Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime

<p>Seminar presentation</p><p><br></p>

Masters and PhD students. Some familiarity with both quantum field theory in flat space and general relativity will be assumed. 

This course introduces the novelties of quantization in curved backgrounds. It will build intuition from simple examples in quantum mechanics. Then we introduce more sophisticated setups, like quantum fields in background electromagnetic and gravitational fields. Some important results will be the derivation of the Schwinger effect, Hawking radiation, quantization of fields in maximally symmetric curved backgrounds, and a general introduction to Conformal Field Theories. There will be a main emphasis in applications of this framework to cosmological correlations in asymptotically de Sitter spacetimes, and their connection to the statistics of primordial density perturbations.

Mukhanov and Winitzki, Introduction to Quantum Effects in Gravity, CUP

Birrell and Davies, Quantum Fields in Curved Space, CUP

Parker and Toms, Quantum Field Theory in Curved Spacetime, CUP

Di Francesco, Mathieu, Senechal, Conformal Field Theory, Springer

Ammon, Erdmenger, Gauge/Gravity Duality, CUP

Introduction to the AdS/CFT correspondence, CUP

We will complement the references above with preprints and papers freely available on the arXiv website.