Contact: bpessoa[AT]iip.ufrn.brLocation: Natal, Brazil
Observational data indicate that the very early Universe was locally only infinitesimally different from the de Sitter space-time. The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for observations which suggest that the current Universe is again approaching a locally de Sitter phase, although with a much slower expansion rate. Therefore, quantum field theory on a locally de Sitter background is a key are of fundamental physics. When quantized matter fields on de Sitter are decomposed into different frequencies, one finds that frequencies much higher than the Hubble constant behave almost as in flat space. However, the low frequency modes of certain types of fields show a radically different behavior. This workshop will explore the behavior and the consequences of this IR sector, in cosmology and related areas.