11:00-11:30 Coffee | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, 11:30-12:00 | Yi-Zen Chu | The N Body Problem In General Relativity From Perturbative Field Theory (pdf) (ppt) |
| Abstract: TBA | ||
| Tuesday, 12:00-12:30 | Kate Jones-Smith | Gravitational Radiation from Symmetry Breaking Phase Transitions (pdf) (ppt) |
| Abstract: TBA | ||
| Tuesday, 12:30-1:00 | Cristian Armendariz-Picon | Are primordial perturbations statistically anisotropic? (paper) (blackboard talk) |
| Abstract: TBA | ||
| 1:00 (packed) Lunch and end of workshop | ||
Accomodation
You will be staying at the
Comfort Inn Hotel
1800 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44115
phone: +1-216-861-0001
View Larger Map
How to get from the Comfort Inn to Rockefeller 309 (Monday) and Sears 435 (Tuesday)
Drive east along Euclid Avenue, and make a right turn into Adalbert Road. The Veale Parking structure is located at the intersection of Adalbert and Circle Drive, just on the foot of a bridge crossing the railroad tracks (denoted by B in the above map). Bring your parking tickets to Lori in Rockefeller 205 to get them stamped to take advantage of free parking!
There are two exits, one on either side, so upon exiting garage, head north either towards, or along, the walkway bordering the link fenced athletic field. Come to a small circle of red pavers, cross it and proceed straight ahead (north) between the backs of the buildings on both sides. See a brick wall sign for Strosacker Auditorium on your left, turquoise/marble Kent Hayle Smith building on the right. A few more steps bring you, on the left, to the back entrance of the Rockefeller Physics Bldg. Enter the Rockefeller Physics Building.
On Monday, take either the elevator on the left or the stairs (which are to the right and through either door right next to the vending machines). Come up to 3rd floor to room 309 where coffee and cookies await you.
On Tuesday, walk through the doors near the vending machines, and leave the building through the front entrance (2 swinging doors). Walk straight across the quad. Sears is the building across the quad and to the left. You enter the building from the quad on the third level, so to reach room 435, walk up one floor on the stairs to your right. Room 435 is straight ahead of you.
Monday night dinner
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Monday night dinner will be at Li Wah Restaurant on 2999 Payne Ave, Cleveland, OH (phone: +1-216-696-6556), denoted by B on the map.
View Larger Map
How to get back to the hotel:
View Larger Map
Organizing Committee
Yi-Zen Chu
Irit Maor
Reijiro Matsuo
Glenn Starkman
Pascal M. Vaudrevange(*)