28.07.2020 (Tuesday)

Wormholes and branes in JT gravity

Informal Seminar Andreas Blommaert (Ghent University)

at:
14:00 IC
room online - instructions in abstract
abstract:

I will highlight the role of wormholes and branes in reconciling semiclassical gravitational (black hole) physics with unitary quantum mechanical evolution. Most of the talk will be based on recent developments in JT gravity. This is a model of quantum gravity in two dimensions which is analytically tractable. I will first explain why we need wormholes in order to capture late time properties of chaotic quantum systems from a geometrical point of view. I then point out that naively the inclusion of wormholes in a gravitational theory comes with an ensemble interpretation of said gravitational theory. Finally I will explain how this conclusion (that gravity is an ensemble) can be avoided by including branes in the bulk geometrical description. These branes can encode the micro structure of a given unitary quantum system in bulk geometry. ----- Follow the usual link or contact the organisers (Antoine Bourget and Edoardo Vescovi).