Hydrodynamics, Quantum Anomalies, and Gravitation

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An ancient philosopher pointed out some time ago that "everything flows". In Physics, things which flow are described by fluid dynamics, a collection of equations governing the flow in a precise mathematical sense. Many different physical systems may flow in the same way, as determined by the symmetry of their microscopic constituents. **Several years ago, it was understood that black holes may also flow, in exactly the same way liquids do. Thus the study of fluid dynamics translates to the study of black hole dynamics, and vice versa. The liquids relevant to this black-hole/fluid correspondence are highly quantum-mechanical, and seem to flow in virtually the same way as the quark-gluon plasma created at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in Brookhaven, and at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. This connection between black holes and quantum liquids combined with the renewed interest in relativistic hydrodynamics due the experimental heavy-ion program has recently led to important progress in the field as old as classical fluid dynamics. **This proposal will focus on understanding relativistic fluids, specifically in their connection with black hole physics. The questions to be explored include macroscopic fluid flows, thermal and quantum fluctuations, correlations, quantum-mechanical anomalies, and the associated physical effects.