Mathematical and Theoretical Physics Seminar: "Gravitational constraints, modular flow, and the information theory of UV divergences"
- Event Type
- Seminar/Symposium
- Sponsor
- Department of Physics
- Location
- LLP 464
- Date
- Mar 6, 2025 1:00 pm
- Speaker
- Jonathan Sorce, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Contact
- Thierry Ramais
- ramais@illinois.edu
- Phone
- 217-300-2044
- Views
- 228
- Originating Calendar
- Physics - Mathematical and Theoretical Physics Seminar
Abstract: In well behaved quantum field theories, all states are supposed to “look like the vacuum at short distances.” Making this statement precise, however, has been a serious challenge. One important reason to understand the universal short-distance structure in quantum field theory comes from the semiclassical approach to quantum gravity, where black hole “area operators” universally introduce a vacuum-like entanglement defect in the semiclassical Hilbert space. From this perspective, finding universal short-distance structure in quantum field theory would help to confirm the old notion that gravity smooths out naive divergences in the entanglement of quantum fields. In this talk I will explain the “boost conjecture” for modular flow, which is a sharp form of the universality of ultraviolet entanglement, then I will partially resolve the boost conjecture in free field theory by showing that states with non-vacuum-like modular flows cannot be constructed in the vacuum Hilbert space. Based on work in progress with Gautam Satishchandran.