Mauricio Gamonal

Research Interests

I am focused on building a bridge between certain descriptions of the fundamental structure of spacetime with potential phenomenological signatures produced on physically relevant regimes, such as the primordial epoch of the universe. For this goal, I study a variety of mathematical frameworks, from effective field theory and perturbative quantum field theory to the spinfoam formulation of Loop Quantum Gravity, and apply different techniques to cosmological observables in cosmic inflation and beyond. Most of my work is under the supervision of Prof. Eugenio Bianchi. 

Education 

• B.Sc. in Physics - Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (2018)
• M.Sc. in Theoretical Physics - Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (2021)
• Ph.D. in Physics - Pennsylvania State University (2021-Present) 

Honors & Awards

• W. Donald Miller Fellowship (2025)
• David Duncan Graduate Fellowship (2025)
• LQG Summer School/LOC Blaumann Grant (2024)
• Fondazione Blaumann Research Grant (2022)
• Homer F. Braddock Fellowship (2022)
• David H. Rank Memorial Physics Award (2022)
• Fulbright Fellowship - FSP (2021-2025)

• Tri-Alpha Eta Psi Chapter: First-generation Honor Society (2024)
• Member of the American Physical Society.

Teaching (TA)

• PHYS 213: General Physics: Fluids and Thermal Physics.
• PHYS 214: General Physics: Wave Motion and Quantum Physics.
• PHYS 250: Introductory Physics I.

Service & Outreach

• Organizer: Primordial Universe and Gravitation (PUG) Seminar (2024-Present)
• Lecturer: General Relativity in Physics LATAM (2023)
• Organizer: Pizzaseminar (PUC, 2020-2021)
• Chief Executive: Física Itinerante (PUC, 2016)

Websites 

• List of publications (Inspire)
• Google Scholar
• Research Gate
• Flickr

Publications

• E. Bianchi, M. Gamonal, Squeezed vacua and primordial features in effective theories of inflation at N2LO, arXiv: 2410.11812
• E. Bianchi, M. Gamonal, Primordial power spectrum at N3LO in effective theories of inflation, Phys. Rev. D 110, 104032 (2024)
• M. Gamonal, Slow-roll inflation in f(R,T) gravity and a modified Starobinsky-like inflationary model, Phys. Dark Univ. 31, 100768 (2021)
• J. Alfaro and M. Gamonal, A nontrivial footprint of standard cosmology in the future observations of low-frequency gravitational waves, Gen. Rel. Grav. 52 , no.12, 118 (2020)

Mailing Address:

104 Davey Lab, Box #C35, University Park, Pa 16802