Quantum Information and Spacetime

Quantum gravity is concerned with the search for consistent models of quantum spacetime and the experimental challenge of determining which model describes nature. Experimental access to the quantum physics of spacetime is still challenging, but we are currently seeing dramatic advances in our theoretical understanding of quantum gravity. These developments are occurring primarily in the context of so-called holographic models like the AdS/CFT correspondence, with ideas from quantum information science and many-body physics, including information scrambling, tensor networks, and quantum error correction codes, playing a central role. Moreover, there is the exciting possibility that such models of quantum gravity can be experimentally studied in the near future using quantum simulators. This tutorial will introduce some of the organizing ideas and open questions in the field of quantum gravity and describe how ideas ranging from computational complexity to quantum codes are being used to understand how spacetime can emerge from microphysics.

Topics

Scrambling, complexity, and black holes

Geometry from entanglement and quantum codes

Tensor network models of spacetime

Experimental probes of emergent geometry