ITMP Seminar "Unitarity, Causality, and Solar System Bounds, Implications for Testing General Relativity"

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the next ITMP seminar will be held on Wednesday, Apr 23, 18:00 (Moscow time). It will be organised via Zoom.

Speaker: Dr. Mark Hertzberg, Tufts University

Title: Unitarity, Causality, and Solar System Bounds, Implications for Testing General Relativity

Abstract: In this talk I discuss prospects for testing general relativity from GW interferometers like LIGO/Virgo. Within pure gravity, the only possible way deviations can arise is from the existence of higher order derivative corrections, namely higher powers of the Riemann curvature tensor, in the effective action. However, I show that models that give rise to such effects, need very light new degrees of freedom from unitarity, and tend to have other consequences in the solar system that have not been seen. Then I discuss a class of models that are allowed by general considerations from unitarity and causality from a new light scalar, and how we might test them if neutron star mergers.

If you want to join the seminar online please register here before 18:00, April 23 here.

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