Low Dimensional Models of Quantum Gravity

Aspen 2022 Winter Conference

February 12-17

Overview

The quantization of gravity remains one of the most important and challenging unresolved problems in theoretical physics. The holographic correspondence provides a way, at least in principle, to describe certain theories of quantum gravity in terms of dual quantum field theories that live at the boundary of space-time. Over the last two decades this has led to a number of remarkable developments, which culminated last year in a computation of the Page curve, matching the expected dynamics of black hole evaporation in a unitary quantum theory. The proposed workshop will focus on recent developments in the field, predominantly in the context of low-dimensional holographic models of quantum gravity. The specific questions to be addressed include:

  • the role of the Schwarzian and the Virasoro symmetry in the models of quantum gravity in 2 and 3 dimensions,

  • the role of disorder averaging in holographic models, in particular JT gravity,

  • progress in entanglement wedge reconstruction and the entanglement island prescription,

  • the role of wormhole solutions, and more broadly, topologically non-trivial geometries, in unitarity restoration,

  • potential generalizations of holographic models to dS and flat space,

  • near extremal black holes in higher dimensions and AdS2/CFT1 holography.

Our goal is to bring together a diverse group of researchers working in the areas of AdS/CFT, classical and numerical relativity, as well as quantum information theory to discuss ongoing progress in quantum gravity and black hole physics.


Organizers

Alejandra Castro, University of Amsterdam

Anatoly Dymarsky, University of Kentucky

Alexander Maloney, McGill University


Scientific Advisors

Steven Shenker, Stanford University

Hiroshi Ooguri, Caltech


This conference is part of the Aspen Center of Physics Winter Conference program for 2022.