Quantum Gravity

I will present a calculation of the vacuum energy that reproduces the observed value and that points to a completely new understanding of quantum gravity as gravitized quantum theory. In that context the fixed Born rule becomes dynamical. After a short conceptual background, I will discuss…

Several papers from the mid to late 1990s suggest that Einstein’s equations should be thought of as the hydrodynamic equations of a special class of quantum systems. A classical solution defines subsystems by dividing space-time up into causal diamonds and Einstein’s equations are the hydrodynamics…

In this talk I will discuss the energy probability density function of an evaporating near-extremal charged black hole. At sufficiently low energies, such black holes experience large quantum metric fluctuations in the $AdS_{2}$ throat which are governed by a Schwarzian action. These fluctuations…

I discuss work in progress on the no-boundary state of the universe in quantum cosmology, emphasizing the key role played by the inclusion of an observer in obtaining a reasonable no-boundary state. For concreteness we focus on a 2d toy model, namely dS JT gravity. This model has avatars of…

Local subsystems play a fundamental role in theoretical physics, but they are usually defined in terms of background spacetime structures, in particular a Lorentzian metric. In gravity there are no such structures and the metric becomes dynamical. I will argue that nevertheless subsystems can be…

Many aspects of classical AdS/CFT can be understood from the point of view of group theory. In this talk, I will argue that applying the same philosophy can provide us with some powerful insights regarding the construction of its flat counterpart, dubbed flat holography. The basic setup will be a…

In this talk, we will explore what low-energy experiments on gravitationally mediated entanglement (GME) can reveal about the quantum nature of gravity. We will analyze the key assumptions necessary to interpret GME experiments as evidence for quantum aspects of the gravitational interaction and…

Causal set theory is an approach to quantum gravity that proposes that spacetime is fundamentally discrete and the causal relations among the discrete elements play a prominent role in the physics. Progress has been made in recognizing and understanding how some continuumlike features can emerge…

Gravity possesses hidden symmetries that emerge upon dimensional reduction. One of the first examples being the Elhers SL(2,R) group revealed when reducing four-dimensional Einstein gravity to three-dimensions. However useful such symmetries are, especially to design solution generating techniques…

I plan to review several ways of testing if the gravitational field has quantum aspects in the low energy regime. I explain why the hybrid (half quantum/half classical) models are inadequate and how they could be ruled out. Furthermore, I maintain that there is no prima facie reason to expect…

Horizons can occur in a wide range of physical situations, many of which we can construct in the lab. Most gravity simulators observe features, like super-radiance, that are analysed as a continuum effect in gravity, whereas many interesting "beyond GR" features theorise about the impact of…

The Celestial Holography conjecture posits the existence of a codimension two theory whose correlators compute the S-matrix in a conformal primary basis. Although resembling a CFT in several respects, the intrinsic definition of this proposed dual theory remains elusive. In this talk, I will discuss…