Venue
Albano campus, Nordita, Stockholm, Sweden
House 3, Floor 6, Mega 6228
See the campus and Google maps via the links.
Target Audience
This course is designed for PhD students and young postdocs in theoretical physics, particularly those interested in the intersection of quantum mechanics, general relativity, and cosmology.
We invite students at SU and KTH to attend the course in person. Students from other universities within the Nordic countries (broadly defined) are welcome to join remotely via Zoom.
The course is also suitable for advanced master students (please inquire regarding the possibility of a certificate) and researchers looking to deepen their knowledge of quantum field theory in curved backgrounds.
Prerequisites
General Relativity, basic QFT and Cosmology.
Scope
This advanced course delves into the subject of quantum field theory (QFT) in the presence of curved backgrounds.
Students will learn
- how to consistently formulate a quantum field theory in a curved spacetime backgrounds,
- study particle creation in expanding universes,
- the behavior of quantum fields in the presence of horizons,
- the phenomena of Hawking radiation.
This course is essential for understanding the interplay between quantum mechanics and general relativity, two of the fundamental pillars of modern theoretical physics, with applications to active research topics in cosmology and particle physics.
Key topics
- Introduction and Recap: A brief review of QFT in Minkowski space and essential concepts of General Relativity and Cosmology.
- Quantum Fields in Expanding Universe: The formulation of QFT in curved spacetimes is introduced. This includes the mode decomposition in curved backgrounds and Bogoliubov transformations.
- Particle Creation and Unruh Effect.
- Quantum Fields during Inflation: Study of primordial fluctuations with connection to the Cosmic Microwave background (CMB) observations.
- Saddle-Point Method: Recap of the path integral as an alternative quantization method with the main application of calculating tunneling rates in first-order phase transitions on maximally symmetric backgrounds.
- Hawking Radiation and Black Holes (optional): Study of Hawking radiation, the process by which black holes emit particles and evaporate, and its implications for black hole thermodynamics.
Format
The course will start in April 2025.
The in-person participants are supposed to come to Nordita. The remote participants can join the meetings via Zoom.
The course will run for six weeks and consist of two weekly lectures (90 minutes each). It will be mainly based on the following book:
Mukhanov, V., & Winitzki, S. (2007), Introduction to Quantum Effects in Gravity, Cambridge University Press (link).
Problem sheets will be provided to the students. There will be office hours during which the solutions can be discussed with the lecturers.
The lectures are aimed at PhD students, but Master students and more experienced researchers are welcome to join, too.
Zoom coordinates
Access to the Zoom room is open.
Join the virtual room here: link.
Lecture schedule
The detailed schedule will be announced one month before the lecture starts. We will try to accomodate the schedules of as many students as possible.
| Day | Time | Room | |
| Weekday 1 | tba | Mega | |
| Weekday 2 | tba | Mega | |
Application
Due to limited capacity, participation in the lecture requires approval by the lecturers.
The registration is closed now. Please contact the organizers about the possibility of participating in the course.
Lecturers
Oksana Iarygina (Nordita Postdoc, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow)
Florian Niedermann (Nordita Assistant Professor)
