Theoretical Cosmology meetings
To actively encourage the field of theoretical cosmology and to set an informal stage for the exchange of ideas, the Dutch theoretical cosmology community organizes Friday afternoon meetings approximately 6 times a year — usually on the first Friday of the month. The meetings typically start in the afternoon with a main speaker, followed by a short break to continue with another seminar or journal club discussion on some topic of current interest. We end the afternoon with drinks. The supporting institutes in Leiden, Amsterdam, Groningen, Utrecht where recently joined by the strings and cosmology group in Leuven and take turns in hosting the event.
October 2016
Amsterdam Fall 2016
14:00-15:00 Talk by Oleg Lebedev (University of Helsinki)
Title: The Higgs and cosmology
15:30-16:30 Talk by Bobby Acharya (King's Coll. London & ICTP, Trieste)
Title: Dark Matter from a String/M theory Perspective
Find out more »November 2016
Utrecht Fall 2016
Utrecht, November 4, 2016 Place: Universiteit Utrecht, Buys Ballot Gebouw, room 712 For this meeting we will have two external speakers 14:00-15:00 Talk by Jose Espinosa (IFAE & ICREA Barcelona, Spain) Title: Higgs inflation as a mirage Abstract: After reviewing the nice properties of Higgs inflation and some of its problems, I will discuss a simple unitarization of the scenario that is genuinely…
Find out more »December 2016
Groningen Winter 2016
11:30-12:30 Talk by Timm Wrase (TU Vienna)
Title: dS vacua and inflation in supergravity
14:00-15:00 Talk by Gui Pimentel (UvA Amsterdam)
Title: Symmetries of Cosmological Fluctuations
15:30-16:30 Talk by David Stefanyszyn (RUG Groningen)
Title: TBA
February 2017
Leiden Winter 2017
Leiden University, February 3, 2017 Casimir room (Oort building, Room 276, the Institute Lorentz coffee room) 14:00-15:00 Talk by J. Magueijo (Imperial College) Title: The critical geometry of a thermal Big Bang Abstract: We explore the space of scalar-tensor theories containing two non-conformal metrics, and find a discontinuity pointing to a “critical” cosmological solution. Due to the different maximal speeds…
Find out more »March 2017
Amsterdam UvA Spring 2017
UvA Amsterdam, March 3, 2017 The meeting will take place in room C0.05 in the Science Park. 14:15-15:15 Talk by Jaume Garriga (Barcelona) Title: Primordial black holes from cosmic inflation 15:15 - 15:45 Coffee 15:45-16:45 Talk by Marjorie Schillo (Leuven) Title: A new top-down model of inflation Abstract: I will present recent work that has succeeded in embedding the mechanism…
Find out more »April 2017
Leuven Spring 2017
KU Leuven, April 7, 2017 Location: Arenberg Castle, Kardinaal Mercierlaan 94, 3001 Leuven (Heverlee) For organisational reasons (such as pre-meeting lunch and bus), please sign up for the meeting by clicking "I am coming" here: https://beta.doodle.com/poll/uaza39w2raxwafr2 Schedule 13.00-14.00 Talk by Kate Eckerle (Columbia University, USA) Title: Axions of Evil - a novel type of alignment that renders complex theories tractable…
Find out more »June 2017
Utrecht Summer 2017: Joint Cosmology & Holography
Utrecht on Friday, June 2, 2017 Location: Atlas Lecture Hall, Koningsberger Building, Utrecht Science Park Schedule 13:30 - 14:00 Tea & Coffee 14:00 - 15:00 Talk by Brando Bellazzini (IPhT CEA Saclay) Title: Softness, amplitudes’ positivity, and EFT for spinning particles. Abstract: Not every EFT admits a UV completion which is consistent with S-matrix theory. I will review some of the…
Find out more »October 2017
Leiden Fall 2017
Leiden, October 6h, 2017 The meeting will take place in the Casimir room, Oort 276, Institute Lorenz coffee room. 14:00-15:00 Talk by Kepa Sousa (IFT Madrid) Title: Supertranslations at black hole horizons and gauge redundancies Abstract: Classical “no-hair theorems” state that stationary black holes in Einstein-Maxwell theory are characterised by their mass, angular momentum and electric charge. Hawking et al.…
Find out more »November 2017
Amsterdam Fall 2017
Amsterdam, November 10th, 2017 The meeting will take place at Nikhef in room H331. 14:00-15:00 Talk by William Cottrell (UvA) Title: Weak Gravity Constraints in Inflation Abstract: In this talk I will summarize constraints that the axionic form of the Weak Gravity Conjecture places on inflation models and attempts to circumvent these constraints. I will also discuss applications of the…
Find out more »December 2017
Utrecht Fall 2017
Utrecht, December 1st, 2017 The meeting will take place at Utrecht University, Buys Ballot building (BBG) in room BBG 065. 14:00-15:00 Talk by Yvette Welling (Leiden University) Title: Scaling symmetry & hyperbolic field space in inflation Abstract: We explore different corners of the parameter space of inflation with multiple fields. In all cases we find quite counterintuitive phenomenology. First, we…
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