Cliff Burgess
Professor, Researcher and One Helluva Guy
Welcome to my home page!
1. Teaching this Term
2. Research Interests
3. Selected Publications
4. Publication List
5. Bio in Brief
6. Contacting Me
7. Some Recent Talks
Teaching
The courses I have been teaching most recently are:
Physics 3A03: Introduction to General Relativity
This is an introductory course on Einstein's theory of General Relativity, aimed at upper-year physics undergraduates.
Graduate Courses in High Energy Particle Physics
I teach a variety of graduate courses, aimed at students in high energy particle physics. Among the courses recently given are: Introduction to the Standard Model, and Introduction to Effective Field Theories.
Research Interests
I am an unabashed high-energy particle theorist whose wild oats were sown working in string theory, but my research interests have since taken a more phenomenological turn. At present my interests lie at the interface between string theory and lower-energy physics, with a particular emphasis on how the discovery of D-branes (and the realization that we may be trapped on one) may have observable consequences in experiments and in cosmology. I have also been a tourist in some of those fields which are related to my own, and am interested in most of the neat applications of theoretical physics.
To the extent that there is a theme to my research, it would be the use of effective field theory techniques throughout high-energy physics and other fields. (See here for an Ode to this wonderful tool.) These techniques permit a general understand of the low-energy (or long-wavelength) behaviour of any physical system. They are particularly apt for our present situation in particle physics, where it appears that the energy scale of any unknown physics beyond the Standard Model is high compared to those that are experimentally accessible.
But part of the beauty of these techniques is that they are also applicable in other areas of physics and so they permit a unified perspective towards theoretical physics as a whole. An important example of this is the application to Goldstone Bosons, which are useful in Condensed-Matter, Nuclear and High-Energy Physics.
Here is a selection of recent areas on which I have worked:
BOOKS
1) The Standard Model: A Primer, C.P. Burgess and G.D. Moore, Cambridge University Press (2006): This graduate textbook uses the Standard Model of particle physics to introduce the techniques of Quantum Field Theory. The intention is to provide in this way both a practical introduction to calculating in field theory, and an introduction to the phenomenology of the Standard Model.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA ARTICLES
1) Supersymmetry and Supergravity, C.P. Burgess, in the Encyclopedia of Physics (2nd Edition), VCH Publishers, New York, 1991; and Encyclopedia of Physics (3rd Edition), VCH Publishers, New York, 2004.
REVIEW ARTICLES
The following review articles are aimed both at the general public
1) String Cosmology: Cosmic Defects in the Lab, C.P. Burgess, Nature Physics 4 (2008) 11;
2) The Great Cosmic Roller-Coaster Ride, C.P. Burgess and F. Quevedo, Scientific American November 2007;
and at more specialized audiences
3) Lectures on Cosmic Inflation and its Potential Stringy Realizations, C.P. Burgess, Classical and Quantum Gravity 24 (2007) S795-S852, and Proceedings of Science (arXiv:0708.2865 [hep-th]) (Topcite 50+);
4) Introduction to Effective Field Theory, C.P. Burgess, Annual Reviews of Nuclear and Particle Science 57 (2007) 329-362 (hep-th/0701053);
5) Quantum Gravity in Everyday Life: General Relativity as an Effective Field Theory, C.P. Burgess, Living Reviews in Relativity 7 (2004) 5, (gr-qc/0311082);
6) Goldstone and Pseudo-Goldstone Bosons in Nuclear, Particle and Condensed Matter Physics, C.P. Burgess, Physics Reports C330 (2000) 193-261 (hep-th/9808176).
EXTRA DIMENSIONS AND DARK ENERGY
The following articles describe a proposal which I believe provides the best approach to date towards understanding the nature of the Dark Energy density.
1) Towards a Naturally Small Cosmological Constant from Branes in 6D Supergravity, Y. Aghababaie, C.P. Burgess, S. Parameswaran and F. Quevedo, Nuclear Physics B680 (2004) 389-414, (hep-th/0304256);
2) Warped Brane Worlds in Six Dimensional Supergravity, Y. Aghababie, C.P. Burgess, J.M. Cline, H. Firouzjahi, F. Quevedo, G. Tasinato and I. Zavala, Journal of High Energy Physics 0309 (2003) 037 (hep-th/0308064);
3) General Axisymmetric Solutions and Self-Tuning in 6D Chiral Gauged Supergravity, C.P. Burgess, F. Quevedo, G. Tasinato and I. Zavala, Journal of High-Energy Physics 0411 (2004) 069 (hep-th/0408109);
More recent reviews of this proposal, and how it works are in:
4) Extra Dimensions and the Cosmological Constant Problem, C.P. Burgess, in the proceedings of Rencontres de Moriond 2007, Electroweak and Unified Theories, La Thuile, Italy, March 2007, (arXiv:0708.0911 [hep-ph]);
5) Towards a Natural Theory of Dark Energy: Supersymmetric Large Extra Dimensions, C.P. Burgess, in the proceedings of Strings and Cosmology, Texas A&M University, College Station Texas, March 2004, AIP Conference Proceedings 743 (2005) 417-449, (hep-th/0411140);
6) Supersymmetric Large Extra Dimensions and the Cosmological Constant: An Update, C.P. Burgess, Annals of Physics 313/2 (2004) 383—401 (hep-th/0402200);
Issues to do with the sensitivity of the Dark Energy to renormalization effects (the traditional cosmological constant problem) are explored in:
7) Technical Naturalness on a Codimension-2 Brane, C.P. Burgess, D. Hoover and G. Tasinato, (arXiv:0903.0402 [hep-th]);
8) Effective Field Theories and Matching for Codimension-2 Branes, C.P. Burgess, C. de Rham, D. Hoover and G. Tasinato, (arXiv:0812.3820 [hep-th]);
9) UV Caps and Modulus Stabilization for 6D Gauged Chiral Supergravity, C.P. Burgess, D. Hoover and G. Tasinato, (arXiv:0705.3212 [hep-th]);
10) Ultraviolet Sensitivity in Supersymmetric Large Extra Dimensions: The Ricci-Flat Case, Journal of High Energy Physics, C.P. Burgess and D. Hoover, (hep-th/0504004);
11) Ultraviolet Sensitivity in Higher Dimensions, D. Hoover and C.P. Burgess, Journal of High Energy Physics 0601 (2006) 058 (hep-th/0507293);
Issues to do with the sensitivity of the resulting Dark Energy to initial conditions are explored in:
12) Scaling Solutions to 6D Gauged Chiral Supergravity, A.J. Tolley, C.P. Burgess, C. de Rham and D. Hoover, New Journal of Physics 8 (2008) 324, (hep-th/0608083);
13) Kicking the Rugby Ball: Perturbations to 6D Gauged Chiral Supergravity, C.P. Burgess, C. de Rham, D. Hoover, D. Mason and A.J. Tolley, Journal of Cosmology and Particle Physics 0702 (2007) 009 (hep-th/0610078);
Best of all, this proposal has a number of observational consequences, some of which are explored in:
14) Natural Quintessence and Large Extra Dimensions, A. Albrecht, C.P. Burgess, F. Ravndal and C. Skordis, Physical Review D65 (2002) 123507 (astro-ph/0107573);
15) MSLED: A Minimal Supersymmetric Large Extra Dimensions Scenario, C.P. Burgess, J. Matias and F. Quevedo, Nuclear Physics B706 (2005) 71-99 (hep-ph/0404135);
16) Deviations from Newton’s Law in Supersymmetric Large Extra Dimensions, P. Callin and C.P. Burgess, Nuclear Physics B (to appear) (hep-th/0511216);
17) MSLED, Neutrino Oscillations and the Cosmological Constant, J. Matias and C.P. Burgess, Journal of High Energy Physics 0509 (2005) 052 (hep-ph/0508156);
18) Dimensionless Coupling of Bulk Scalars at the LHC, P.-H. Beauchemin, G. Azuelos and C.P. Burgess, Journal of Physics G30 (2004) N17 (15 pages) (hep-ph/0407196);
19) Phenomenological Constraints on Extra-Dimensional Scalars, G. Azuelos, P.-H. Beauchemin and C.P. Burgess, Journal of Physics G31 (2005) 1-19, (hep-ph/0401125);
STRING INFLATION
I have also been involved in recent attempts to embed inflation into string theory. An overview of some of these attempts may be found in the lectures:
1) Lectures on Cosmic Inflation, and its Possible Stringy Realizations, C.P. Burgess, given to schools in Dubrovnik (Aug 2006); CERN (January 2007) and Cargese (August 2007), (arXiv:0708.2865 [hep-th]);
I was involved with proposing some of the inflationary mechanisms which have been identified in string theory to this point, such as:
Brane-Antibrane Inflation:
2) The Inflationary brane anti-brane universe, C.P. Burgess, M. Majumdar, D. Nolte, F. Quevedo, G. Rajesh and R.-J. Zhang , Journal of High Energy Physics 0107 (2001) 047, (hep-th/0105204);
3) Inflation in Realistic D-Brane Models, C.P. Burgess, J.M. Cline, H. Stoica and F. Quevedo, Journal of High Energy Physics 0409 (2004) 033 (hep-th/0403119);
Inflation due to Shape-Change in the Extra Dimensions:
4) Fibre Inflation: Observable Gravity Waves from Type IIB String Compactifications, M. Cicoli, C.P. Burgess and F. Quevedo, Journal of Cosmology and Astro-Particle Physics 0903 (2009) 013 (arXiv:0808.0691 [hep-th]);
5) Brane-Antibrane Inflation in Orbifold and Orientifold Models, C.P. Burgess, P. Martineau, F. Quevedo, G. Rajesh and R.-J. Zhang, Journal of High Energy Physics 0203 (2002) 052 (hep-th/0111025);
6) Racetrack Inflation, J.J. Blanco-Pillado, C.P. Burgess, J.M. Cline, C. Escoda, M. Gomez-Reino, R. Kallosh, A. Linde and F. Quevedo, Journal of High Energy Physics 0411 (2004) 069 (hep-th/0406230);
7) Inflating in the Better Racetrack, J.J. Blanco-Pillado, C.P. Burgess, J.M. Cline, C. Escoda, M. Gomez-Reino, R. Kallosh, A. Linde and F. Quevedo, (hep-th/06003129);
A more complete collections of my publications is available through SPIRES and the wonders of the web.
A Brief Bio
I was born in Manitoba and was raised in various places around Western Canada, Ontario and Europe.
I received my B.Sc. in a co-op programme, with a joint honours in Physics and Applied Math from the University of Waterloo. I did my doctoral work in Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Texas in Austin under the supervision of Steven Weinberg.
After doing a postdoctoral stint at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, in 1987 I joined the faculty at McGill University, where I was made James McGill Professor in 2003. I am presently a professor with McMaster University's department of Physics and Astronomy and am an Associate Member at the Perimeter Institute.
I was a Killam Fellow from 2005 - 2007 and elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2008.
Here are my coordinates:
Department of Physics & Astronomy Perimeter InstituteABB-324, McMaster University 31 Caroline St. N1280 Main St. W Waterloo, ONHamilton, ON N2L 2Y5L8S 4M1Tel (905) 525-9140 x23175 (519) 569-7600 x7531Fax (905) 546-1252 (519) 569-7611