Speaker
Thorsten Battefeld
(University of Goettingen, Germany)
Description
Moduli spaces in string theory, often dubbed Landscapes, are usually of high dimensionality and feature a complicated potential. Is multi-field inflation on such landscapes consistent with current observations? Modeling such landscapes by random potentials offers the opportunity to asses generic features of inflation. Random matrix theory provides a tool (complementing numerical experiments) to address many questions analytically, without requiring a detailed knowledge of the potential, i.e. details of the compactification, due to the feature of universality. Thus, generic prediction of a landscape in string theory can be attained and put to the test. I will discuss novel techniques to construct random potentials locally by a generalization of Dyson Brownian motion, explain some predictions, such as the preference of saddle point inflation in a class of landscapes, and comment on the role of eternal inflation, anthropic arguments and the measure problem within this framework as time permits.
