McGill.CA / Science / Department of Physics

Physical Society Colloquium

Is inflation realized in M-theory?

Andrew Chamblin

Los Alamos National Laboratory

It is now generally accepted that M-theory is the best hope we have for a quantum theory of gravity. However, this theory does not seem to naturally reproduce certain basic features of the standard model of cosmology, such as inflation. This is somewhat surprising, given that inflation would have occurred in the very early universe, when quantum gravity effects may have been important. In this talk I review some initial attempts, made by myself and various collaborators, to rectify this situation.

Friday, March 8th 2002, 15:30
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, Keys Auditorium (room 112)