INSTITUTE FOR GRAVITATION AND THE COSMOS

 INAUGURAL CONFERENCE

 

Parallel Sessions Program

 

 

Thursday, August 9, 2007

 

First Session:

 

Thomas 201      Cosmology: Physical Aspects

                        Chair: Mark Trodden

 

                        2:15 – 2:45        “Cosmology – The Road Ahead”

                                                Mark Trodden (Syracuse)

                        2:45 – 3:05        “An Emergent Universe from Chiral Gravity”

                                                Stephon Alexander (Penn State)

                        3:05 – 3:25        “Generating Inflation and Hierarchy in Supergravity Models”

                                                Tirthabir Biswas (Penn State)

                        3:25 – 3:45        “The Closed k=+1 FRW Model in Loop Quantum Cosmology”

                                                Kevin Vandersloot (Portsmouth)

                             

Thomas 216      Numerical Relativity I

                        Chair: Manuel Tiglio

 

                        2:15 – 2:45        “Some New Approaches to Black Hole Evolutions”

                                                Manuel Tiglio (Louisiana State)

                        2:45 – 3:05        “Extreme-Mass-Ratio Binaries: Another Challenge for Numerical Relativity”

                                                Carlos Sopuerta (Guelph)

                        3:05 – 3:25        “Quasi-Local Horizons Calculations and Gauge Conditions”

                                                Josef Zlochower (RIT)

                        3:25 – 3:45        “Hardening of Binary Black Hole Mergers through Spurious Radiation”

                                                Tanja Bode (Penn State)

 

 

 

Second Session:

 

Thomas 201      Observational Issues in Particle Astrophysics

                        Chair: David Seckel

 

                        4:15 – 4:45        “Expectations for Detection of ‘GZK’ Neutrinos”

                                                David Seckel (Bartol)

                        4:45 – 5:00        “UHE Cosmic Ray Composition with the Auger Observatory”

                                                Brian Fick (Michigan Technological U)

                        5:00 – 5:15        “The Status of the RICE Neutrino Detector”

                                                Dan Hogan (Kansas)

                        5:15 – 5:30        “The Character of High Energy Emission from the Galactic Binary LS 1+61 303”

                                                Andy Smith (Smithsonian)

                        5:30 – 5:45        “Latest Results from the Pierre Auger Observatory”

                                                Jose Bellido (Penn State)

 

 

Thomas 216      Cosmology: Mathematical Aspects

                        Chair: Martin Bojowald

 

                        4:15 – 4:40        “Strong Gravity and the BKL Conjecture”

                                                David Sloan (Penn State)

                        4:40 – 5:05        “Inhomogeneous Mixmaster and Spikes”

                                                Woei Chet Lim (Princeton)

                        5:05 – 5:25        “On the Energy of Homogeneous Cosmologies”

                                                Lau Loi So (Tamkang)

                        5:25 – 5:45        “Effective Constraints of Loop Quantum Gravity”

                                                Mikhail Kagan (Penn State)

 

 

Thomas 215      Approaches to Quantum Gravity I

                        Chair: Radu Roiban

 

                        4:15 – 4:45        “Cancellations in Gravity Theories”

                                                John Joseph Carrasco (UCLA)

                        4:45 – 5:15        “DeSitter Ground States of N=2 Supergravity Theories with Symmetric Scalar Manifolds in 5 Dimensions”

                                                Orcan Ogetbil (Penn State)

                        5:15 – 5:45        “R2 Correction in Five-Dimensional Supergravity”

                                                Yuji Tachikawa (IAS, Princeton)

 

 

 

 

 

Friday, August 10, 2007

 

Thomas 216      Numerical Relativity II

                        Chair: Manuel Tiglio

 

                        4:30 – 4:50        “Orbiting Polytropes and Gravitational Wave Analysis“

                                                Matthew Anderson (Louisiana State)

                        4:50 – 5:10        “Applying Numerical Relativity and EOB to Black Hole Binary Observation”

                                                [Movie]

                                                Sean McWilliams (Maryland)

                        5:10 – 5:30        “Data Analysis of Numerical Relativity Waveforms”

                                                Birjoo Vaishnav (Penn State)

 

Thomas 215      Approaches to Quantum Gravity II

                        Chair: Radu Roiban

 

                        4:30 – 5:00        “Intersecting Branes and Geometry”

                                                Oleg Lunin (Chicago)

                        5:00 – 5:30        “Dimension Quenching and c-Duality in String Theory“

                                                Ian Swanson (IAS, Princeton)

 

 

Saturday, August 11, 2007

 

First Session

 

Thomas 201      Origins of High Energy Particles

                        Chair: John Beacom

 

                        2:00 – 2:30        “TeV Gamma Ray and Neutrino Sources in the Milky Way”

                                                John Beacom (Ohio State)

                        2:30 – 2:45        “The Evolving Cosmic GRB Rate and Cosmogenic Neutrinos” (pdf)

                                                or mov file

                                                Matthew Kistler (Ohio State)

                        2:45 – 3:00        “High Energy Neutrinos from GRBs”

                                                Soeb Razzaque (Penn State)

                        3:00 – 3:15        “UHE Cosmic Rays from Semi-Relativistic Hypernovae”

                                                Xiang-Yu Wang (Penn State)

                        3:15 – 3:30        “Search for Tau Neutrino Lollipops and Double Bangs in IceCube”

                                                Seon-Hee Seo (Penn State)

 

Thomas 216      Black Holes and Gravitational Waves I

                        Chair: Deirdre Shoemaker

 

                        2:00 – 2:30        “Gravitational Waves from Neutron Stars”

                                                Ben Owen (Penn State)

                        2:30 – 2:50        “Mergers of BH-NS Binaries”

                                                Emmanouela Rantsiou (Northwestern)

                        2:50 – 3:10        “Status of Initial LIGO”     Powerpoint or pdf

                                                Gregory Harry (MIT)

                        3:10 – 3:30        “The Cause and Consequence of the Mass Inflation Instability Inside Realistic Black Holes”

                                                Andrew Hamilton (Colorado)

 

Thomas 215      Approaches to Quantum Gravity III

                        Chair: Laurent Freidel

 

                        2:00 – 2:30        “Effective Theories from Spin Foam”

                                                Laurent Freidel (Perimeter)

                        2:30 – 2:50        “Topological Aspects of Ashtekar-Barbero Formulation of General Relativity”

                                                Simone Mercuri (CPT, Marseille)

                        2:50 – 3:10        “Contrasting LQC and WDW Theory Using an Exactly Solvable Model”

                                                Parampreet Singh (Penn State)

                        3:10 – 3:30        “Universe with Cosmological Constant in Loop Quantum Cosmology”

                                                Tomasz Pawlowski (Penn State)

 

Second Session: 4:00 – 5:30

 

Thomas 201      Astroparticle Physics Beyond the Standard Model

                  Chair:  Kaixuan Ni

 

                        4:00 – 4:30        “Underground Searches for SUSY Dark Matter: XENON10 and Beyond”

                                                Kaixuan Ni (Yale)

                        4:30 – 4:45        “Not Just Coincidence: Prospects for Detection of LIGO Burst Counterparts”                                                         

                                                Derek Fox (Penn State)

                        4:45 – 5:00        “Neutrinos as Probes of Dark Matter”

                                                Hasan Yuksel (Ohio State)

                        5:00 – 5:15        “A Generic Test of Modified Gravity Models which Emulate Dark Matter”

                                                Emre Kahya (Florida)

                        5:10 – 5:30        “Ultrahigh Energy Neutrino Detection and Physics Beyond the Standard Model””

                                                Soeb Razzaque (Penn State)

 

 

Thomas 216      Black Holes and Gravitational Waves II

                        Chair: Ben Owen

 

                        4:00 – 4:25        “Gravitational Wave Research at Hannover and Potsdam”

                                                Peter Aufmuth (AEI, Hannover)

                        4:25 – 4:50        “The Roadmap to Advanced LIGO”

                                                Paradeep Sarin (MIT)

                        4:50 – 5:10        “Can We Test Effective Quantum Gravity with Gravitational Waves?”

                                                Nicolas Yunes (Penn State)

                        5:10 – 5:30        “Compare Analytical and Numerical Binary Coalescing Waveforms”

                                                Yi Pan (Maryland)

 

Thomas 215      Approaches to Quantum Gravity IV

                        Chair: Laurent Freidel

 

                        4:20 – 4:40        “Computing the Lorentzian 10J Symbol”

                                                Joshua Willis (Abilene)

                        4:40 – 5:00        “Quantum Extensions of Classical Singular Spacetimes – The CGHS Model”

                                                Victor Taveras (Penn State)

                        5:00 – 5:20        “Time and M-Theory”

                                                Djordje Minic (Viriginia Tech)

                        5:20 – 5:40        “Cosmological Vector Modes and Quantum Gravity Effects”

                                                Golam Hossain (Penn State)