Undergrad Holographic principle in continuous spacetime?

Click For Summary
The holographic principle can be applied to smooth spacetimes, establishing a duality between quantum gravity and quantum field theory. This principle suggests a correspondence between low-energy semi-classical gravity and UV complete quantum field theories, particularly evident in the AdS/CFT framework. The concept of "discrete" spacetime, often interpreted as quantized spacetime, lacks a coherent model, making claims about the holographic principle's applicability to such spacetimes speculative. While some discussions reference quantized spacetime, the consensus remains that the principle is most clearly defined in the context of continuous geometries. Overall, the holographic principle is conjectural and primarily associated with continuous spacetime models.
Suekdccia
Messages
352
Reaction score
30
TL;DR
Holographic principle in continuous spacetime?
Can the holographic principle be applied to spacetimes and metrics that are (fundamentally) continuous/smooth? Or only to discrete ones?
 
Physics news on Phys.org
The holographic principle applies to smooth spacetimes. It's a conjectured duality between quantum gravity and quantum field theory. You can expand both sides of the duality in G_N and to leading order you have a correspondence between low-energy semi-classical gravity (with smooth spacetimes) and UV complete quantum field theories. This UV/IR correspondence is very explicit in AdS/CFT.
 
  • Like
Likes Demystifier and berkeman
Suekdccia said:
Or only to discrete ones?
What do you mean by a "discrete" spacetime? Is that even a coherent concept?
 
PeterDonis said:
What do you mean by a "discrete" spacetime? Is that even a coherent concept?
I was referring to quantized spacetime (where it would not be a continuum)
 
Suekdccia said:
I was referring to quantized spacetime (where it would not be a continuum)
Nobody has a working model of "quantized spacetime" so I have no idea what your implied claim in the OP that the holographic principle "works" for "discrete spacetime" is based on. Do you have any references?
 
Suekdccia said:
I was referring to quantized spacetime (where it would not be a continuum)
As mentioned, the holographic principle is a conjectured duality between QG and QFT. So it applies to canonically quantized quantum gravity, which is the closest thing to a discrete spacetime. But it's just a conjecture, so it doesn't mean much. The most explicit version of the duality applies to low energy limits of string theory, for which spacetime is continuous.
 
OlderWannabeNewton said:
canonically quantized quantum gravity, which is the closest thing to a discrete spacetime
Not really. It includes superpositions of different spacetime geometries, and I suppose the spectrum of such geometries could be discrete under certain conditions, but each individual geometry is still a continuous spacetime geometry.
 
The holographic principle is best understood in AdS/CFT form, and AdS is continuous, ergo ...
 

Similar threads

  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
3K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
3K
  • · Replies 16 ·
Replies
16
Views
6K
  • · Replies 7 ·
Replies
7
Views
3K
  • · Replies 13 ·
Replies
13
Views
6K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 0 ·
Replies
0
Views
4K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
3K