Studies of Quantum Fields in Cosmological and Black Hole Spacetimes

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。该奖项支持几个研究与宇宙学和黑洞相关的量子效应的项目。当今宇宙学中最重要的观点之一是，在其历史的早期，宇宙经历了一个被称为暴胀的极其迅速的膨胀过程。在暴胀期间和之后不久，量子效应都非常重要。许多此类效应的计算使用经典（非量子）引力处理和量子力学处理其他一切。这种半经典近似的有效性将在宇宙学背景和黑洞附近进行研究。这些研究的完成将推动我们对从宇宙膨胀到量子场对黑洞的影响等各种现象的理解取得进展。例如，如果量子涨落使一个呈指数级膨胀的宇宙变得不稳定，那么对其未来和大多数暴胀情景的预测就会受到影响。本科生和研究生与PI一起从事这些类型的项目并获得数值和分析研究技术方面的培训已经有很长的历史了。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This award supports several projects that study quantum effects related to cosmology and black holes. One of the most important ideas in cosmology today is that early in its history the universe underwent a process of extremely rapid expansion called inflation. Quantum effects would have been very important both during and shortly after this period of inflation. Many calculations of such effects use a classical (not quantum) treatment of gravity and a quantum mechanical treatment of everything else. The validity of this semi-classical approximation will be investigated both in the cosmological setting and near black holes. The completion of these investigations will drive progress in our understanding of various phenomena ranging from the expansion of the universe to the effects of quantum fields on black holes. For example, if quantum fluctuations destabilize an exponentially expanding universe, predictions of its future and most inflationary scenarios will be affected. There is a long history of undergraduate and graduate students working with the PI on these types of projects and gaining training in both numerical and analytical research techniques.