PROGRAM
The school will consist of two preparatory days and 8 focus days. Emphasis will be put on pedagogical white board presentations, with ample time for discussions, interactions and work outs.
All lectures take place in NORDITA's main lecture hall.
We have compiled a short reading list for those who want to prepare a bit for the topics of the school.
- Pre-school (Aug 8 and 9)
Format: (NB: The afternoon of Aug 9 will be free.)
8:30: welcome/coffee
09:00-10:30: lecture
10:30-11:00: break
11:00-12:30: lecture
12:30-14:30: lunch
14:30-16:00: lecture
16:00-16:30: break
16:30-18:00: lecture
Lecture topics:
- introduction to GR (NN)
- the cosmological concordance model (NN)
- Problems of the standard Big Bang scenario (MS)
- Geometry and properties of deSitter spacetime (CdR/AT)
- Introduction to quantum field theory in curved spacetime (CdR/AT)
- Focus days I (Aug 10-13):
The Cosmological Constant Challenge
(Claudia de Rham and Andrew Tolley)
Format:
8:30: coffee
09:00-10:30: lecture
10:30-11:00: break
11:00-12:30: lecture
12:30-14:30: lunch
14:30-16:30: homework/discussions
16:30-17:00: break
17:00-18:00: conclusions
Lecture topics:
- Gravity as an effective field theory
- GR as a theory of massless spin two particles
- Supersymmetry, supergravity (and strings)
- One-loop effective action in curved spacetime
- Renormalization in the presence of gravity
- Technical Naturalness: the c.c. as a hierarchy problem
- Description of some attempted solutions (Scalar field models, Stringy proposals ....)
- Technically natural solutions
- Dynamical solutions
- Infrared modifications of gravity
- Focus days II (Aug 14-17):
Advanced Inflation
(Martin Sloth)
Format:
8:30: coffee
09:00-10:30: lecture
10:30-11:00: break
11:00-12:30: lecture
12:30-14:30: lunch
14:30-16:30: homework/discussions
16:30-17:00: break
17:00-18:00: conclusions
Lecture topics:
- Inflation
- Cosmological perturbations
- Open problems
- Inflation models
- Alternatives to ordinary inflation
- Curvaton model
- non-Gaussianities
- Loop corrections
Note also that the IDM will take place on the same Campus from Aug 18 - 22, addressing partly the topics of the school.
