| Quantum Information and the Structure of Spacetime |
| Patrick Hayden, Stanford University |
| Event Type: Physics Dept Colloquium |
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| Time: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM |
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| Location: 726 Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar |
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| Abstract: Physical science has been fundamentally quantum mechanical for at least 100 years but a new perspective has more recently been reshaping our understanding of quantum mechanics. The great success of computer science rests on abstraction: understanding and manipulating information independently of the physical substrate that encodes it. Quantum information science aims to apply that same abstract power to quantum mechanics while at the same time emphasizing that all information is ultimately physical. In addition to driving the development of new technologies, the approach has found surprising success in unravelling some of the most vexing conceptual puzzles in quantum gravity. This talk will tell that story, from early indications of the importance of quantum error correction in holographic spacetimes to eventual detailed calculations showing that a black hole’s interior is (sometimes) one and the same as its far-flung radiation. Quantum gravity has its own lessons to share as well. I’ll end by explaining how the study of spacetime holography has advanced our understanding of distributed quantum computation and quantum cryptography. |