CMSA Mathematical Physics Seminar – Eigenstate thermalization and disorder averaging in gravity

CMSA EVENTS

Speaker:

James Sully - University of British Columbia

It has long been believed that progress in understanding the black hole information paradox would require coming to terms with microscopic details of quantum gravity, beyond the reach of semiclassical effective field theory. In that light, one of the most surprising discoveries of the last year has been that signature features of the unitary evaporation of black holes can already be seen within effective field theory, albeit with the inclusion of 'euclidean wormholes'. However, these novel contributions are best understood when the gravitational theory is not a single microscopic theory, but an average over many different theories. To save unitarity must we then simultaneously throw it away? I will explain how the same story can be recovered within a single microscopic theory by thinking carefully about the right effective theory for finite-lifetime observers.

Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/837429475