A group of physicists and mathematicians have taken a significant step towards the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics, explaining how space-time is derived from quantum entanglement in a more fundamental theory. Work Hiroshi Ooguri University of Tokyo Kavli, mathematics Matilda Marcollin and graduate students Jennifer Lin and Bogdan Reception was published in Physical Review Letters.
Physicists and mathematicians for a long time looking for a "theory of everything" which must unite general relativity and quantum mechanics. General relativity explains gravity and large-scale events like the dynamics of stars and galaxies in the universe, and quantum mechanics explains the microscopic phenomena occurring in the sub-atomic and molecular scale.
The holographic principle is widely seen as an important sign of success "theory of everything." According to this principle, the three-dimensional gravity in space can be described by quantum mechanics in the two-dimensional surface surrounding the volume. In particular, three measurements of this volume must flow from two-dimensional measurement surface. Nevertheless, understanding the exact mechanics of the surface appearance of volume remained elusive.
Ooguri and his colleagues found that quantum entanglement is the key to solving this issue. Using quantum theory (which does not include gravity), they showed how to calculate the energy density, which is the source of gravitational interactions in three dimensions, using the data on the surface of quantum entanglement. This is similar to the diagnosis of conditions inside your body for a two-dimensional X-ray images. This approach allowed the scientists to interpret the universal properties of quantum entanglement as a condition for the energy density, which should satisfy any consistent quantum theory of gravity, not including its own gravity into the theory. The importance of quantum entanglement in this matter has been repeatedly emphasized before, but its exact role in the formation of space-time was not clear until the publication of Ooguri and colleagues.
Gravity in our three-dimensional world and the projection of the data on the two-dimensional surface
Quantum entanglement - a phenomenon when quantum states like spin or polarization of the particles, the particles in different places can not be described independently. Measuring (and therefore the impact) of one particle must also affect the other, a phenomenon Einstein called "spooky action at a distance." Work Ooguri and his colleagues show that quantum entanglement creates additional measurement of the gravitational theory.
"It was known that quantum entanglement is intimately related to the question of unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics, such as the black hole information paradox and the paradox of firewall, - says Hiroshi. - Our work sheds new light on the relationship of quantum entanglement with the microscopic structure of space-time by the precise calculations. The connection between gravity and quantum information science is incredibly important for both areas. I hope that further studies will be very fruitful. "
