String theory black holes and cosmology

弦理论目前是量子引力理论的主要候选理论。它承诺将粒子物理学的基本力（受量子力学规则支配）与爱因斯坦广义相对论所描述的引力统一起来。弦理论有可能阐明关于空间和时间的基本物理学的许多基本概念问题。我的研究项目是研究弦理论在这类最令人兴奋和最重要的两个问题中的应用。第一个这样的问题涉及黑洞，它为研究量子引力提供了一个理想的理论实验室。许多重要的谜题，比如黑洞核心奇点的意义，只能通过弦理论的工具和技术来解决。在这样做的过程中，我们被迫重新考虑我们的许多直观的概念，即空间和时间是光滑的，经典的对象。第二组问题是由最近的天文观测引起的，这些观测表明，宇宙始于一个大爆炸奇点，随后是一段快速膨胀的时期。这两个特征——宇宙奇点和指数膨胀相——都没有在弦理论中被成功地描述过。如果弦理论要成功地描述可观测的宇宙，这些问题必须得到解决，它们也提供了与实验数据接触的令人兴奋的前景。这个拟议的研究计划将导致跨越几个不同的子领域的见解，从数学物理到宇宙学，量子引力和基本粒子物理，这对加拿大理论物理的研究至关重要。

String theory is currently the leading candidate for a theory of quantum gravity.  It promises to unify the fundamental forces of particle physics - which are governed by the rules of quantum mechanics - with the force of gravity, as described by Einstein's general theory of relativity.  String theory has the potential to shed light on many basic conceptual questions concerning the fundamental physics of space and time. My research program investigates applications of string theory to two of the most exciting and important such questions.The first such question involves black holes, which provide an ideal theoretical laboratory for the study of quantum gravity.  Many important puzzles, such as the meaning of the singularity at the core of a black hole, can only be addressed using the tools and techniques of string theory. In doing so, we are forced to reconsider many of our intuitive notions of space and time as smooth, classical objects.The second set of questions is motivated by recent astronomical observations indicating that the universe began with a big bang singularity followed by a period of rapid expansion.  Neither of these two features - the cosmological singularity and the exponentially expanding phase - have been successfully described in string theory. These problems, which must be solved if string theory is to successfully describe the observable universe, also provide the exciting prospect of contact with experimental data.This proposed research program will lead to insights spanning several different subfields, ranging from mathematical physics to cosmology, quantum gravity and elementary particle physics, which are crucial to the the study of theoretical physics in Canada.