TPPC weekly seminar (in-person): Will Barker - "Can we make metric-affine gravity compelling?"

Wednesday 24 Apr 2024, 12:30 → 14:00 Europe/London

Strand Building, S7.06

Speaker: Will Barker

Title: Can we make metric-affine gravity compelling?

Abstract: The metric-affine framework for gravity admits torsion and non-metricity into the spacetime alongside curvature: in this geometric sense it constitutes a very general starting point for model-building. Initially, the metric-affine theory-space seems too big: the many possible models dilute its predictive power. But looking more closely, we uncover theoretical self-consistency requirements that threaten to over-constrain the space and leave us with nothing beyond GR. We navigate this dichotomy by showing that there is a new motivated symmetry in metric-affine gravity which leads to one unique, consistent model. The model makes one pheno prediction beyond GR: an inflationary potential.  Criticisms of the potential from those working on inflation are especially welcome, since these could kill the theory.