Heidelberg 2007 – scientific programme

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T: Fachverband Teilchenphysik

T 308: QFT+Kosmologie I

T 308.6: Talk

Wednesday, March 7, 2007, 18:15–18:33, KIP SR 2.403

"Superluminal" scalar fields and cosmology — •Alexander Vikman — LMU-ASC, LS Prof. Mukhanov, Theresienstr. 37, 80333 München

It is well known that in manifestly Lorentz invariant theories with nontrivial kinetic terms, perturbations around some classical dynamical backgrounds can travel faster than light. These exotic "superluminal" models may have interesting consequences for cosmology and astrophysics. I will begin my talk by explaining how a nonlinearity of equations of motion can yield a superluminal propagation. Further I will consider an inflationary model with the sound speed larger than the speed of light. The most interesting property of the model is a higher, in comparison to the standard chaotic inflation, amount of gravitational waves produced during inflation. Finally I will discuss causality and stability of these models.