Topics in Gravitational Physics, Quantum Fields, and String Theory

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The proposed research covers the fields of gravitational physics, Quantum Fields and String Theory. The PI proposes to use cosmic ray data that will soon be available to see if TeV scale gravity is a viable theory. If so he intends to extract information about the extra dimensions, as well as the Hawking temperature from the data. The PI hopes to improve on the current semi-classical theory of Black Hole formation and evaporation. In this vein, he intends to investigate whether the black hole formation can be extracted from current ideas from string theory concerning D-brane collapse. The PI also intends to study antisymmetric tensor fields in four dimensions as well as solitons in N=2 gauge theories. Finally the PI hopes to extend to string theory language the idea that the smallness of the cosmological constant might be due to the instability of de Sitter space due to particle production.