Quantum theory, black holes and quantum gravity

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The quest for a theory that unifies gravity with quantum mechanics is one of the most important in theoretical physics today. Despite substantial progress in string theory and loop quantum gravity, much remains to be understood and the thermodynamic properties of black holes seem to provide valuable clues. One of the most striking properties of black hole thermodynamics is its apparent universality: it has the same qualitative features for all black holes, irrespective of which theory of gravity or which underlying microscopic theory one considers. It is this universal nature that motivates my study of the classical and quantum mechanics of generic black holes using a class of theories known collectively as two dimensional dilaton gravity. These theories live in one spatial dimension, and are sufficiently simple to be tractable but also sufficiently complex to provide insight into the microscopic origins of black hole thermodynamics. One of the projects I will undertake is a study of the quantum dynamics of black hole formation in this general context.