Projects
Quantum complexity, quantum entanglement and the emergence of spacetime Vrije Universiteit Brussel
structured non-local quantum entanglement may underpin the
emergence of spacetime from the underlying degrees of freedom,
and the recovery of information from black holes. To realize this
picture in the model that describes M-theory, the master theory in 11
dimensions from which all string theories descend, we must learn
how to describe and ...
Testing quantum and semi-classical features of the early universe. KU Leuven
Physics in the twentieth century was marked by the development of both quantum mechanics and general relativity (GR). Despite the extreme level of precision to which these two theories were checked, their unification into a quantum theory of gravity remains elusive. Indeed GR is non-renormalizable and cannot be quantized with the usual quantization scheme that was applied to all other forces of nature. The natural question to ask is then: ...
Quantum structures of black holes KU Leuven
Black holes are the inevitable endpoints of gravitational collapse of matter with sufficient mass. They are ubiquitous in our own Universe.
Hawking famously showed that black holes carry entropy proportional to their horizon area, meaning that they hold a large number of microscopic states. To do so, he relied on a semi-classical approximation, where he assumed that quantum fields fluctuate around a fixed classical black hole background. ...
Developments in holographic complexity and quantum information KU Leuven
Holography has unveiled an interrelation between quantum information and gravity. In this framework, complexity is supposed to capture the interior of black holes, overcoming the limitations of entanglement entropy. My PhD research has focused on the interplay between the two quantities, covering complexity aspects in the quantum information and holographic realms.
Complexity quantifies the hardness of implementing an operator or ...
Black Hole Microstates and Modular Symmetry in Quantum Field Theory KU Leuven
Quantum field theory has successfully accounted for most of the fundamental laws of nature that govern various interactions of fundamental particles. It is not a complete theory of everything, however, in that the oldest known fundamental force of nature, gravity, cannot be described in terms of quantum field theory. Furthermore, it has an important technical issue that most interacting quantum field theories are highly involved so it is ...
Black Hole Microstates and Modular Symmetry in Quantum Field Theory. KU Leuven
Holography and the Quantum Nature of Black Holes KU Leuven
Some of the most outstanding problems in modern theoretical high energy physics are related to the puzzles arising in the physics of black holes. More than 40 years ago Bekenstein and Hawking discovered that black holes have an entropy proportional to the area of their horizon. A major theoretical challenge is to account for the microstates responsible for this entropy. String theory is a leading theory of quantum gravity that has been used ...
Entanglement and tensor network states for quantum field theories. Ghent University
Schrödinger probably had a cat, but he surely coined the concept of entanglement as the general characterization of quantum correlations. In his words (1935): "the best possible knowledge of a whole does not necessarily include the best possible knowledge of all its parts." The theory of entanglement has then been mainly developed in quantum information theory, where it serves as a universal resource for the different tasks (e.g. quantum ...
Quantum Cosmology: From model building to prediction making KU Leuven
Physics aims to describe nature on all scales and as such its holy grail is to find a theory of quantum gravity. Currently, the best candidate for the theory of quantum gravity is string theory. If string theory is the correct theory of nature, we need to be able to build a model of the universe within this theory which is consistent with current observations and that can make predictions for upcoming observations. In this thesis we focus on ...