Robert Brandenberger

Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) and Professor of Physics

Research Field: Theoretical Cosmology

The goals of theoretical cosmology are twofold. The first one is to provide an explanation for the observed structure in the universe on large scales. The second goal is to explain the history of the very early universe. According to our present ideas, the seeds which develop into the observed structure in the universe are laid down in the very early universe and determined by the physics valid at the highest energies. Thus, cosmology is a natural meeting ground between fundamental theory (e.g. superstring theory or quantum gravity) and observations.

Current Research Areas and Selected Publications

Recent Talks

Papers

Students

  • Gabrielle Mitchell (MSc)
  • Samuel Laliberte (MSc)
  • Vincent Comeau (MSc)
  • Omar Alaryani(MSc)
  • Mesbah Alsarraj (MSc)
  • Ziwei Wang (PhD)
  • Bryce Cyr (PhD)
  • Matthew Muscat (MSc)

    Past Students (and their current positions)

  • Disrael Cunha (PhD) (postdoc at Univ. Louvain, Belgium)
  • Guilherme Franzmann (PhD) (postdoc, NORDITA, Stockholm, Sweden)
  • Jerome Quintin (PhD) (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Golm, Germany)
  • Elisa Ferreira (PhD) (Max Planck fellow at Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching; junior faculty, Univ. of Sao Paulo)
  • Hossein Bazrafshan (PhD) (junior faculty, Mashad Univ., Iran)
  • Evan McDonough (PhD) (co-supervised by K. Dasgupta, postdoc at Brown Univ.)
  • Leila Graef (PhD) (co-supervised by J.A.S. Lima, Univ. of Sao Paolo, now a junior faculty at Univ. Federal Fluminense, Niteroi, Brazil)
  • Yan Gobeil (MSc) (co-supervised by A. Maloney, now a PhD student at McGill)
  • Maddy Anthonisen (MSc) (now a PhD student at McGill)
  • Jerome Quintin (MSc) (continued as a PhD student at McGill)
  • Nick Park (PhD)
  • Evan McDonough (MSc) (continued as a PhD student at McGill)
  • Marius Oltean (MSc) (now a PhD student at Univ. of Waterloo)
  • Yuki Omori (MSc) (co-supervised by T. Webb, PhD student of G. Holder at McGill, postdoc at Stanford University)
  • Grant Salton (MSc) (co-supervised by P. Hayden, now PhD student at Stanford)
  • Francis Duplessis (MSc) (PhD completed, Arizona State Univ.)
  • Wei Xue (PhD) (postdoc, SISSA and MIT, junior faculty at Univ. of Florida)
  • Johanna Karouby (PhD) (postdoc, MIT)
  • Michael Pagano (MSc) (CEGEP teacher)
  • Laurence Perreault-Levasseur (MSc) (PhD student, DAMTP, Cambridge, postdoc at Stanford, junior faculty at Univ. de Montreal)
  • Rebecca Danos (PhD) (CITA National Fellow and postdoc, Univ. of Manitoba)
  • Chunshan Lin (PhD, co-advisee, student at USTC, China) (postdoc, Kyoto Univ.)
  • Alessandro Cerioni (PhD, co-advisee, student at Univ. of Bologna)
  • Larissa Lorenz (PhD, co-advisee, student at IAP) (postdoc, Univ. of Leuven)
  • Nima Lashkari (MSc) (PhD student of A. Maloney at McGill; postdoc UBC and MIT, junior faculty at Purdue University)
  • Francis Cyr-Racine (MSc) (PhD student, UBC; postdoc Caltech and Harvard, junior faculty at the Univ. of New Mexico)
  • Andrew Stewart (MSc) (CEGEP teacher)
  • Jean Lachapelle (MSc) (PhD student, Univ. of Toronto)
  • Subodh Patil (PhD) (Assistant Professor (Research), Neils Bohr Institute)
  • Natalia Shuhmaher (PhD) (postdoc, University of Geneva)
  • Patrick Martineau (PhD) (postdoc, McGill (physiology); McGill Med. School)
  • Thorsten Battefeld (PhD) (postdoc, Gottingen University)
  • Scott Watson (PhD) (associate professor, Syracuse Univ.)
  • Ghazal Geshnizjani (PhD) (research assistant professor, Univ. of Waterloo)
  • Zeeya Merali [PhD, co-advisee] (science writer, New Scientist)
  • Antonio Guimaraes (PhD) (assistant professor, Univ. of Rio de Janeiro)
  • Damien Easson (PhD) (associate professor, Arizona State Univ.)
  • Stephon Alexander (PhD) (Professor, Brown University)
  • Matthew Parry (PhD) (assistant professor, Otago University)
  • Martin Goetz (PhD)
  • L. Raul Abramo (PhD) (professor, Univ. of Sao Paulo)
  • Mark Trodden (PhD) (professor, Univ. of Pennsylvania)
  • Richhild Moessner (PhD)
  • Andrew Sornborger (PhD)(associate professor, Univ. of Georgia)
  • Tomislav Prokopec (PhD)(professor, Univ. of Utrecht)
  • Jinwu Ye (MSc) (associate professor, Mississipi State Univ.)
  • Jong Kung (PhD)
  • Leandros Perivolaropoulos (PhD) (professor, Ionnina Univ.)
  • Hume Feldman (PhD) (professor, Univ. of Kansas)

    Teaching: PHYS 743 (Fall 2019)

  • Outline of the Class
  • (UPDATED) Readings
  • Homework Set 1
  • Homework Set 2
  • Homework Set 3
  • Homework Set 4
  • (NEW) Homework Set 5
  • (NEW) Notes: QFT in curved space-time
  • Figures for Top. defects section

    Teaching: PHYS 182 (Fall 2019)

  • Outline of the Class
  • (UPDATED) Slides from Class
  • Readings and Homework 1
  • Solutions, Set 1
  • Readings and Homework 2
  • (NEW) Solutions, Set 2
  • Readings and Homework 3
  • (NEW) Solutions, Set 3
  • Readings and Homework 4
  • Solutions, Set 4
  • (NEW) Readings and Homework 5
  • (NEW) Information about the Midterm
  • (NEW) Midterm Exam Practise Problems
  • Readings and Homework 6
  • Solutions, Set 6
  • Readings and Homework 7
  • Solutions, Set 7
  • (NEW) Final Essay Instructions
  • Tutorial and Final Exam information
  • Readings on Special Relativity
  • Readings on General Relativity I
  • Readings on General Relativity II
  • Guest Lecture on Exoplanets Guest Lecture by Professor Webb

    Teaching: ETH Spring 2019, 402--0389 Physics of the Very Early Universe

  • Outline of the Class
  • Readings
  • Homework, Set 1 (week 1)
  • Homework, Set 2 (week 2)
  • Homework, Set 3 (week 3)
  • Homework, Set 4 (week 4)
  • Homework, Set 5 (week 5)
  • Homework, Set 6 (week 6)
  • Figures for article on topological defects
  • Homework, Set 7 (week 7)
  • Homework, Set 8 (weeks 8/9)

    Teaching: PHYS 251 (Fall 2014)

  • Overview of the Class
  • Course Outline
  • Problem Solving Strategies
  • Homework Set 1
  • Solution Set 1
  • Homework Set 2
  • Solution Set 2
  • Problems on Phase Space
  • Homework Set 3
  • Solution Set 3
  • Homework Set 4
  • Solution Set 4
  • Homework Set 5
  • Solution Set 5
  • Homework Set 6
  • Solution Set 6
  • Homework Set 7
  • Solution Set 7
  • Homework Set 8
  • Solution Set 8
  • Homework Set 9
  • Solution Set 9
  • Homework Set 10
  • Solution Set 10
  • Solutions of Midterm 2
  • Notes on Dynamical Systems
  • Notes on Oscillations
  • Notes on Lagrangians
  • Notes on Strings

    Teaching: PHYS 514 (Winter 2018)

  • Outline of the Class
  • Homework Set 1
  • Solution Set 1
  • Homework Set 2
  • Solution Set 2
  • Homework Set 3
  • Solution Set 3
  • Homework Set 4
  • Solution Set 4
  • Homework Set 5
  • Solution Set 5
  • Homework Set 6
  • Solution Set 6
  • Homework Set 7
  • Solution Set 7
  • Homework Set 8
  • Solution Set 8 (NEW)
  • Homework Set 9
  • Solution Set 9 (NEW)
  • Midterm Exam
  • Solutions of Midterm (NEW)
  • Final Essay Topics

    Physics Colloquia

  • 2019/2020 Preliminary Colloquium Schedule
  • 2018/2019 Preliminary Colloquium Schedule

    Personal: Web Page of Prof. Hans Brandenberger

    Workshops

  • Cosmic Strings 2012
  • Adventures in Superspace (2013)
  • Bulk-to-Boundary Correspondence in AdS/CFT 2014
  • AdS/CFT, Self-Adjoint Extensions and the Resolution of Cosmological Singularities 2015
  • Double Field Theory 2016
  • McGill-Dartmouth Cosmology Day 2017
  • Northeast Cosmology Workshop 2018

    rhb@hep.physics.mcgill.ca