IOP Groups

Student Seminars

The UK Postgraduate Student Seminar Exchange Programme

This is a trial programme, initiated by the Gravitational Physics Group of the Institute of Physics, to encourage UK gravitational physics postgraduate students to visit one another's institutions to give a seminar, to organise a seminar in their own institution, and exchange ideas. The current list of speakers can be found below.

We are able to provide a small sum (c. £50 per student) to cover travel costs for a limited number of students this year. Each student participating will have to make all the arrangements for the student visiting his/her institution, including organising a room, data projector and inviting members of their group/department to attend. This will then be reciprocated.

If you would like to participate in this programme, please:

• Register on our list of speakers (see below) by sending an email to Daniel Hollington at d.hollington07-AT-imperial.ac.uk with your: Name, Email Address, Supervisor, Institute, Seminar Topic, Title and a Short Abstract (please write "Student Seminar" in the email subject line).
• Check on the list of speakers to see if there is a someone you would like to hear and contact them directly to agree the exchange (the list will be updated regularly, so please keep checking).
• Once you have registered on the list and agreed an exchange, email Giles Hammond at g.hammond-AT-physics.gla.ac.uk with an estimate of your travel costs, to secure funding (again, please write "Student Seminar" in the email subject line).
• If you have any feedback on the programme, please send an email to Daniel Hollington at d.hollington07-AT-imperial.ac.uk.

List of speakers

The primordial trispectrum from inflation
Christian Byrnes
Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth
chris.byrnes-AT-port.ac.uk
Supervisor : David Wands
Abstract : After briefly reviewing inflation and non-Gaussianity, I present a general formalism for the primordial trispectrum (four-point function of the curvature perturbation) from inflation. This gives rise to two potentially observable parameters, which can be used to discriminate between the many models of inflation. The formalism for the trispectrum is applied to several scenarios, such as standard single field inflation where it is small, and the curvaton scenario where it may be large and observable.

A minimal model of inflation and dark matter
Rose Lerner
Lancaster University
r.lerner-AT-lancaster.ac.uk
Supervisor: John McDonald
Abstract : In this talk, I demonstrate that by adding a gauge singlet scalar S to the Standard Model which is non-minimally coupled to gravity, S can act both as the inflaton and as thermal relic dark matter. I show the allowed parameter space consistent with varies constraints, and discuss how the model could be further constrained by the LHC, direct detection experiments and the Planck satellite. http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.0520

The Measure Problem in Cosmology revisited
William Nelson
King's College London
wtn20-AT-hotmail.co.uk
Supervisor : Maira Sakellariadou
Abstract : It has recently been shown that N efoldings of inflation are exponentially unlikely to occur in the solutions of classical general relativity, however it is not clear to what extent the quantum effects present in the early universe change this result. In this talk I will discuss how to calculate the probability of inflation arising from a candidate quantum gravity theory.

How often do accelerated particle detectors click?
Alejandro Satz
University of Nottingham
pmxas-AT-nottingham.ac.uk
Supervisor : Jorma Louko
Abstract : In this presentation I will describe the Unruh-DeWitt particle detector model as a tool for probing quantum fields from the viewpoint of accelerated observers. I will focus on the problem of defining a meaningful notion of excitation rate of the detector, representing particles detected by unit time, that works for arbitrary trajectories in Minkowski and de Sitter spaces. Special attention is given to the correct regularisation procedure for the correlation function of the field and to the need to switch on and off the detector smoothly to ensure physically acceptable results.

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