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Rolling scalar fields play an important role in understanding cosmology within a particle physics framework. Coupling a rolling scalar field to light degrees of freedom gives rise to a thermal friction which, if large enough, induces a thermal bath. In the context of inflation the presence of such a thermal bath has compelling consequences as it significantly alters the usual observables, leading to a suppression of the tensor-to-scalar ratio r and a unique prediction for non-gaussianities. In my talk, I will illuminate why the axion of a non-Abelian gauge group is the ideal candidate for generating the thermal friction and how it sets the stage for a minimal setup of warm inflation, as well as a potential solution to the Hubble tension.

I will present a holographic framework for reconstructing the experience of bulk observers in AdS/CFT. In particular, I will show how to recover the proper time and energy distribution measured along bulk worldlines, directly in the CFT via a universal, background-independent prescription. For an observer falling into an eternal AdS black hole, the proposal resolves a conceptual puzzle raised by Marolf and Wall. Notably, the prescription does not rely on an external dynamical Hamiltonian or the AdS boundary conditions and is, therefore, outlining a general framework for the emergence of time.

Universal relationships between asymptotic symmetries, QFT soft theorems, and low energy observables have reinvigorated attempts at flat space holography. In this talk, I will review recent advances in the celestial holography proposal, where the 4d S-matrix is reconsidered as a 2d correlator on the celestial sphere at null infinity. In this framework, asymptotic particle states are characterized by the point at which they enter or exit the celestial sphere as well as their SL(2,C) Lorentz quantum numbers: namely their conformal scaling dimension and spin instead of the energy and momentum. I will present a unified treatment of conformally soft Goldstone modes which arise when spin-one or spin-two conformal primary wavefunctions become pure gauge for certain integer values of the conformal dimension. 

There are several important conceptual and computational questions concerning path integrals in QM and QFT, which have recently been approached from new perspectives motivated by "resurgent asymptotics", a novel mathematical formalism that seeks to unify perturbative and non-perturbative physics. I will discuss the basic ideas behind the connections between resurgent asymptotics and physics, ranging from differential equations to phase transitions and QFT. I will also discuss the reconstruction problem: how to optimally reconstruct non-perturbative information from a finite amount of perturbative information.

I discuss a new approach to the Higgs naturalness problem, where the value of the Higgs mass is tied to cosmic stability and the possibility of a large observable Universe. The Higgs mixes with the dilaton of a CFT sector whose true ground state has a large negative vacuum energy. If the Higgs VEV is non-zero and below O(TeV), the CFT also admits a second metastable vacuum, where the expansion history of the Universe is conventional. As a result, only Hubble patches with unnaturally small values of the Higgs mass support inflation and post-inflationary expansion, while all other patches rapidly crunch. I will also comment on alternative realizations of the mechanism that do not require a CFT sector and have a simple perturbative description.