Classical and Quantum Aspects of Black Holes, Horizons and Asymptotic Symmetries

黑洞、视界和渐近对称性的经典和量子方面

• 批准号: 1205550
• 负责人: Andrew Strominger
• 金额: $ 21万
• 依托单位: Harvard University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1205550&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Classical; Quantum; Aspects; Black; Holes

The visible universe has edges, known as event horizons, which surround a black hole or a region of the universe speeding away faster than light. The nature of these edges has vexed physicists, beginning with Einstein, for nearly a century. They are governed by an elegant and beautiful set of quantum laws discovered four decades ago by Bekenstein and Hawking. These laws indicate that black holes are at once the simplest and most complex objects in the physical universe. They are simple because, according to Einstein's general relativity there is in effect nothing inside - space ends at the horizon. They are complex because the Bekenstein-Hawking laws imply that they must carry the maximal allowable information. The coexistence of these dichotomous descriptions of black holes underlies a deep paradox whose resolution is a focal point of modern physics. While the basic paradox remains unsolved, much has been learned using a variety of apporaches. Resolving the paradox is a central problem in modern physics and will likely lead to profound new insights into the nature of our universe, comparable to those following from quantum mechanics and relativity.In this project we propose specific steps to continue these fruitful investigations as well as more generally address universal aspects of the paradox, in its many manifestations surrounding black hole and other horizons. Our investigations will be informed by important lessons learned in the process of studying string theory (a candidate for a fundamental unified theory of nature), but we will concentrate on universal aspects of large-scale observable phenomena which are independent of any assumptions about the as yet-unknown completion of the fundamental laws of nature. Here we pursue a bottom-up approach working from astrophysically observed properties of horizons, the powerful symmetry -general covariance- underlying Einstein's theory of general relativity, and basic physical and mathematical consistency.

可见的宇宙有边缘，被称为事件视界，它围绕着一个黑洞或宇宙的一个区域，以比光更快的速度消失。从爱因斯坦开始，这些边缘的性质已经困扰了物理学家近一个世纪。它们由四十年前贝肯斯坦和霍金发现的一套优雅而美丽的量子定律所控制。这些定律表明，黑洞是物理宇宙中最简单也是最复杂的物体。它们之所以简单，是因为根据爱因斯坦的广义相对论，实际上在空间内部没有任何东西——空间的尽头是视界。它们是复杂的，因为贝肯斯坦-霍金定律暗示它们必须携带最大的允许信息。这些对黑洞的二分描述的共存构成了一个深刻的悖论，其解决是现代物理学的焦点。虽然基本的悖论仍未解决，但通过使用各种方法已经了解了很多。解决这个悖论是现代物理学的一个核心问题，它可能会给我们带来对宇宙本质的深刻新见解，堪比量子力学和相对论带来的见解。在这个项目中，我们提出了具体的步骤来继续这些富有成效的调查，以及更普遍地解决悖论的普遍方面，在黑洞和其他视界的许多表现。我们的研究将从研究弦理论（自然基本统一理论的候选理论）的过程中获得重要的经验教训，但我们将集中于大规模可观察现象的普遍方面，这些现象独立于任何关于尚未完成的自然基本定律的假设。在这里，我们追求一种自下而上的方法，从天体物理学观察到的视界特性，爱因斯坦广义相对论中强大的对称性——广义协方差，以及基本的物理和数学一致性。