Simon Fraser University
SFU Cosmology Seminars

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Friday, 22 February 2008, 14:30 in AQ3181

Prof. Andrei Frolov (SFU)

Simulating the Big Bang (physics colloquium)

The idea of inflation (a period of rapid quasi-exponential expansion of the Universe) neatly solves several issues in cosmology. But while the Universe is inflating, its contents is cold. Eventually, inflation has to end and the field driving the inflation has to decay, depositing its energy into high-energy particles. This process, known as reheating, starts the hot big bang as we know it. I will discuss basic models of resonant and tachyonic preheating, show recent numerical simulations of the inflaton decay (which turns out to be quite non-linear and violent), and explore how gravitational waves are produced in the process. If observed, they could allow a glimpse of physics at energies we know very little about.

Seminars in 2007:

2007-10-05 14:30 in K9500 - Douglas Scott (UBC): The Standard Cosmological Model (physics colloquium)
2007-10-23 14:30 in SSB7172 - Wan-Il Park (KAIST): A scenario of baryogenesis compatible with thermal inflation, and preheating
2007-10-30 14:30 in SSB7172 - Alessandra Silvestri (Syracuse University): Scale-dependent growth of structure in viable f(R) theories
2007-11-13 14:30 in SSB7172 - Gong-Bo Zhao (SFU): Dark energy perturbation and its application on cosmology
2007-11-29 14:30 in IRMACS - Henk Hoekstra (University of Victoria): Weak lensing by large scale structure
2008-01-15 12:30 in IRMACS - Mustafa Amin (Stanford/KIPAC): A framework for probing gravity and dark energy on cosmological scales
2008-01-22 12:30 in IRMACS - Richard Battye (University of Manchester): Constraints on inflation models which predict cosmic strings
2008-01-24 13:30 in SSB7172 - John Moffat (University of Toronto/Perimeter): Modified gravity and its consequences for astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology
2008-01-31 13:00 in AQ4150 - Saurya Das (University of Lethbridge): Black holes and the problem of information loss (CAP Lecture)
2008-02-05 12:30 in IRMACS - Aaron Berndsen (SFU): Long-lived relics in warped reheating
2008-02-07 10:30 in IRMACS - Scott Dodelson (Fermilab): Dark matter vs. modified gravity
2008-02-07 13:30 in SSB7172 - Scott Dodelson (Fermilab): Fundamental physics from space (special colloquium)
2008-02-22 14:30 in AQ3181 - Andrei Frolov (SFU): Simulating the Big Bang (physics colloquium)
2008-03-28 14:30 in AQ3181 - Alexander Vilenkin (Tufts University): Many worlds in one (physics colloquium)
2008-04-01 12:30 in IRMACS - James Zibin (UBC): Restraining void models for cosmological acceleration
2008-05-13 11:00 in P8445B - Mark Wyman (Perimeter Institute): N-body Degravitation
2008-08-14 11:00 in SSB7109 - Prashanth Jaikumar (Institute of Mathematical Sciences, CIT, India): Astrophysics of dense quark matter

[ See complete seminar archives | iCal feed ]

Modified by Andrei Frolov <frolov@sfu.ca> on 2023-11-01