Kristin Schleich, Assistant Professor



Research Interests

My current research is mainly in quantum cosmology, the study of the quantum mechanics of the universe as a whole. Today's universe has very special properties; it is very old, homogenous and isotropic on distance scales of megaparsecs, and has Euclidean topology on scales from subatomic to cosmological distances. Einstein gravity has classical solutions with these properties, but only for very special initial conditions. The question thus arises, can we explain the observed special properties of the universe as consequences of the quantum mechanics of gravity near the initial singularity.

I am currently studying two aspects of this issue:

Finally I am also studying the evolution of solutions to the Einstein equations using techniques and methods developed for the study of dynamical systems.

Selected Publications

"Conformal Rotation in Perturbative Gravity", Phys. Rev. D36, 2342 (1987), K. Schleich.

"Conformal Rotation in Bianchi I Quantum Cosmology", Phys. Rev. D38, 2192 (1989), K. Schleich.

"Constraints on the Topology of Axionic Wormhole Solutions", Class. Quantum Grav., 9, 89 (1992), K. Schleich and A. Anderson.

"Generalized Sums Over Histories for Quantum Gravity I. Smooth Conifolds", Nucl. Phys. B, to appear, K. Schleich and D. Witt.

"Generalized Sums Over Histories for Quantum Gravity II. Simplicial Conifolds", Nucl. Phys. B, to appear, K. Schleich and D. Witt.