Jerome Quintin - Applications of the Kontsevich-Segal Bound in Quantum Cosmology

par Jerome Quintin (Waterloo & Perimeter)

mercredi 4 oct. 2023, 16:00 → 17:00 Europe/Paris

Abstract: Kontsevich and Segal have proposed a constraint on complex metrics by demanding the path integral of p-form fields to converge on a given fixed background. Witten has conjectured that this constraint could apply to quantum gravity path integrals. The consequences for quantum cosmology have thus been explored in the last couple of years. I will review some of these recent developments, including classical and quantum (tunnelling) transitions of the universe. Emphasis will be given on the Hartle-Hawking no-boundary proposal, where it is found that flatter potentials more easily satisfy the Kontsevich-Segal bound. When taking into account the weighting of the wave function, which favours nucleation at low values on the inflationary potential, the effects conspire to suggest that only a minimal amount of inflation could have occurred. This, in turn, points towards our universe today being relatively small.

Link: Zoom

AnLy: https://sites.google.com/view/anlystringsandfields