A Holographic Window Into Strongly Coupled Dynamics

Recently there have been surprising advances in the fields of supergravity (SUGRA) and string theory (ST). In ST dualities have been found, which link two, a priori very unrelated, theories. The main example is the AdS/CFT correspondence, where a link is found between a gravitational theory in D +1 dimensions, and a quantum field theory in D dimensions. The idea behind dualities is to construct a consistent dictionary between two theories. This dictionary then allows one to translate a problem from one theory to another, in which it is possibly easier to solve, after which the result is retranslated to the original theory. Over the last two decades these dualities have proven to be a powerful tool in several branches of theoretical physics. In the context of this project I will apply this duality to a gravitational theory called N=3 SUGRA. In SUGRA new methods have been found which allow one to construct so called de Sitter (dS) models of our universe. Recent experiments have shown that our universe is expanding in an accelerated rate. Such a universe is mathematically approximated by dS spaces. Future experiments like the Euclid project will provide precision measurements of this acceleration now and during inflation. It is important to construct models that can explain the experimental data. In this project I will investigate the possibilities of N=3 SUGRA with dS spaces as solutions. This is inspired by work done using nilpotent chiral multiplets.

Publication year:2021

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