We care about your data, and we'd like to use cookies to give you a smooth browsing experience. Please agree and read more about our privacy policy.
Quanta Homepage
  • Physics
  • Mathematics
  • Biology
  • Computer Science
  • Topics
  • Archive
How Holography Could Help Solve Quantum Gravity
Comment
Read Later
Share
Facebook
Twitter
Copied!
Copy link
Email
Pocket
Reddit
Ycombinator
Flipboard
    • Comment
      Comments
    • Read Later
    In Theory

    How Holography Could Help Solve Quantum Gravity

    By Thomas Lin

    November 14, 2018

    In the latest campaign to reconcile Einstein’s theory of gravity with quantum mechanics, many physicists are studying how a higher dimensional space that includes gravity arises like a hologram from a lower dimensional particle theory.
    Comment
    Read Later
    Art for "How Holography Could Help Solve Quantum Gravity"

    Jonathan Trueblood for Quanta Magazine

    Thomas Lin
    By Thomas Lin

    Editor in Chief


    November 14, 2018


    View PDF/Print Mode
    AdS/CFTblack holesgravityIn Theorymultimediaphysicsquantum gravityspace-timetheoretical physicsAll topics

    Introduction

    How does gravity work at the particle level? The question has stumped physicists since the two bedrock theories of general relativity (Albert Einstein’s equations envisioning gravity as curves in the geometry of space-time) and quantum mechanics (equations that describe particle interactions) revolutionized the discipline about a century ago.

    One challenge to solving the problem lies in the relative weakness of gravity compared with the strong, weak and electromagnetic forces that govern the subatomic realm. Though gravity exerts an unmistakable influence on macroscopic objects like orbiting planets, leaping sharks and everything else we physically experience, it produces a negligible effect at the particle level, so physicists can’t test or study how it works at that scale.

    Confounding matters, the two sets of equations don’t play well together. General relativity paints a continuous picture of space-time while in quantum mechanics everything is quantized in discrete chunks. Their incompatibility leads physicists to suspect that a more fundamental theory is needed to unify all four forces of nature and describe them at all scales.

    One relatively recent approach to understanding quantum gravity makes use of a “holographic duality” from string theory called the AdS-CFT correspondence. Our latest In Theory video explains how this correspondence connects a lower dimensional particle theory to a higher dimensional space that includes gravity:

    Share this article
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Copied!
    Copy link
    Email
    Pocket
    Reddit
    Ycombinator
    Flipboard

    Newsletter

    Get Quanta Magazine delivered to your inbox

    Recent newsletters
    How does gravity work in the quantum regime? A holographic duality from string theory offers a powerful tool for unraveling the mystery.

    Video: How does gravity work in the quantum regime? A holographic duality from string theory offers a powerful tool for unraveling the mystery.

    Directed by Emily Driscoll and animated by Jonathan Trueblood for Quanta Magazine

    Introduction

    This holographic duality has become a powerful theoretical tool in the quest to understand quantum gravity and the inner workings of black holes and the Big Bang, where extreme gravity operates at tiny scales.

    We hope you enjoyed this second episode from season two of Quanta’s In Theory video series. Season two opened in August with an animated explainer about a mysterious mathematical pattern that has been discovered in disparate settings — in the energy spectra of heavy atomic nuclei, a function related to the distribution of prime numbers, an independent bus system in Mexico, spectral measurements of the internet, Arctic ponds, human bones and the color-sensitive cone cells in chicken eyes. To learn more, watch episode one below:

    Scientists have discovered a mysterious pattern that somehow connects a bus system in Mexico and chicken eyes to quantum physics and number theory.

    Video: Scientists have discovered a mysterious pattern that somehow connects a bus system in Mexico and chicken eyes to quantum physics and number theory.

    Emily Driscoll for Quanta Magazine

    Introduction

    May 23, 2019, update: This In Theory episode aired on the PBS show SciTech Now. The other videos in this series explored emergence, turbulent flows and Feynman diagrams. 

    Thomas Lin
    By Thomas Lin

    Editor in Chief


    November 14, 2018


    View PDF/Print Mode
    AdS/CFTblack holesgravityIn Theorymultimediaphysicsquantum gravityspace-timetheoretical physicsAll topics
    Share this article
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Copied!
    Copy link
    Email
    Pocket
    Reddit
    Ycombinator
    Flipboard

    Newsletter

    Get Quanta Magazine delivered to your inbox

    Recent newsletters
    The Quanta Newsletter

    Get highlights of the most important news delivered to your email inbox

    Recent newsletters

    Comment on this article

    Quanta Magazine moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (New York time) and can only accept comments written in English. 

    Valeria Pettorino in the woods near CosmoStat

    Next article

    An Italian Cosmologist Who Wanders in Dante’s Dark Wood
    Quanta Homepage
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Youtube
    Instagram
    • About Quanta
    • Archive
    • Contact Us
    • Terms & Conditions
    • Privacy Policy

    All Rights Reserved © 2023
    An editorially independent publication supported by the Simons Foundation.