Talks

The emergence of classical behavior from an out-of-equilibrium quantum wavefunction is determined by its entanglement structure, in the form of redundant information shared between many local subsystems. We show how this structure can be generated via cosmological dynamics from the vacuum state of a massless field, causing the wavefunction to branch into classical field configurations.  An accelerating epoch first excites the vacuum into a superposition of classical fields alongside a highly sensitive bath of super-horizon particles. Gravitational interactions allow these quanta to collect information about the long-wavelength field. During a subsequent decelerating epoch, this information propagates spatially, creating long-range redundant correlations in the wavefunction. The resulting classical observables (field configurations), preferred basis for decoherence, and system/environment decomposition emerge from the translation invariant wavefunction and Hamiltonian, rather than being fixed by hand. We discuss the implications for the classicality of cosmological perturbations.

I will describe a holographic solution corresponding to a traversable wormhole in AdS/CFT.  The construction involves directly coupling the boundary CFT's, and corresponds to chaos-facilitated quantum teleportation between the two sides.  It does not violate boundary causality or other fundamental physics principles.

Recently it was porposed by Hawking, Perry and Strominger that an infinite number of asymptotic charges may play a role in the decription of black hole entropy. With this context in mind we review the classical definition of surface charges in 3+1 gravity (and electromagnetism) from a slighly different framework by using the tetrad-connection variables. The general derivation follows the canonical covariant symplectic formalism in the language of forms. Applications to 3+1 and 2+1 charged and rotating black hole families are briefly discussed as a check. For exact (global) symmetries it is shown to be explicitly equivalent with the 'invariant' symplectic method. Extension to Lovelock gravity are shwon. As an application the entropy expression found by Myers and Jacobson is recovered. [based on arXiv:1703.10120]

With the groundbreaking gravitational wave detections from LIGO/VIRGO, we have entered the era where we can actually observe the action of strongly curved spacetime originally predicted by Einstein.  Going hand in hand with this, there has been a renaissance in the theoretical and computational tools we use to understand and interpret the dynamics of gravity and matter in this regime.  I will describe some of the rich behavior exhibited by sources of gravitational waves such as the mergers of black holes and neutron stars. I will also discuss some of the open questions, and what these events could teach us, not only about the extremes of gravity, but about the behavior of matter at nuclear densities, the solution of astrophysical mysteries, and even the existence of new particles.