Speaker: Prof. Dr. Thomas Hartman (Cornell)
Title: Higher topologies in quantum gravity
Abstract: Spacetime geometries with nontrivial topology, known as Euclidean wormholes, have played an important role in recent progress on the black hole information paradox. However, these spacetimes can also lead to puzzling results that seem to disagree with quantum mechanics and the AdS/CFT correspondence, which has led to the suggestion that wormholes arise from coarse-graining over UV degrees of freedom. I will explain the puzzle and show that wormholes in 3D gravity can be interpreted as averaged solutions of the 2D conformal bootstrap equations.
Homepage: https://physics.cornell.edu/thomas-hartman
Recording: https://vimeo.com/700556986