11.02.2020 (Tuesday)

Learning about the Planck scale: Marginal couplings and the predictive power of scale invariance

Regular Seminar Aaron Held (Imperial College London)

at:
13:30 IC
room H503
abstract:

I will review the current status of the asymptotic safety program, focusing on the predictive power of scale invariance, followed by a collection of results on how the Standard-Model couplings may be used to constrain physics at the Planck scale. At a time in which collider measurements collect increasing evidence that the Standard Model as an effective field theory is consistent up to the Planck scale, its marginal couplings offer a unique opportunity to learn about quantum gravity. I will also briefly introduce a research program aimed at constraining the marginal couplings of the gravitational sector, i.e., curvature-squared terms, via black-hole stability and binary mergers.