Entanglement flows in open systems and black holes

Descripción del proyecto

Comprender la interacción entre los agujeros negros y la radiación que emiten

La emisión de radiación de Hawking —un fenómeno cuántico asociado al horizonte de sucesos— hace que los agujeros negros se comporten como sistemas cuánticos abiertos. Esto significa que interactúan con su entorno, lo que da lugar a complejos estados de entrelazamiento cuántico entre el agujero negro y la radiación emitida. Este entrelazamiento proporciona información esencial sobre el estado interno del agujero negro y constituye una herramienta clave para comprender la entropía de los agujeros negros y los principios de la gravedad cuántica. En el proyecto BHEF, financiado por las acciones Marie Skłodowska-Curie, se investigará la evolución temporal de este entrelazamiento cuántico mediante la entropía de entrelazamiento (una medida del grado de entrelazamiento cuántico) y se analizará la interacción entre los agujeros negros y la radiación que emiten. Los resultados del proyecto contribuirán a relacionar las propiedades cuánticas de los agujeros negros con el marco teórico más amplio de los sistemas gravitacionales.

Objetivo

Black holes are some of the most fascinating astrophysical objects in the universe. Since they bend space and time in extreme ways, they also serve as powerful theoretical laboratories for testing our understanding of theories of quantum gravity such as string theory.

As black holes evolve, they emit Hawking radiation into their surroundings, behaving like open quantum systems with non-trivial quantum entanglement between system and environment. By studying the evolution of entanglement measures, namely entanglement entropy, in open systems, this project will offer deeper insights into black hole entropy and quantum gravity. This forms the core of the project ``Entanglement flows in open systems and black holes'', supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme.

The entanglement structure of open quantum systems and its link to black hole entropy is largely unexplored. Building on quantum gravity and string theory, this research will pursue the following objectives.
1. Develop a formalism for studying entanglement in time-dependent open quantum systems, generalizing the correlation matrix method to out-of-equilibrium states. By analyzing the eigenspectrum, the framework will capture the entanglement dynamics of the system.
2. Validate the framework on quantum mechanical models (e.g. Caldeira–Leggett models), and then generalize it to quantum and conformal field theories, as well as holographic systems using the gravitational Schwinger–Keldysh approach.
3. Relate the quantum corrections to black hole entropy—obtained from quasinormal modes (QNMs)—to the dynamics of open quantum systems. This is done by expressing the partition function in complex mode frequencies, which reveals how information is encoded in gravitational systems and how bulk gravitational entropy appears through QNMs.

Through this research, the applicant will develop technical, interdisciplinary, leadership skills, greatly boosting his career potential as an independent researcher.