###Quantum information theory applied to gravity
Project ID: 2228bd1137 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Physical Sciences
UCL Lead department: Physics and Astronomy
Lead Supervisor: Jonathan Oppenheim
Project Summary:
Reconciling Einstein’s theory of gravity with quantum mechanics is one of the greatest challenges of modern physics. In doing so we only have a few clues, such as the black hole entropy, the apparent phenomenon of holography, and the black hole information paradox. Underneath each of these clues, is the question of how quantum information is stored and behaves in space-time. It is thus not surprising that increasingly, quantum gravity researchers are turning to quantum information theory to provide insight into what a consistent theory of gravity will look like.
With this in mind, this project will apply tools from quantum information theory to better understand gravity. The student will have freedom to choose the nature of this investigation. It could involve studying alternatives to quantum gravity, where (for example) quantum theory is modified slightly, and classical general relativity is modified slightly so that the two become compatible as in the post-quantum theory of https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.03116.
It could involve experimental proposals to test the quantum nature of gravity via gravitationally mediated entanglement such as the experiments proposed by Bose et. al. in https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.06050, or the diffusion-decoherence experiments of https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.01982.