Alex Terrana: Modifying Gravity - a Grad Student's Perspective

PSYU is pleased to invite all our members to the next event, to be held on February 10th at 5.30PM in room 317. Alex Terrana will be giving a talk on her research in gravity studies, and will share her experience being a grad student. PSYU is also collaborating with Students for Equality in Physics (StEP) to host a pre-talk discussion session at 4.30PM also in 317 Petrie. The topic of this informal discussion will be how gender affects our studies in Physics. Everyone is encouraged to join this discussion and contribute your views. There will be coffee, tea, and pastries at this session as well. At both events, there will be good company, free food, and a great talk! You are all strongly encouraged to attend both of the sessions! Alex's abstract: --- I'll tell you briefly about my own journey from McMaster to Perimeter to York, highlighting some opportunities in research/grad school that you should be aware of. Then I'll get into an overview of my research in theoretical cosmology, specifically, modified gravity. Einstein's theory of gravity, General Relatively, has proven to be extremely successful within the solar system, but is known to have problems on cosmological scales. To solve these problems, physicists are forced to introduce hypothetical matter and energy components, dark matter and dark energy, that together need to comprise 96% of the total energy budget of the universe. But what if the real issue is a breakdown of our theory on large scales? Perhaps, instead of these dark elements, we just need a better and deeper understanding of gravity. However, developing a theoretically consistent theory of modified gravity turns out to be extremely challenging for a number of reasons. I'll tell you about one of the most promising and well-motivated avenues to modify gravity, and all of the interesting features that go along with it! ---