Astronomy Tea Talks at Caltech

'Better Cosmology through Modified Gravity'

We've been blundering around with the cosmological constant
problem for a long time. Things only seemed to get worse when we
discovered cosmic acceleration. As we try to figure out how to get out
of this, we must think creatively about what we know. I will discuss a
proposal for a modified gravity and describe how a black hole solution
in this theory provides a novel way out of our problems. I will also
describe a potential connection with quantum gravity phenomenology. In
effect, we may be able to see the discovery of cosmic acceleration as
a helpful indicator for exploring quantum gravity.