Mathematical Physics Seminar 2nd year talk (3 talks)
Talk 1: 2-2.30pm:
Speaker: Thomas Laird
Title: Fuzzy spaces within the framework of noncommutative geometry.
Abstract: Noncommutative geometry has long made use of correspondences between geometry and algebra to study spaces with non-traditional geometries. It has shown promise in modelling the quantum structure of spacetime, with the ability to incorporate desired features such as an intrinsic Plank scale. By now, several quantum analogues of classical geometries, such as the fuzzy sphere and fuzzy torus, have been brought under the noncommutative geometry formalism. But there remains the need to encode general spaces with symmetries within the framework. The talk will explain how the formalism encodes geometric structure, how the fuzzy sphere fits within it, and why coadjoint orbits are expected to hold the key to expressing more general fuzzy versions of classical spaces.
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Talk 2: 2.30-3pm
Speaker: Vitor Barroso Silveira
Title: Experimental Analogue Cosmology
Abstract: The year 1981 brought to Physics two distinguished contributions: the proposal of an inflationary scenario for cosmology by Guth; and the prospect of the new-born Analogue Gravity by Unruh. Now 40 years later, we propose a unifying approach to them, namely the experimental verification of an Analogue Model for Cosmology. In our model, we consider the dynamics on the interface between two immiscible fluids confined within an accelerating container. This system reproduces the behaviour of scalar fields on an FLRW background. Furthermore, by adjusting the external acceleration, one can obtain different cosmological scenarios. In particular, we aim for an effective description of preheating in inflationary cosmology, in which the field fluctuations grow quasi-exponentially due to parametric amplification. Preliminary indications of this process, as well as divergences from the theoretical predictions, will be presented. Finally, a prospective experiment using magnetized fluids to probe an exponentially expanding background, in line with cosmic inflation, will be discussed.
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Talk 3: 3-3.30pm:
Speaker: Georgios Antoniou
Title: Compact object scalarization with general relativity as a cosmic attractor
Abstract: Spontaneous scalarization is one of the most interesting manifestations of new strong gravity physics. We demonstrate that there are theories that exhibit spontaneous scalarization while having General Relativity with a constant scalar as a cosmological attractor. We identify the minimal model that has this property and discuss its extensions [Phys. Rev. D 103 (2021) 2, 024012, arXiv:2004.14985].