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

该奖项资助利哈伊大学塞拉·克雷莫尼尼教授的研究活动。在广义相对论诞生一百年后，发展一个完整的引力理论在许多方面仍然是难以捉摸的，理解它的量子制度和时空的基本结构仍然是一个挑战。弦理论的发展，以及最近引力理论和非引力理论之间某些联系的发现，为我们提供了一个具体的框架和一套新的工具来解决这些问题。结果，我们发现了基础物理学中一些最著名的问题之间的深刻联系-从黑洞的微观成分到物质的基本结构-否则这些问题将是难以解决的。这项拟议研究的主要目标是通过探索引力在多大程度上产生于量子力学自由度，来更全面地理解时空的微观本质。这项研究还将利用新的最新技术，以阐明强相互作用的量子系统的行为。在这些方向上的进展将导致对诸如时空结构、宇宙的开始和早期演化以及黑洞物理等突出的基本问题的深入了解。它还将对技术和工业以及基础科学具有潜在的长期应用，从而促进所有这些领域的国家利益。这项工作也将产生重大的更广泛的影响。克雷莫尼尼教授将让研究生和博士后参与她的研究，从而为开始这一领域研究的初级物理学家提供关键培训。她还计划就与她的研究相关的主题进行公开演讲，并将她的工作成果和该领域令人兴奋的新进展融入到新课程的开发中。在更技术的层面上，克雷莫尼尼将通过研究出现对大类引力解的微观(量子场论)描述的条件，来研究全息术的主要特征是通用和健壮的程度。重点将是确定引力系统的内部结构在多大程度上受到其对称性和几何性质的影响。这项工作的一个关键方面将是开发一种系统的程序，用于理解和编码引力时空中各种对称性的破坏。此外，部分研究将涉及描述不稳定性开始的设置，因此可以用来对一些经历相变的量子系统进行建模。利用全息技术，克雷莫尼尼将研究在一般量子理论中，自由度作为能量尺度函数的重组问题。她的研究将有助于发展非阿贝尔规范理论相图中的相变的一般分类。

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.