Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Individual

Our understanding of the physical universe rests on two cornerstones: quantum mechanics and general relativity. Quantum mechanics describes subatomic particles using statistical notions to predict their behavior. In contrast, general relativity, Einstein's theory of gravity, provides a elegant description of physics on astronomical scales using spacetime geometry. Unifying these two theories and their remarkably dissimilar views of nature in a single framework  (usually called "quantum gravity") remains the outstanding fundamental question for theoretical physicists in the twenty-first century. We are now in the midst of a revolution in our thinking about this problem. Over the past six years, it has become clear that quantum information science provides a powerful set of new tools with which to make progress on the conundrums of quantum gravity. In particular, quantum entanglement, which had previously been seen as an esoteric topic better left for philosophical debates, has moved to center stage as being responsible for a wide range of physical phenomena, including the emergence of spacetime itself. Rapid progress is being sparked by a fruitful cross-pollination of ideas between quantum field theory, quantum gravity, condensed matter, computer science and quantum information. The engine driving the ongoing paradigm shift is the holographic description of quantum gravity. One can think of the latter as a dictionary which translates between two languages describing one set of physical phenomena, the first language is the language of quantum gravity while the second is that of a standard quantum field theory, in one less dimension! Clearly this remarkable equivalence provides a radical new perspective on both quantum gravity and quantum field theory, which certainly has the potential to teach us fundamental new lessons about both. My research develops new holographic translations for a variety of measures of entanglement from quantum information science. The properties known to be satisfied by these measures imply remarkable new insights for quantum gravity. For example, simple principles governing variations of the entanglement entropy in the quantum field theory correspond precisely to Einstein's equations controlling the analogous variations of the bulk geometry. My aim is to fully capitalize on the new tools and perspectives which quantum information has to offer high energy theory. Further, my research will deepen the connections between particle physics and quantum information science, and may open new avenues of research, possibly producing spin-offs for condensed matter theory and quantum information. This research attracts excellent students and trains them with a multidisciplinary outlook combining subatomic physics with quantum information science. In turn, they will contribute to Canada's burgeoning knowledge economy across the academic, public and private sectors.