The KITS winter school – Quantum Gravity and Black hole Information

Date: Jan 27 – Feb 6, 2021

Venue: Songshan Lake Center for Interdisciplinary Sciences, Dongguan, Guangdong Province

School Organizers: Cheng Peng (KITS), Yawen Sun (UCAS, KITS), Huajia Wang (KITS)

Course Organizers: Yang Lei (KITS), Jia Tian (KITS), Jieqiang Wu (MIT)

Description:

Quantum gravity is one of the most important subjects in theoretical high energy physics, it poses serious challenges for our complete understanding of the quantum aspects of the fundamental interactions in nature. Among the problems in quantum gravity, the black hole information paradox, which originated from the studies of black hole thermodynamics, and later black hole evaporation via Hawking radiation, manifests the conflict between our current understanding of quantum mechanics and black hole physics in its sharpest form. Throughout years, studies centered around the black hole information problem has involved and at the same time triggered progresses in many fields including quantum field theories, superstring theories, gauge/gravity duality, quantum entanglement and quantum chaos, etc. Recently, many important progresses were made. In particular, the discovery of “replica wormholes” and the associated “island rule” has marked a significant breakthrough in understanding the second half of page curve related to the entropy of Hawking radiation – an important aspect of the black hole information paradox. Some coauthors of these works were subsequently awarded the New Horizon Prize in theoretical physics.  

As an important platform for academic interactions and collaborations, both domestic and international, the KITS at UCAS is organizing this on-site winter school on quantum gravity and black hole information. The goal is to provide an opportunity for researchers and students in related areas to get-together, learn, discuss, and pick up the frontiers of these progresses. Through this winter school, we hope to lay the foundation for and promote high quality domestic researches based on these progresses. 

The school consists of 4 parts:

1. Lectures led by young scholars on topics related to the black hole information problem (3 lectures*1.5 hrs per day);

2. Special seminar talks given by guest speakers (1 seminar*1-1.5 hrs per day) ;

3. Interdisciplinary colloquium talks (2 talks*1.5 hrs, on condensed matter theory and gravity wave theory each);

4. Student talks in the form of gong show (2 rounds*1.5 hrs).

In addition to these, we are inviting the world’s leading expert on the subject, Prof. Douglas Stanford (2018 New Horizon Prize) from Stanford University to hold a virtual Q&A session -- to answer questions and discuss interested topics accumulated in the course of the school.  

For more information on the winter school, including registration and talk schedules, please visit the following winter school website: https://kits2021.github.io

 See the poster for the Winter School here.