Research in Theoretical Cosmology, Gravity and Supergravity

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This award supports a program of theoretical research at the interface of gravitation, elementary particle theory, and cosmology. Projects include the study of "Galileon" models of the dark energy that appears to drive the acceleration of the universe, the use of cosmological topological gravity as a theoretical laboratory for quantum gravity, the development of a well behaved theory of quantum gravity but with only two spatial dimensions that might have implications for more realistic theories, and generalization of the Bel-Robinson tensor from general relativity to other theories of gravity.The enormous improvements in recent years in the ability to measure the properties of nature from the largest to the smallest scales has raised questions and challenges for theoretical physics. Two major examples are to understand the dark matter and dark energy that appear to form 96% of today's universe and to reconcile Einstein's theory of general relativity that appears to describe gravity for the macroscopic world with the principles of quantum mechanics that appear to rule the microscopic world of atoms and elementary particles. This research program expects to have implications for both these questions. The PI plans to continue to write a series of pedagogical articles on these topics.