Visiting the Higgs Centre

The primary purpose of my visit to the University of Edinburgh is to advance my research in quantum cosmology under the mentorship of Professor Neil Turok, a leading expert in the field. My goal is to apply Monte Carlo simulations and the generalized Lefschetz thimble method to address the sign problem in quantum cosmology models, particularly in understanding quantum fluctuations in the early universe. The visit will provide me with the opportunity to refine my computational techniques, collaborate on theoretical developments, and contribute to the growing body of work in quantum cosmology.

Giving some talks at EMPG & Higgs Colloquium.

The purpose of the visit is to continue with the current collaboration with Prof. Arjun Berera and Suddhasattwa Brahma on a project involving Prof. Berera's PhD student Zizang Qiu on primordial magnetic fields. In this same visit, we will also have conversations on a second project under development with the former Prof. Berera's PhD student Jaime Calderon, which also involves the student Zizang Qiu, on the methods of nonequilibrium quantum field theory applied to the study of particle production in the early universe. The potential outcome of both projects is, in the first case, to access the viability of the presence of a thermalized photon radiation bath during (warm) inflation as a mechanism to enhance the formation of primordial magnetic fields. In the second project, the outcome expected is to produce an unified description of particle production in both warm inflation dynamics, as also during reheating and in intermediate regimes. Both studies proposed above and under study are lacking an understanding in the literature. The present proposed visit will allow for us to advance in both projects, leading to their conclusion.

To continue ongoing collaborations with academics at the Higgs Centre, focusing primarily on non-equilibrium aspects of inflationary cosmology, including cold and warm inflation. In particular, we aim to perform calculations of dissipative rates of the inflaton field under different kinematic regimes. On a different direction, we would also work on computing the effect of non-Markovian behaviour on the tails of the probability distribution functions of (cold) inflationary perturbations.

Yong Xiao has worked on covariant phase space methods in gravity and extended laws of thermodynamics and is willing to learn new ideas in holography and black hole physics in our local academic environment.