Skip to main content

The Universe as a Detector: What can we learn about fundamental physics from Cosmology?

 

 

Dr. Harsh Mathur Case Western Reserve University The imprint of primordial gravitational radiation on the cosmic microwave background polarization, if observed, is considered smoking gun proof of inflation. I will discuss how such an observation can not only provide information about the Universe in the epoch of inflation but also constrain theories of grand unification. In the second part of the talk I will discuss tests of gravity on scales ranging from the tabletop to the cosmological scale. Such tests may shed light on physics beyond the standard model.