Computational Approach to Quantum Gravity via Holography
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The STFC strategy is built around challenging questions like "How did the universe begin and how is it evolving?", "What are the fundamental constituents and fabric of the universe and how do they interact?", "What is the nature of spacetime?", "Is there a unified framework?". This research proposal aims to address these questions based on a new approach which combines techniques from several different research fields supported by STFC.
Current understanding about the fundamental laws of nature is based on the standard model of particle physics (electromagnetism, weak interaction and strong interaction) and general relativity (gravity). This framework is far from complete. The biggest problem is that it is not a 'unified framework': while the standard model is treated quantum mechanically, the quantum aspect of gravity is poorly understood. In order to understand deep questions like the beginning of the universe or the nature of spacetime, we need a unified framework which treats all fundamental interactions quantum mechanically. The first thing to do is to obtain the theory of quantum gravity. Superstring theory is a promising theory of quantum gravity, and it is hoped that it also provides us with the unified framework of all fundamental interactions in nature. We combine an attractive idea developed from string theory - the holographic principle - with techniques from particle theory, nuclear theory and quantum information, in order to reveal the quantum aspects of gravity.
The holographic principle is a very striking idea which claims quantum gravity is equivalent to certain quantum theories without gravity. The properties of the non-gravitational theories can be translated to quantum aspects of gravity via a set of nontrivial rules called holographic dictionary. One immediate consequence is that a quantum black hole should be described by manifestly unitary theory, thus providing a counter-example of Hawking's information loss paradox. Thanks to the holographic principle, one may be able to use non-gravitational theories, which in principle can be studied and solved numerically, to learn about the dynamics of superstring theory. The obstacle is, however, the lack of computational tools.
Non-gravitational theories related to gravity via holographic dictionary resemble Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), which is the theory of strong interaction inside the atom. QCD is notoriously difficult to solve by a pen and paper. However, in these two decades, nuclear theorists and lattice gauge theorists developed numerical methods to solve QCD, and by now various properties of QCD, for example the mass of proton, can be calculated numerically. In the past several years I have solved several technical difficulties associated with theories of our interest, and shown that QCD-like methods can actually be used. I have also demonstrated that a few important properties of quantum gravity can actually be obtained by numerical calculation.
Another powerful tool comes from quantum information theory. For many interesting problems like Hawking's information paradox, it is important to see how quantum black holes evolve. However such calculations are notoriously difficult. Recently it has been realized that some simple theories capture many aspects of time evolutions of quantum black holes, and tools from quantum information theory turned out to be useful for these theories.
With the Ernest Rutherford fellowship and the University of Southampton, I will push these approaches further and establish a computational approach to quantum gravity. It should provide physicists with basic tools for the search for the unified framework of the fundamental laws of nature.
Current understanding about the fundamental laws of nature is based on the standard model of particle physics (electromagnetism, weak interaction and strong interaction) and general relativity (gravity). This framework is far from complete. The biggest problem is that it is not a 'unified framework': while the standard model is treated quantum mechanically, the quantum aspect of gravity is poorly understood. In order to understand deep questions like the beginning of the universe or the nature of spacetime, we need a unified framework which treats all fundamental interactions quantum mechanically. The first thing to do is to obtain the theory of quantum gravity. Superstring theory is a promising theory of quantum gravity, and it is hoped that it also provides us with the unified framework of all fundamental interactions in nature. We combine an attractive idea developed from string theory - the holographic principle - with techniques from particle theory, nuclear theory and quantum information, in order to reveal the quantum aspects of gravity.
The holographic principle is a very striking idea which claims quantum gravity is equivalent to certain quantum theories without gravity. The properties of the non-gravitational theories can be translated to quantum aspects of gravity via a set of nontrivial rules called holographic dictionary. One immediate consequence is that a quantum black hole should be described by manifestly unitary theory, thus providing a counter-example of Hawking's information loss paradox. Thanks to the holographic principle, one may be able to use non-gravitational theories, which in principle can be studied and solved numerically, to learn about the dynamics of superstring theory. The obstacle is, however, the lack of computational tools.
Non-gravitational theories related to gravity via holographic dictionary resemble Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), which is the theory of strong interaction inside the atom. QCD is notoriously difficult to solve by a pen and paper. However, in these two decades, nuclear theorists and lattice gauge theorists developed numerical methods to solve QCD, and by now various properties of QCD, for example the mass of proton, can be calculated numerically. In the past several years I have solved several technical difficulties associated with theories of our interest, and shown that QCD-like methods can actually be used. I have also demonstrated that a few important properties of quantum gravity can actually be obtained by numerical calculation.
Another powerful tool comes from quantum information theory. For many interesting problems like Hawking's information paradox, it is important to see how quantum black holes evolve. However such calculations are notoriously difficult. Recently it has been realized that some simple theories capture many aspects of time evolutions of quantum black holes, and tools from quantum information theory turned out to be useful for these theories.
With the Ernest Rutherford fellowship and the University of Southampton, I will push these approaches further and establish a computational approach to quantum gravity. It should provide physicists with basic tools for the search for the unified framework of the fundamental laws of nature.
People |
ORCID iD |
Masanori Hanada (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Alet F
(2021)
Entanglement and confinement in coupled quantum systems
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Alet F
(2020)
Entanglement and Confinement in Coupled Quantum Systems
Bergner G
(2020)
Thermal phase transition in Yang-Mills matrix model
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Berkowitz E
(2018)
Gauged and ungauged: a nonperturbative test
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Buividovich P
(2018)
Real-time dynamics of matrix quantum mechanics beyond the classical approximation
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Buividovich P
(2019)
Quantum chaos, thermalization, and entanglement generation in real-time simulations of the Banks-Fischler-Shenker-Susskind matrix model
in Physical Review D
Buser A
(2020)
Quantum simulation of gauge theory via orbifold lattice
Buser A
(2021)
Quantum simulation of gauge theory via orbifold lattice
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Cotler J
(2018)
Erratum to: Black holes and random matrices
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Gautam V
(2023)
Matrix entanglement
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Gautam V
(2022)
Matrix Entanglement
Gautam V
(2023)
Linear confinement in the partially-deconfined phase
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Gharibyan H
(2018)
Onset of random matrix behavior in scrambling systems
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Gharibyan H
(2021)
Toward simulating superstring/M-theory on a quantum computer
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Gharibyan H
(2020)
Characterization of quantum chaos by two-point correlation functions
in Physical Review E
Gharibyan H
(2019)
A characterization of quantum chaos by two-point correlation functions
Gharibyan H
(2019)
Quantum Lyapunov spectrum
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Gharibyan H
(2019)
Erratum to: Onset of random matrix behavior in scrambling systems
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hanada M
(2019)
Anatomy of deconfinement
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hanada M
(2021)
Color confinement and Bose-Einstein condensation
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hanada M
(2022)
Partial deconfinement: a brief overview
Hanada M
(2019)
Partial-Symmetry-Breaking Phase Transitions
Hanada M
(2018)
Partial Deconfinement
Hanada M
(2019)
Partial Deconfinement
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hanada M
(2019)
Anatomy of Deconfinement
Description | Numerical findings in this project led us to the discovery of the confined phase in the D0-brane matrix model, which is likely to be the dual of M-theory. This allows people to study the phase transition between string theory and M-theory based on the first principles. On the theoretical front, we found much evidence that partial deconfinement, proposed by Jonathan Maltz and the PI in 2016 for the case of 4d SYM, is a generic feature of gauge theories that go through the confinement/deconfinement transition. |
Exploitation Route | Numerical findings in this project led us to the discovery of the confined phase in the D0-brane matrix model, which is likely to be the dual of M-theory. This allows people to study the phase transition between string theory and M-theory based on the first principles. The idea of partial deconfinement has wide applications ranging from collider experiments to black hole information puzzles. |
Sectors | Education,Other |