BUFFALO-CASE-CORNELL-SYRACUSE WORKSHOP
ON COSMOLOGY AND ASTRO-PARTICLE PHYSICS
DECEMBER 8-9, 2008
Cleveland, Ohio
Program
We will meet for drinks on Sunday night, starting at 6pm in the reception area of the Comfort Inn. If we decide to change venues, we will leave instructions with the staff.
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.EDU
Detailed Schedule
| 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 |
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 |
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
(denoted by A on the map)
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.
(pictures by Mandeep Gill)
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(*)
(*)Please send questions and comments to bccs08 (at) phys.case.edu
Physics
