JOINT PARTICLE SEMINAR

Date: Wednesday, 9 June 2004 Time: 3:00 p.m.

Place: 4135 Frederick Reines Hall

Speaker: Marvin Weinstein, SLAC

Title: Quantized Cosmology

Abstract: The problem of inflation is formulated in the context of Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Cosmology and then, after a simple change of variables, the problem is quantized in a way which parallels the classical discussion.  The result is that  two of the Einstein equations arise as Heisenberg equations of  motion, but the Friedmann equation needs to be imposed as a constraint which one uses to define physical states.  However, the way in which this equation is to be applied, is subtle.  If one insists that the quantum mechanical formulation of the theory make sense, then  geometry, as embodied in the full set of Einstein equations, is an emergent phenomenon, which becomes increasingly true as the scale factor gets large.  The meaning of this general statement is clarified by exactly solving the case of de Sitter space, where welcome additional terms appear in the quantum version of the Friedmann equation and solve the problem of the big crunch.  Finally, I discuss the possible existence of measureable corrections to the anisotropy in the CMB radiation due to these quantum effects. 

Host: J. Feng