Quantum theory, black holes and quantum gravity

量子理论、黑洞和量子引力

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-04090
• 负责人: Kunstatter, Gabor
• 金额: $ 2.48万
• 依托单位: University of Winnipeg
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=762511
• 关键词: Quantum; theory; black; holes; quantum

Recent gravitational wave detections suggest that the promise of a new observational window on the universe is being realized. The first of these observations, namely the 2016 detection of gravitational waves emitted a billion years ago by the merger of two black holes, provided astounding confirmation of the validity of Einstein's theory of gravity in the strong field region as well as the first direct evidence for the existence of black holes. According to Einstein's theory, at the center of every black hole there exists a singularity, a region of high density and curvature where the known laws of physics break down. In 1976 Hawking showed that quantum processes allow energy to leak out of black holes in the form of thermal radiation. This causes the black hole to shrink and potentially disappear without revealing anything about the initial state of the matter that formed the black hole, thereby irreversibly destroying information. The presence of singularities and the possibility of information loss are issues that can only be resolved once quantum mechanics and gravity are successfully unified into a complete theory that makes falsifiable predictions. In the absence of such a theory, one must obtain insights from models designed to contain as many essential features of the full theory as possible while being tractable mathematically. My research will focus on the quantum behaviour of black holes in the context of such models. My long term goal is to find generic properties that would allow robust and ultimately observable predictions for quantum corrections to strong field black hole dynamics and evaporation. Specific topics include: the dynamics of nonsingular black hole formation and evaporation within a new class of effective spherical models; the quantum mechanics of a large variety of spherical black holes, including the energy spectrum and dynamics of singularity resolution; a quantum field theory model for the formation of shells of energy (``firewalls”) that are designed to partially solve the black hole information loss problem by preventing information from disappearing below the event horizon; a study of flow equations, a form of generalized heat equation, in the context of holographic descriptions of various physical systems such as superconductors and the quark-gluon plasma.Benefit to Canada: This work will provide students with physics training, research experience and problem solving skills that will greatly expand their career options. It will also move us towards the next paradigm-shifting breakthrough in physics: a consistent and verifiable quantum theory of gravity. It is impossible to predict when such breakthroughs will occur, but when they do, they change our view of the world and give rise to unforeseeable and invaluable technological advances.

最近的引力波探测表明，一个新的宇宙观测窗口的承诺正在实现。这些观测中的第一个，即2016年对10亿年前两个黑洞合并发出的引力波的探测，为爱因斯坦的引力理论在强场区域的有效性提供了令人震惊的确认，也是黑洞存在的第一个直接证据。根据爱因斯坦的理论，在每个黑洞的中心都存在一个奇点，一个高密度和曲率的区域，已知的物理定律在这里失效。1976年，霍金证明量子过程允许能量以热辐射的形式从黑洞中泄漏出来。这导致黑洞缩小并可能消失，而不会揭示形成黑洞的物质的初始状态，从而不可逆转地破坏信息。奇点的存在和信息丢失的可能性是只有当量子力学和引力成功地统一成一个完整的理论，做出可证伪的预测时才能解决的问题。在没有这样一个理论的情况下，人们必须从设计成包含尽可能多的完整理论的基本特征的模型中获得见解，同时在数学上是易处理的。我的研究将集中在这种模型背景下黑洞的量子行为上。我的长期目标是找到通用的属性，将允许强大的和最终可观察的预测量子校正强场黑洞动力学和蒸发。具体主题包括：在一类新的有效球形模型中非奇异黑洞形成和蒸发的动力学;各种球形黑洞的量子力学，包括奇异性分解的能谱和动力学;能量壳层形成的量子场论模型（“防火墙”），旨在通过防止信息消失在事件视界之下来部分解决黑洞信息丢失问题;流动方程的研究，广义热方程的一种形式，在各种物理系统，如超导体和夸克胶子等离子体的全息描述的背景下。受益于加拿大：这项工作将为学生提供物理培训，研究经验和解决问题的技能，这将大大扩大他们的职业选择。它还将推动我们走向物理学的下一个范式转变突破：一个一致的和可验证的量子引力理论。无法预测这些突破何时会发生，但一旦发生，它们将改变我们对世界的看法，并带来不可预见和宝贵的技术进步。