Physical Society Colloquium

Quantum Information Theory, Black Holes, and Space-time

Alex Maloney

Department of Physics
McGill University

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. The relationship between quantum information theory, field theory and gravity has already led to new results, including new positive energy theorems in general relativity and a unified theory of renormalization group flows. I will also explain the notion that space-time can be regarded as a (quantum) error-correcting code. This will be an expository talk: no advanced background beyond quantum mechanics and relativity will be assumed.