Richard Holman

Professor, Physics

Education

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University

Research

My  interests center mainly on the interface between cosmology and particle physics.  I have very strong interests in the quantum mechanics/field theory involved in inflationary cosmologies.  This has led me to spending a great deal of time developing a formalism that can be used to describe quantum fields in non-equilibrium environments, such as occur during and immediately after an inflationary phase.  This formalism has also had very interesting applications to the so-called Dark Energy problem.

I am currently involved in trying to understand how current and future measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation could detect effects coming from Planck-Scale physics, as well as constructing models that describe the so-called Dark Energy component of the Universe.

Selected Publications

• L. Mersini-Houghton and R. Holman, 'Tilting' the Universe with the Landscape Multiverse: The 'Dark' Flow, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 02, 006 (2009).
• R. Holman and A. J. Tolley, Enhanced Non-Gaussianity from Excited Initial States, J. Cosmol. Astropart. Phys. 05, 001 (2008).
• H. Collins and R. Holman, Trans-Planckian Signals from the Breaking of Local Lorentz Invariance, Phys. Rev. D 77, 105016 (2008).
• R. Holman and L. Mersini-Houghton, Why the Universe Started from a Low Entropy State, Phys. Rev. D 74, 123510 (2006).
• R. Holman and J. Hutasoit, Systematics of Moduli Stabilization, Inflationary Dynamics and Power Spectrum, J. High Energy Phys. 08, 053 (2006).
• H. Collins and R. Holman, The Renormalization of the Energy-Momentum Tensor for an Effective Initial State, Phys. Rev. D 74, 045009 (2006).
• R. Holman and L. Mersini-Houghton, A Fly in the SOUP, Phys. Rev. D 74, 043511 (2006).
• R. Holman and M. R. Martin, Boundary Localized Symmetry Breaking and Topological Defects, Phys. Rev. D 73, 085006 (2006).