Research group

My research group participates to the Cosmic Frontier research theme at the Van Swinderen Institute for Particle Physics and Gravity.

Presently, the research group consists of:
(The telephone number is +31 (0)50 36 xxxxx .)

PhD students

 

Former Postdocs

Ceyda Simsek

  Room: 5111.0149
  Email: c.simsek@rug.nl
  Phone: 38907

  Athanasios Chatzistavrakidis
Johannes Lahnsteiner 

  Room: 5111.0149
  Email: jo.lahnsteiner@hotmail.com
  Phone: 38907

  Hamid Afshar
Kevin van Helden

  Room: 5161.0440
  Email: k.s.van.helden@rug.nl
  Phone: 041821

  Mehmet Özkan

Postdocs

  Blaise Rollier
Luca Romano

  Room: 5111.0111
  Email: l.romano@rug.nl
  Phone: -

 
 
 

Former PhD students

 

Former Visitors

Lorena Parra   Ercan Kilicarslan
Marija Kovačević   Aditya Mehra
Thomas Zojer   Pulastya Parekh
Victor Penas    Shankhadeep Chakrabortty
Gökhan Alkac   Tonnis ter Veldhuis
Luca Basanisi  

Our research interests focus on a deeper understanding of the gravitational force at very small distance scales (quantum gravity and the very Early Universe) and at cosmological distance scales (dark energy). Due to the expanding nature of our Universe, these problems are interrelated in an intriguing and challenging way. String Theory is a promising candidate theory of quantum gravity (although other interesting approaches such as loop quantum gravity and causal dynamical triangulations are explored as well). On the other hand, modified gravity models such as Massive Gravity change the workings of gravity at large distance scales and are candidates to solve the dark energy mystery.

One theme in my research is the study of a new class of extended objects in String Theory, called Exotic Branes. These new objects contain information about the geometry underlying String Theory, called String Geometry, which is an extension of the Riemannian geometry of General Relativity. String Geometry and Exotic Branes are relevant for the embedding of realistic inflationary scenarios into String Theory and for a deeper understanding of the Black Hole interior.

The focus point in my present research is non-relativistic gravity in (i) non-relativistic string theory and (ii) effective field theory. The aim in the first case is to investigate the status of non-relativistic quantum gravity and non-relativistic holography while in the second case the goal is to explore applications to condensed matter systems such as the fractional quantum Hall effect.

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