Theoretical Applications of Non-Standard Cosmological and Gravitational Physics: Higher Spins and Modified Gravity

Jenks, Leah Gabrielle

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Year:: 2022
Contributor:: Jenks, Leah Gabrielle (creator); Alexander, Stephon (Advisor); Lowe, David (Reader); Gates, Sylvester James (Reader); Brown University. Department of Physics (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Cosmology; Gravity
Extent:: xvii, 222 p.

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Abstract:: In this thesis I explore applications of non-standard cosmological and gravitational theories theories in different sectors. The thesis contains three main parts. The first is on higher spin cosmology, with a discussion on applications to the cosmological collider and to dark matter. The second is on theories which are modifications to general relativity and insights provided into these theories by gravitational waves, and the third is focused again on modified gravity but using black holes as a probe. The first section of this thesis, `Higher Spin Cosmology,' is based on two published papers on higher spin particles. First, I will discuss work which applies the `cosmological collider' formalism to higher spin supersysmmtry, and I will then introduce higher spins as a dark matter candidate. I will show that HSDM gravitationally produced during inflation can make up the entirety of the dark matter that is observed in the universe today, making it a well posed model to explain the dark matter problem and speculate on direct detection possibilities. The second section, `Probing Modified Gravity with Gravitational Waves,' discusses two works which study the gravitational wave modifications for a modified theory of gravity in which the cosmological constant is allowed to vary, and noncommutative gravity, respectively. I discuss how both of these theories can be constrained using gravitational wave observations, as well as binary pulsar observations in the case of noncommutative gravity. Lastly, I turn to dynamical Chern-Simons (dCS) gravity in Section III, `Probing Modified Gravity with Black Holes,' and explore how dCS can potentially be probed with studies of black holes, including a discussion of the `Chern-Simons caps' as well as superradiance for dCS black holes.
Notes:: Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brown University, 2022

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Citation

Jenks, Leah Gabrielle, "Theoretical Applications of Non-Standard Cosmological and Gravitational Physics: Higher Spins and Modified Gravity" (2022). Physics Theses and Dissertations. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:xgdvrscb/

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Physics Theses and Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations for the Physics department.
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