Abstract: I will review non-geometric
string constructions, focusing on asymmetric orbifolds and in
particular quasicrystalline orbifolds, which freeze moduli and
yield isolated vacua (“string islands”). In the supersymmetric case
(N=8,16), these...
Abstract: It is well known that the study and
observation of core collapse Supernovae provide powerful tools to
probe possible scenarios of physics beyond the Standard Model (SM).
In this seminar, I will provide an overview of the
mechanisms...
Abstract: We introduce an effective field
theory (EFT) for conformal impurities, constructed from pairs of
transversely displaced defects. This EFT captures the universal
signature of an impurity on heavy local operators. In the case of
conformal...
Abstract: We present a wholly self-consistent,
complete cyclic bouncing cosmology based on components drawn from
string theory and constructed in a way that is under perturbative
control throughout (e.g., with temperatures well below the
string...
Abstract: On September 14th 2015, the LIGO
detectors opened a new window onto the universe with the first
direct detection of gravitational waves from a binary black hole
merger. This first event alone had profound implications for tests
of general...
Abstract: Black hole perturbation theory
captures a few important effects in the dynamics of binary mergers,
such as tidal deformations and the decay of ringdown modes. It also
describes the physics of the photon ring. However,
extracting...
