Seminar: Starobinsky inflation and Primordial Black Holes as the source of Dark Matter and Gravitational Waves

Astro Seminar: Starobinsky inflation and Primordial Black Holes as the source of Dark Matter and Gravitational Waves

Prof. S. V. Ketov (Tokyo Metropolitan University and Kavli IPMU, Japan)

Abstract: Starobinsky inflation is reviewed and extended in the supergravity framework, in order to accommodate the primordial black hole production, dark matter and high-scale supersymmetry breaking in the early universe. The induced gravitational waves can be used for testing our models. Possible connections to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and LHC precision measurements of particle physics are outlined.

Bio: Prof. Sergey Ketov is Head of the Theoretical High-Energy Physics Lab at Tokyo Metropolitan University, and associate member of the Kavli Institute for Physics and Mathematics of the Universe at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He obtained his PhD in 1986 at the Lebedev Physical Institute in Moscow. In 2024, he has been invited to NORDITA in Stockholm as a Distinguished Visiting Professor. Prior to his current appointment in Japan, he worked at various teaching and research positions at the Kaiserslautern University and Hannover University in Germany, and the University of Maryland at College Park in the USA. His research interests are theoretical cosmology and astrophysics, quantum field theory, supersymmetry, and string theory.