56. Heidelberger Physik Graduiertentage

HOLOGRAPHIC DUALITIES

Johanna Erdmenger

The AdS/CFT correspondence (AdS: Anti-de Sitter space, CFT: conformal field theory) is a duality that relates quantum systems to gravity theories. In its original form, this duality originates from string theory. It is an example of a holographic duality since a gravity theory in higher dimensions is mapped to a quantum field theory defined at the boundary of Anti-de Sitter space, i.e. in a lower dimension. In this sense it realizes the holographic principle that also applies to black holes, for which the entropy scales with the horizon area rather than with the volume. In recent years, many further examples of holographic dualities have been proposed and investigated, beyond string theory.  These examples include maps between quantum information concepts and quantum gravity models for black holes. There are also applications to strongly coupled systems in particle and condensed matter physics, as well as realizations of the holographic principle for discretized gravity theories. In these lectures, the basic mechanisms of holographic dualities are explained, and extensions and applications are discussed.