Astrophysics

Highest energy cosmic rays reach {\it macroscopic} energies $> 10^{20}$ eV ($\sim 10$ joules; corresponding linear momentum in one proton is similar to a slapshot hockey puck's). Such protons can either be accelerated by nearby astrophysical sources or be by-products of decay of unknown superheavy fundamental particles. After reviewing phenomenology of cosmic rays, I will discuss a novel {\it non-stochastic} acceleration mechanism in jets of powerful active galactic nuclei. The mystery of ultra high energy cosmic rays is likely soon to be resolved by Pierre Auger observatory.

We show that the entropy resulting from the counting of microstates of non extremal black holes using field theory duals of string theories can be interpreted as arising from entanglement. The conditions for making such an interpretation consistent are discussed. First, we interpret the entropy (and thermodynamics) of spacetimes with non degenerate, bifurcating Killing horizons as arising from entanglement. We use a path integral method to define the Hartle-Hawking vacuum state in such spacetimes and discuss explicitly its entangled nature and its relation to the geometry. If string theory on such spacetimes has a field theory dual, then, in the low-energy, weak coupling limit, the field theory state that is dual to the Hartle-Hawking state is a thermofield double state. This allows the comparison of the entanglement entropy with the entropy of the field theory dual, and thus, with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of the black hole. As an example, we discuss in detail the case of the five dimensional anti-de Sitter, black hole spacetime.

The problem of vacuum energy is reviewed. The observational evidence in favor of a non-zero cosmological constant is described. I then discuss several possible explanations for how a theoretically natural huge value of vacuum energy could be adjusted down to the unnaturally tiny but observed value.

A key issue in the context of (compact) extra dimensions is the one of their stability. Any stabilization mechanism is effective only up to some given energy scale; if they can approach this energy, 4$d observers can excite the fluctuations of the internal space, and probe its existence. Stabilization mechanisms introduce fields in the internal space; perturbations of these fields are mixed with perturbations of the metric, so that their study requires a complete GR treatment. After presenting the general framework, I will then discuss some relevant applications. I will present the exact coupling of the radion to codimension one branes, extending the regime of validity of the results in the literature. I will then focus on de Sitter compactifications, showing that the cosmological expansion has typically the effect of destabilizing the internal space. The final part of the talk will be devoted to related work in progress in less conventional areas of brane models: the localization of gravity towards the IR brane (corresponding to a dual description of emerging gravity from the CFT), and the inclusion of ghost fields in the bulk.

In this talk we assume that Quantum Einstein Gravity (QEG) is the correct theory of gravity on all length scales. We use both analytical results from nonperturbative renormalization group (RG) equations and experimental input in order to describe the special RG trajectory of QEG which is realized in Nature. We identify a regime of scales where gravitational physics is well described by classical General Relativity. Strong renormalization effects occur at both larger and smaller momentum scales. The former are related to the (conjectured) nonperturbative renormalizability of QEG. The latter lead to a growth of Newton's constant at large distances. We argue that this effect becomes visible at the scale of galaxies and could provide a solution to the astrophysical missing mass problem which does not require dark matter. A possible resolution of the cosmological constant problem is proposed by noting that all RG trajectories admitting a long classical regime automatically imply a small cosmological constant.

Chameleon scalar fields are candidates for the dark energy, the mysterious component causing the observed acceleration of the universe. Their defining property is a mass which depends on the local matter density: they are massive on Earth, where the density is high, but essentially massless in the cosmos, where the density is much lower. All current constraints from tests of general relativity are satisfied. Nevertheless, chameleons lead to striking predictions for tests of gravity in the laboratory and in space. For example, near-future satellite experiments could measure an effective Newton's constant in space different by a factor of order unity from that on Earth, as well as violations of the Equivalence Principle stronger than currently allowed by laboratory experiments. Such signatures raise the exciting possibility of detecting dark energy through local tests of gravity.