Tufts/CfA/MIT Cosmology Seminar, at Tufts:

Tuesday, February 12, 2002
2:30 pm
Robinson Hall, Room 250
Refreshments at 2:00 in Knipp Library, Room 251

"The Cosmological Microscope: Inflation and Short-Distance Physics"


Richard Easther
Columbia University

Abstract:

I will discuss the ways in which the existence of a minimum lengthscale (from string theory, or elsewhere) may modify the generation and evolution of perturbations during inflation. I will focus on a specific toy model, where the fundamental length is inserted into the direcetly into the uncertainty relations and describe the resulting changes to the perturbation spectrum. Finally, I will assess the potential observability of these changes and thus whether the "cosmological microscope" of inflation can probe physics at Planckian lengthscales.

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