Laura Mersini-Houghton’s research focuses on three main themes: origins of the universe and the fundamental nature of space and time; dark energy determining the ultimate future of the universe; quantum physics of the black holes. In addition, she is interested in the Nature of Time and its relation to the Laws of Nature.
She proposed a theory of the origins of the universe from a quantum landscape multiverse, based on fundamental physics , also here and in this paper. With collaborators she derived a series of predictions for anomalous deviations from the expected uniformity of structure distribution in our sky. These anomalies were successfully tested by PLANCK and LHC in: Avatars I and Avatars II (check out the end of page 4 for the Cold Spot prediction, and both papers for the remaining predictions).
Previously, she worked on a model of dark energy which arises from short distance modes of the vacuum. Currently she is investigating the relation between dark energy and the standard model of particles. There is a vast literature on phenomenological models for dark energy. However, dark energy remains the most mysterious energy component in the history of physics with its fundamental nature persistently obscure. In a recent paper published in Nature Scientific Reports, https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.08894, she proved that phantom dark energy is a cosmic fluid made up of time crystals, thereby shedding light and giving the first example for the physical nature of dark energy based on first principles.
She has worked on different aspects of black hole physics. She investigated the back-reaction of Hawking radiation on a gravitationally collapsing star, to check if it prevents the formation of a singularity, and if it avoids the information loss paradox; and the effect of short distance physics near the horizon. Recently she investigated how primordial black holes that evaporate in the early universe change BBN, among other factors through entropy injection and an evolving baryon to photon ratio.
(Backreaction of Hawking Radiation on a Gravitationally Collapsing Star) .
With Stephen Hawking, she initiated and brought together leading scientists to discuss the outstanding problem of Black Holes information loss paradox, in a conference in 2015 held at Nordita and KTH in Stockholm, Sweden,
Opening of the ‘Hawking Radiation’Conference, Stockholm
Closing Remarks at the ‘Hawking Radiation’ Conference, Stockholm
Published Papers Link: