HEP/Astro Seminar, Wednesday 4th November 1998

Large N Phases, Holography and Quantum Gravity

Clifford Johnson (Kentucky)

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Abstract

The Holographic principle, in the form of the AdS/CFT correspondence, suggests
a relation between processes in quantum gravity and phenomena in ordinary
quantum field theory. The old `sum over histories' semi-classical approach to
quantum gravity  can be revisited in this light, by studying various
gravitational instantons in AdS. We show that the AdS/CFT correspondence  may
be extended to spaces which are only locally asymptotically AdS, by examining
the properties of the AdS-Taub-NUT and AdS-Taub-Bolt spacetimes. We also use
holography to show that spacetime topology change in quantum gravity is a
unitary process, in contrast to suggestions in the old `sum over histories'
literature.

3:30pm, Smith Lab 4079