Alex Maloney - Quantum Information Theory, Black Holes, and Space-time

Speaker: Alex Maloney, Ph.D.

Abstract: I will describe recent progress on the relationship between quantum information theory and quantum gravity.  I will review the theoretical evidence that classical space-time geometry emerges from the entanglement of more fundamental quantum mechanical degrees of freedom, and that -- in a sense -- space-time *is* entanglement.  This evidence comes from recent advances in our understanding of quantum black holes and the holographic (AdS/CFT) correspondence.  I will also explain the sense in which black holes are the fastest scramblers of information in nature, which leads to an intriguing relationship between black hole physics, quantum chaos, and the physics of disordered systems.  This will be an expository talk: no advanced background beyond quantum mechanics and relativity will be assumed.