Events

Title: A Philosopher's Perspective on Multiverse Proposals

Abstract:: This talk will survey, from the perspective of a philosopher of physics, three very different speculations that go by the name of 'multiverse'. They are: (i) the cosmological multiverse, derived from modern cosmology; (ii) the many worlds of the Everettian approach to interpreting quantum theory; and (iii) the idea of all logically possible worlds, from a tradition in logic and philosophy that goes back to Leibniz. Though all three conceptions are very speculative and come in various versions, there are some robust connections between them.

Title: Testing the Kerr Black Hole Hypothesis with relxill_nk

Abstract: Astrophysical black hole candidates are thought to be the Kerr black holes of general relativity. However, macroscopic deviations from the Kerr background are predicted by a number of scenarios beyond Einstein's gravity. X-ray reflection spectroscopy can be a powerful tool to probe the strong gravity region of these objects and test the Kerr black hole hypothesis. Here I briefly review the state of the art of this line of research and I present some preliminary constraints on possible deviations from the Kerr metric obtained with the new X-ray reflection model relxill_nk, and XMM-Newton, NuSTAR and Swift data of the supermassive black hole in 1H0707-495.

Description: Weekly string theory journal club with paper discussion and talk by a group member. Papers can be posted here.

Talk: Alexandre Belin: Quantum Corrections to Holographic Entanglement Entropy

Title: TBA

Abstract: TBA (Pre-seminar at 11:10, talk at 11:30.)