Talks

We show that if a massive (or charged) body is put in a quantum superposition of spatially separated states in the vicinity of any (Killing) the mere presence of the horizon will eventually destroy the coherence of the superposition. This occurs because, in effect, the long-range fields sourced by the superposition registers on the horizon which forces the radiation of entangling soft gravitons/photons through the horizon. This allows the horizon to harvest “which path” information about the superposition. The electromagnetic decoherence arises only when the superposed particle carries electric charge. However, since all matter sources gravity, the quantum gravitational decoherence applies to all superpositions. We provide estimates of the decoherence time for such quantum superpositions. Additionally, we show that this decoherence is distinct from--and larger than--the decoherence resulting from the presence of thermal radiation from the horizon (i.e. Hawking/Bunch-Davies/Unruh radiation). We believe that the fact that Killing horizons will eventually decohere any quantum superposition may be of fundamental significance for our understanding of the nature of black holes and horizons in quantum gravity. (Based on arXiv:2205.06279 and arXiv: 2301.00026).

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/95263116767?pwd=amZ6SkROV1lxckVpdzhNbFhYc1ZiQT09

Tidal interactions in coalescing binary neutron stars modify the dynamics of the inspiral, and hence imprint a signature on their gravitational-wave (GW) signals in the form of an extra phase shift. We need accurate models for the tidal phase shift in order to constrain the supranuclear equation of state from observations. In previous studies, GW waveform models were typically constructed by treating the tide as a linear response to a perturbing tidal field. In this work, we incorporate non-linear corrections due to hydrodynamic three- and four-mode interactions and show how they can improve the accuracy and explanatory power of waveform models. We set up and numerically solve the coupled differential equations for the orbit and the modes, and analytically derive solutions of the system's equilibrium configuration. Our analytical solutions agree well with the numerical ones up to the merger and involve only algebraic relations, allowing for fast phase shift and waveform evaluations for different equations of state over a large parameter space. We find that, at Newtonian order, nonlinear fluid effects can enhance the tidal phase shift by  >~ 1 radian at a GW frequency of 1000 Hz, corresponding to a  10−20%  correction to the linear theory. The scale of the additional phase shift near the merger is consistent with the difference between numerical relativity and theoretical predictions that account only for the linear tide. Nonlinear fluid effects are thus important when interpreting the results of numerical relativity, and in the construction of waveform models for current and future GW detectors.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/91730134841?pwd=U0JXNHhFbWdQYno3aUpDWHRxWEtkUT09

We present an efficient machine learning (ML) algorithm for predicting any unknown quantum process over n qubits. For a wide range of distributions D on arbitrary n-qubit states, we show that this ML algorithm can learn to predict any local property of the output from the unknown process, with a small average error over input states drawn from D. The ML algorithm is computationally efficient even when the unknown process is a quantum circuit with exponentially many gates. Our algorithm combines efficient procedures for learning properties of an unknown state and for learning a low-degree approximation to an unknown observable. The analysis hinges on proving new norm inequalities, including a quantum analogue of the classical Bohnenblust-Hille inequality, which we derive by giving an improved algorithm for optimizing local Hamiltonians. Overall, our results highlight the potential for ML models to predict the output of complex quantum dynamics much faster than the time needed to run the process itself.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/93857777354?pwd=c044blZuQVhLS200ME4vN25uaGJudz09

Translational tiling is a covering of a space (e.g., Euclidean space) using translated copies of a building block, called a "tile'', without any positive measure overlaps. What are the possible ways that a space can be tiled? One of the most well known conjectures in this area is the periodic tiling conjecture. It asserts that any tile of Euclidean space can tile the space periodically. This conjecture was posed 35 years ago and has been intensively studied over the years. In a joint work with Terence Tao, we disprove the periodic tiling conjecture in high dimensions. In the talk, I will motivate this result and discuss our proof.