Effects of Quantized Fields on Black Hole and Cosmological Spacetimes

Wake Forest University, Winston Salem NC

Investigators

Abstract

Prof. Anderson is going to work on several projects studying quantum effects as they relate to both black holes and cosmology. For black holes he will study the question of how quantum fields alter the temperatures and entropies of black holes, as well as what happens at the end ofthe black hole evaporation process. In cosmology he will investigate whether quantum effects can cause a very rapidly expanding universe to become unstable and expand in a different way than it otherwise would, as well as study particle production in the universe after it underwent an extremely rapid period of expansion called inflation early in its history. By studying the details of how quantum fields affect black holes one can address such questions as what is left after a black hole finishes evaporating and is there any new physics that is required to describe the evaporation process. By studying particle production in the early universe one can investigate exactly how the matter and radiation in the universe were created.