Projects
Nonequilibrium aspects of physical cosmology KU Leuven
About 100-150 years ago, pioneers of statistical mechanics understood how to correct thermodynamics. Today, static and dynamic fluctuations can be observed in much greater detail thanks to sensational technological advances in probing and sensing. True in chemistry and for biophysics, it also matters for physical cosmology. Cosmology has become a precision science with detailed measurements of fluctuations in temperature and mass/energy ...
Dirichlet-branes: links between elementary particle physics and cosmology. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Effective theories of the Cosmology of Microscopic Physics. KU Leuven
My research proposal aims to develop new, more efficient theories of large-scale properties of the universe by exploiting situations where there is a large hierarchy of physical scales. Just like in atomic physics, where we need only know a few basic properties (i.e. mass, charge) of a nucleus -- but no specific knowledge about the underlying quarks and gluons -- to describe the physics of the hydrogen atom, I hope to consider the cosmology ...
Complexity in Holographic Cosmology KU Leuven
During the previous century, cosmology appeared as a new branch of experimental and theoretical physics. The many ingenious experiments that were conducted have provided a lot of new information that was incorporated into increasingly accurate models. Within the framework of the general theory of relativity, it is quite well understood how the universe evolved from a fraction of a second after the Big Bang to its current state. What is not ...
Holography: New applications to cosmology, black holes and strongly coupled field theories. KU Leuven
Euclidean Holography for Cosmology KU Leuven
This doctoral project is concerned with the continued development of the holographic AdS/CFT duality in theoretical high-energy physics. We plan to focus in particular on its Euclidean realisation, with an eye on its application to the earliest stages of cosmological evolution, where the duality is expected to shed light on the underlying quantum nature of cosmic inflation and spacetime itself.
Top-down models for cosmology, black holes, and holography KU Leuven
Experimental and theoretical results of the past decades suggest that quantum gravity can influence large-scale phenomena in a non-trivial and puzzling way. Dark energy which contributes roughly 68% of the energy of the universe has eluded our understanding for this very reason since its discovery in 1998. In the same spirit, Hawking radiation which emanates from black holes has also left physicists perplexed over the past decades due to its ...
From string theory to cosmology and strongly coupled dynamics Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Revisiting the Problem of the “Early" Aristotle: Cosmology and Theology KU Leuven
This project will explore Aristotle’s (supposedly) early cosmology and theology as found in the fragments of his lost corpus and select texts of his extant works. While somewhat under-studied in recent literature, in the earlier 20th Century there was much debate concerning these texts. For example, many of the earlier scholars consider that de Caelo and/or de Philosophia present a view of the first cause(s) of the cosmos which is in conflict ...