Inflationary cosmology and fundamental physics

This thesis is a collection of several papers at the interface between cosmology, particle physics, and field theory. In the first half, we examine topics that are directly related to inflation: axions, string theory, and non-minimally coupled fields. In particular, we constrain the allowed parameter space of inflationary axion cosmology, identifying a classic window and an anthropic window; we discuss inflation in string theory, proving a no-go theorem for a class of string models; and we examine the quantum field theory governing inflation driven by non-minimally coupled fields, which is relevant to Higgs-inflation. In the second half, we examine other topics: oscillons, entanglement entropy, and the Casimir effect. In particular, we compute the quantum decay of oscillons, finding it to be dramatically different to the classical decay; we establish finite contributions to the entanglement entropy between a pair of regions, including a finite area law; and we compute the Casimir force in a closed geometry, finding an attractive force and invalidating claims of repulsion.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Hertzberg, Mark Peter

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Frank Wilczek and Max Tegmark.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62645

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/62645