Gravitational Holography

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

The asymptotic number of states in an appropriately defined region in any theory of quantum gravity which reduces to Einstein gravity at large distances is equal to one quarter of the area in Planck units. A non-redundant description therefore requires only a hologram at the boundary of the region. The holographic properties of the states in quantum gravity lead to a mixing of the usual concepts of ultraviolet and infrared. This mixing is at odds with various properties of local quantum field theory such as the Heisenberg uncertainty relation as well as the upper bound on the fixed angle inclusive cross section in very high energy collisions. The holographic properties of gravity also imply that quantum contributions to the vacuum energy are finite and parametrically at most of order the classical value from which the infrared curvature scale is determined. Gravitational holography therefore provides a technically natural solution to the cosmological constant problem which plaques any local quantum field theory description of gravity.

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Authors

  • Stanley C. Solomon

    University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Rutgers University, Utah State University, Brigham Young University, University of Utah, NASA, Duke University, FMA Research, Colorado State University, Dartmouth University, Idaho State University, Physics Department, Idaho State University, Physics Department, Utah State University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Department of Physics, Nanjing University, China, University of California at Riverside, Physics Department, Colorado School of Mines, Physics Department, University of Utah, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, USU, Society of Physics Students, Arizona State University, Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan, LANSCE-LC, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, Chemistry and Physics Dept., Virginia State University, University of Saskatchewan, Canada, Chalk River Laboratories, Physics Dept, Oxford University, Physics Dept, Utah State University, Sandia National Laboratories, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, DOE Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories, National Center for Atmospheric Research