Zoos, Swamplands and Cosmology
Is string theory compatible with observational data? Today’s paper looks at how avoiding the swampland of unsuccessful string theories can mean violating reliable constraints on cosmological quantities.
Conference survival guide for students
Venturing off to your first conference can be a very daunting experience, but they’re also the best way of meeting people in your field and getting inspired by new ideas. To make the first plunge a little easier, here’s 10 top tips on how to survive (and enjoy!) your first conference.
Testing micro with macro – from quantum to the cosmos
Quantum mechanics describes the unimaginably small, whilst Cosmology explains the unfathomably big. How the Universe blew up from one to the other is a question we think we’ve understood with the theory of inflation. But just how good is our picture of quantum mechanics? Today’s authors show that we can now use cosmological results to test our quantum framework.
How slow can you go? Quantum kicks messing with primordial black holes
As though cooking up models of the early universe that produce an interesting number of primordial black holes wasn’t hard enough, now we’ve got quantum effects to worry about too. Today’s authors quantify how careful we need to be with models of ultra-slow-roll inflation in order to predict the correct number of primordial black holes that could be around today.
Why dark matter (probably) can’t explain the 21cm Cosmic Dawn signal
Less than a month after the first detection of a cosmic 21cm signal by EDGES was published, and hopes are already dwindling for the models of dark matter that were proposed to explain the unexpected signal.