Research Interest of Oriol Pujolas Boix

      Publication 1: Consistent Lorentz Violation in Flat and Curved Space. (URL)
      Publication 2: Domain Walls As Probes Of Gravity. (URL)
      Publication 3: Radion effective potential in the brane world. (URL)

    URL of Research: 

Statement of Interest:


  I am interested in a number of topics ranging from 
massive gravity theories to inflation in models with 
topological defects and/or branes and in string 
compactifications. 

Regarding the infrared modifications of gravity, DGP-like 
models with higher co-dimension branes can provide 
realizations massive gravity perhaps even more interesting 
than the co-dimension 1 example. However, quite generically, 
in higher co-dimensions one finds difficulties related to 
resolving the brane structure and the appearance of ghosts.
One of my projects is to try to build models that avoid 
these problems.  

In the context of string cosmology, I am also interested in 
finding realizations of inflation in string 
compactifications. For example, it would be interesting to 
find compactifications that allow a period 
of topological inflation, very much in the same lines of the 
Racetrack model. In general, a co-dimension two brane 
(a vortex) with a large winding number can become 
super-massive and it undergoes topological inflation. 
This can be also generalized to higher codimension defects. 
It would be interesting to find explicit realizations of 
this mechanism for inflation in flux compactifications.