Tom Hartman, Cornell

Events

Past Event

Tom Hartman, Cornell

April 29, 2019
2:10 PM - 3:10 PM
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Pupin Hall Theory Center, 8th Floor

Sphere Packing and Black Holes in Quantum Gravity

 

I will discuss general constraints on the spectrum of black holes in quantum gravity, coming from invariance under large diffeomorphisms, together with holography. These constraints relate two seemingly different problems: the numerical conformal bootstrap, and the classic sphere packing problem in mathematics. It turns out that constraining the black hole spectrum is exactly equivalent to the sphere packing problem in 8 and 24 dimensions, where it was recently solved by Viazovska in the dramatic culmination of a centuries-long effort by mathematicians.