A discrete nonetheless remarkable brick in de Sitter: the "massless minimally coupled field"

Over the last ten years interest in the physics of de Sitter spacetime has been growing very fast. Besides the supposed existence of a "de sitterian period" in inflation theories, the observational evidence of an acceleration of the universe expansion (interpreted as a positive cosmological constant or a "dark energy" or some form of "quintessence") has triggered a lot of attention in the physics community. A specific de sitterian field called "massless minimally coupled field" (mmc) plays a fundamental role in inflation models and in the construction of the de sitterian gravitational field. A covariant quantization of the mmc field, `a la Krein-Gupta-Bleuler was proposed in [1]. In this talk, we will review this construction and explain the relevance of such a field in the construction of a massless spin 2 field in de Sitter space-time.Comment: Proceedings of the XXVII Colloquium on Group Theoretical Methods in Physics, Yerevan, August 200

Adam Smith’s Unnaturally Natural (nonetheless Naturally Unnatural) use of the Word Natural

Natural and nature are complex words, fraught with ambiguity and contradiction. This paper does not attempt to give a complete account of Smith\u27s use of these words. However, it does demonstrate that Smith did not necessarily approve of what he called natural or nature . Economists and others who assume otherwise are in error. A study, analysis, and/or interpretation of Smith\u27s work which depends upon this (at times unstated) assumption - that Smith necessarily approved of nature or the natural - needs to be read with great care; perhaps even incredulity.

Combating Disease Mongering: Daunting but Nonetheless Essential

The way forward, argues Heath, relies on our capacity to rediscover courage and stoicism and to realign the relationship between economic, political, and professional interests

Saint Bakhtin, Porous Theorizing, and Proceeding Nonetheless

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