The Microscopic Nature of Spacetime and the Role of Gauge/Gravity Dualities

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This award funds the research activities of Professor Sera Cremonini at Lehigh University. One hundred years after the birth of general relativity, developing a full theory of gravity is still in many ways elusive, and understanding its quantum regime and the fundamental structure of spacetime remains a challenge. The development of string theory, and more recently the discovery of certain connections between gravitational theories and non-gravitational theories, has provided us with a concrete framework and a new set of tools to address such issues. As a result, we have uncovered deep connections between some of the most well-known problems in fundamental physics --- from the microscopic ingredients of black holes to the fundamental structure of matter --- that would otherwise be intractable. The primary objective of the proposed research is to develop a more complete understanding of the microscopic nature of spacetime, by exploring the extent to which gravity emerges from quantum-mechanical degrees of freedom. This research will also utilize novel recent techniques in order to shed light on the behavior of quantum systems that are strongly interacting. Progress in these directions will lead to insights into outstanding fundamental questions such as the structure of spacetime, the beginning and early evolution of the universe, and the physics of black holes. It will also have potential long-term applications to technology and industry as well as fundamental science, thereby advancing the national interest in all of these areas. This work will also have significant broader impacts. Professor Cremonini will involve graduate students and postdocs in her research, thus providing critical training for junior physicists beginning research in this field. She also plans to give public lectures on topics related to her research, and incorporate the results of her work and exciting new advances in the field into the development of new courses.At a more technical level, Cremonini will examine the extent to which the main features of holography are generic and robust, by studying the conditions for the emergence of a microscopic (quantum field theoretic) description for broad classes of gravitational solutions. The focus will be on determining to what extent the internal structure of a gravitational system is affected by its symmetries and geometrical properties. A crucial aspect of this work will be the development of a systematic procedure for understanding and encoding the breaking of various symmetries in gravitational spacetimes. Moreover, part of the research will involve setups that describe the onset of instabilities and can therefore be used to model a number of quantum systems which undergo phase transitions. Using the techniques of holography, Cremonini will examine the question of the reorganization of degrees of freedom as a function of energy scale in generic quantum theories. Her research will contribute to the development of a general classification of transitions in the phase diagram of non-abelian gauge theories.