Aspen Summer 2005 Workshop Proposal Description And

A Workshop on ‘Supercosmology’ Aspen Summer 2005 Workshop Proposal

Description and Justification

We are proposing a four week interdisciplinary workshop to bring together scientists from various branches of high energy physics, astrophysics and cosmology working on the topic of supersymmetry in cosmology.

Ideas from cosmology, particle physics, and string theory advance one’s under- standing of physics beyond the standard model. Various cosmological observations, such as WMAP, supernovae project, and astro-particle experiments designed to de- tect high-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos provide important hints and insights into the early universe cosmology. In the near future, the predictions of low-energy supersymmetry will be tested decisively in the upcoming LHC experiments, as well as in astrophysical observations. Next year will be an opportune time to discuss the role of supersymmetry in cosmology and to explore the connections between cosmology and string theory.

Superstring theory, which brings together gravity and gauge interactions, and which makes a bold attempt to explain the most fundamental properties of space- time, has much to contribute to cosmology. At the focus of modern cosmology is the theory of inﬂation or its alternatives, which should explain the density per- turbations from which the large scale structure has emerged. One hopes that a fundamental and natural solution to this problem will come from string theory. The observed accelerated expansion of the universe, caused by a small cosmological constant or some other form of dark energy, may have its origin in string theory as well. Finally, string theory should explain why the universe ends up in the Standard Model vacuum.

Moreover, on the string theory side, there has been a major progress in such longstanding questions as the moduli stabilization. This paves the way to under-

1 standing the ground state of string theory and its relevance to the standard model parameters, inﬂation, and late-time cosmology.

Our workshop will promote discussions of a broad range of topics ranging from cosmology and particle phenomenology to string theory.

Organizers

The organizers are:

• Katrin Becker

. Aﬃliation: Department of Physics, University of Utah

. Phone: 801-581-4785

. Email: [email protected]

• Paolo Gondolo

. Aﬃliation: Department of Physics, University of Utah

. Phone: 801-581-7788

. Email: [email protected]

• Alexander Kusenko

. Aﬃliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA

. Phone: 310-825-4814

. Email: [email protected]

• Anupam Mazumdar

. Aﬃliation: Department of Physics, McGill University; after September 1, 2003: NORDITA, Denmark

. Phone:(+1)-514-398-4479, (+45) 3532 5227

. Email: [email protected]

2 List of Interested Physicists

The following physicists, listed in alphabetical order, have replied positively to our request of participating in case the workshop is approved. Among them, 11% are women, and 23% are from outside North America (China, England, France, Germany, Japan, and Sweden).

Richard Arnowitt Edward Baltz Tom Banks Melanie Becker Pierre Binetruy Robert Brandenberger Cliﬀ Burgess Robert Caldwell Daniel Chung James Cline Edward Copeland Keith Dienes Scott Dodelson Michael Douglas Manuel Drees Joakim Edsj¨o Kari Enqvist Jonathan Feng William Fischler Katherine Freese Mary K Gaillard Graciela Gelmini Tony Gherghetta Steve Giddings Steve Gubser Gary Horowitz Shamit Kachru Marc Kamionkowski Gordon Kane Masahiro Kawasaki David Kieda Lev Kofman Christopher Kolda Axel Krause Lawrence Krauss Markus Luty David Lyth Gregory Moore Takeo Moroi Hitoshi Murayama Robert Myers Pran Nath Hans-Peter Nilles Mihoko M. Nojiri Keith Olive Joseph Polchinski Leszek Roszkowski John Schwarz

3 Joseph Silk Eva Silverstein Michail Shaposhnikov Glenn Starkman Leonard Susskind Mark Trodden Tanmay Vachaspati XinMin Zhang

Weeks for the Workshop

Because of the large number of interested physicists we propose that the length of the workshop should be 4 weeks even though a 3 week workshop could also be considered. The availability of the organizers is the following:

◦ Katrin Becker: will be available all the summer after July 10. Could also be available some weeks in June if the proposed workshop is approved for that time.

◦ Paolo Gondolo: May 9 – August 21

◦ Alexander Kusenko: June 17 – September 25

◦ Anupam Mazumdar: will be available all the summer after June.

In the table below we show the preferred weeks for the workshop together with other meetings which will take place at the international and national level.

Preferred weeks for the proposed } Strings 2005 Aspen workshop Benasque workshop on String Theory { }

4 We propose that the workshop should be organized in the 4 weeks from Au- gust 1 to August 29. In the month of July there is a conflict with the ‘Strings 2005’ conference July 11-16, the ‘Benasque String Theory Workshop’ July 17-29, and the SUSY 2005 ‘Supersymmetry and Unification of Fundamental Interactions’ conference July 18-23. Therefore, our workshop cannot be held any time in July. June is possible but is by no means optimal because some of the organizers would not be available in the first half of June. The best time to hold this workshop is in August.

Contact Person Available for Consultation

Katrin Becker

‘Working to Ensure Diversity’ Contact Person

Anupam Mazumdar

Signatures

Each organizer has read and approved the submitted proposal. Signed by:

Katrin Becker

Paolo Gondolo

Alexander Kusenko

Anupam Mazumdar