Colloquium – Alexander Maloney

Alexander Maloney, McGill University

Quantum Information Theory, Black Holes, and Space-time

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. This has led to a fascinating interplay between gravitational physics, field theory and many aspects of quantum information/quantum computing, including the theory of error correcting codes and entanglement measures. 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.

Sept 21, 2023 @ 4:00pm Central in Stevenson 4327; reception beforehand at 3:30pm in Stevenson 6333

Host: A. Lupsasca

To join via Zoom, please contact Reina Beach (reina.beach@vanderbilt.edu) to request the Zoom link.

Alex Maloney is a theoretical physicist with broad interests in fundamental physics, including the dynamics of strongly coupled field theories and gravitational physics, with applications to cosmology, particle physics and statistical mechanics/condensed matter theory. Over the last several years his work has focused on emerging relationships between quantum information theory and fundamental physics. Alex received his PhD from Harvard University, and did postdoctoral work at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton before joining the faculty of McGill University, where he is currently a James McGill Professor of Physics. He is a member of the Simons foundation “It From Qubit” Collaboration on Quantum Fields, Gravity and Information.