Speaker
Description
Recent cosmological observations are increasingly challenging the standard understanding of the physics underlying cosmic acceleration. In this talk, I present a new mechanism for acceleration, emerging from quantum gravity interactions as described by Group Field Theory (GFT) models. For a broad class of physically motivated GFT interactions, the resulting cosmological dynamics exhibit a late-time fixed point corresponding to a dynamical dark energy–dominated phase. At earlier times, similar quantum gravitational effects can give rise to a slow-roll inflationary epoch, effectively captured by the dynamics of a fictitious single-inflaton model. This emergent inflation can sustain the required expansion, naturally avoids the graceful exit problem, and appears to transition into a persistent, non-accelerating phase consistent with classical expectations.
