I am a theoretical physicist trying to uncover the fundamental nature of our reality. My background is in general relativity and quantum field theory, with my current research interests centering around discerning the true nature of black holes, finding novel applications for holography, and using deep learning algorithms to solve problems in physics. Recently, I have become particularly interested in understanding how classical spacetime might emerge from quantum field theory correlation functions, in a setting where information constitutes the elemental building blocks of the Universe.
Can we understand black holes as ordinary thermodynamic systems? General relativity describes black holes not as corporeal objects, but geometric features of spacetime itself. Yet they seem to possess properties like temperature and entropy, which we normally attribute to ordinary objects made of atoms. I am interested in understanding to what extent black holes can be described as thermodynamic systems, and what can be revealed about their microscopic structure as a result.
Is the Universe a hologram? More pragmatically, can gravity be used to gain new insights into the physics of non-gravitating systems? This possibility arises from a general feature of gauge theories; that symmetries which are trivial in the bulk can become physical in the presence of a boundary. This fact underlies numerous examples of holography---the description of a bulk gravitational system purely in terms of non-gravitating degrees of freedom on an appropriate lower-dimensional boundary. In one such realization of this principle, a scale-dependent wavelet decomposition of QFT correlators automatically induces a higher dimensional anti-de Sitter geometry. Using tools from holographic renormalization and the study of defect conformal field theories, I am trying to uncover how this new holographic picture fits into AdS/CFT, and what new computational tools can be developed.
Quantum fields exhibit remarkable properties in the presence of strong gravity. I am working on developing sophisticated new semi-classical models of black holes, and finding new signatures of quantum effects which may alter their structure. Significant advancements in gravitational wave astronomy are rapidly enabling the imaging of black holes at the horizon scale, and understanding how their features manifest in gravitational wave signals will be a crucial part of upcoming observational efforts. I am especially interested in how quasinormal oscillations are affected by semi-classical effects near the horizon, and whether such effects can imprint themselves on gravitational waves.
Abstract:
We introduce a method of reverse holography by which a bulk metric is shown to arise from locally computable multiscale correlations of a boundary quantum field theory (QFT). The metric is obtained from the Petz-Rényi mutual information using as input the correlations computed from the continuous wavelet transform. We show for free massless fermionic and bosonic QFTs that the emerging metric is asymptotically anti-de Sitter space (AdS), and that the parameters fixing the geometry are tunable by changing the chosen wavelet basis. The method is applicable to a variety of boundary QFTs that need not be conformal field theories.
Abstract:
Most distinguishing features of black holes and their mimickers are concentrated near the horizon. In contrast, astrophysical observations and theoretical considerations primarily constrain the far-field geometry. In this work we develop tools to effectively describe both, using the two-point Padé approximation to construct interpolating metrics connecting the near and far-field. We compute the quasinormal modes of gravitational perturbations for static, spherically symmetric metrics that deviate from Schwarzschild spacetime. Even at the lowest order, this approach compares well with existing methods in both accuracy and applicability.
Abstract:
We compute quasinormal mode frequencies for static limits of physical black holes - semi-classical black hole solutions to Einstein-Hilbert gravity characterized by the finite formation time of an apparent horizon and its weak regularity. Using a two-point M-fraction approximation to construct an interpolating metric which captures the essential near-horizon and asymptotic properties of black holes, we explore a large part of the parameter space that characterizes the near-horizon geometry. We cast the problem as a discretized homogeneous eigensystem and compute the low-lying quasinormal mode frequencies for perturbations of a massless scalar field.
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