Black Holes and Gauge/Gravity Duality

该奖项资助奥尔巴尼大学（SUNY）奥列格·鲁宁教授的研究活动。理论物理学中两个最重要的开放问题是构建一致的量子引力理论和对强相互作用的分析性理解。这些主题统一在规范/重力对偶的框架中，这将强相互作用理论中的难题转化为重力中的简单问题，反之亦然。本研究项目将利用规范/重力对偶技术来深入了解黑洞的量子特性和强耦合规范理论的动力学。该项目的第一部分将通过确定对各种黑洞熵有贡献的微观状态并研究它们的动力学来解决黑洞信息悖论。该项目的第二部分将通过研究经典几何的对偶描述来重点理解强耦合规范理论的动力学。预计该项目还将产生更广泛的重大影响。具体来说，鲁宁教授将给奥尔巴尼地区的高中生讲课，以激励学生考虑STEM职业，并为他们进入这些定量领域做好准备。此外，鲁宁教授将组织一年一度的物理竞赛，这将有助于提高学生解决问题的能力。他还将指导研究生，并为本科生提供职业建议。

This award funds the research activities of Professor Oleg Lunin at the University at Albany (SUNY).Two of the most important open problems in theoretical physics are a construction of a consistent theory of quantum gravity and an analytical understanding of the strong interaction. These subjects are unified in the framework of gauge/gravity duality, which translates difficult problems in the theory of strong interactions into simple questions in gravity and vice versa. This research project will utilize the techniques of gauge/gravity duality to get insights into quantum properties of black holes and into dynamics of strongly-coupled gauge theories. The first part of the project will focus of resolving the black hole information paradox by identifying the microscopic states contributing to the entropy of various black holes and by studying their dynamics. The second part of the project will focus on understanding dynamics of strongly--coupled gauge theories by studying the dual description in terms of classical geometries. This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. Specifically, Professor Lunin will give lectures to high school students in the Albany area to inspire the students to consider careers in STEM and to prepare them for entering these quantitative fields. In addition, Professor Lunin will organize annual physics competitions, which will help the students to sharpen their problem-solving skills. He will also mentor graduate students and provide career advice to undergraduates.