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Beyond hydrodynamics

Project description

Uncovering the relationship between black holes and exotic materials

Black holes and certain exotic materials have an intriguing connection. Their low energy dynamics fall within the regime of effective field theories, but finding the boundaries of this regime is often hard. Gauge–gravity dualities establish a link between classical black holes and certain quantum theories that can rapidly become (quasi)hydrodynamic when perturbed. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the QuasiHydro project plans to use gauge–gravity dualities to investigate whether quasihydrodynamics can accurately describe nature (in particular, large values of the breaking parameter) and to elucidate the parameter ranges to which it is applicable.

Objective

What do black holes and particular exotic materials, where strong correlations preclude any description based on weakly-coupled quasiparticles, have in common? Their low energy dynamics are expected to fall within the regime of effective field theories, such as hydrodynamics, where the dynamics are governed by the flow of conserved densities based on the symmetries of the system. However it is often hard to know what the boundaries of this regime are. This is even more true when a system is “quasi”-hydrodynamic meaning one of the conserved quantities, such as the number of particles, decays due to the presence of a “breaking parameter”.

Gauge/gravity dualities are relationships from string theory that connect classical black holes to particular quantum theories that have the unusual property of rapidly becoming (quasi)hydrodynamic when perturbed. I seek to use gauge/gravity dualities to answer the following questions: When is quasihydrodynamics a good description of nature (in particular for large values of the breaking parameter)? For what ranges of parameters is it applicable? The first question can be explored by considering models of interdisciplinary relevance and searching for commonalities through which we can categorise them. To answer the second we can make use of the special properties of gauge/gravity theories - the existence of relationships between distinct models (dualities) to compute new results from old.

The Marie Curie fellowship will allow me to strengthen my position as the intermediary between condensed matter and string theory, with this project as the initial bridging point. I will use the fellowship to increase my output in high impact journals (e.g. Physical Review Letters), apply for longer term grants and gain knowledge in a new area of physics (condensed matter) through the guidance and experience of my project supervisor Dr.~Blaise Goutéraux. He is the ideal host for this proposal, having extensive experience in these areas.

Coordinator

ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE
Net EU contribution
€ 196 707,84
Address
ROUTE DE SACLAY
91128 Palaiseau Cedex
France

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Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Essonne
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 196 707,84