Talk by Karen Crowther at MCMP (Wed. 13. Nov)

[Dardashti, Radin]

Speaker: Karen Crowther (Sydney)
Wednesday 13th Nov 2013
Ludwigstr.31 Room E021
Time: 4 to 6 pm

Title: Emergent spacetime in condensed matter analogues of general 
relativity

Abstract:
It has been claimed, based on a few different lines of reasoning, that 
the notion of spacetime will not appear in a quantum theory of gravity. 
If this is the case, then spacetime is an emergent concept. Analogue 
models of general relativity based in condensed matter systems present 
us with concrete examples of emergent spacetime, and could potentially 
help us understand the nature of emergent spacetime in the context of 
quantum gravity. These models present a curved spacetime metric that is 
described using an effective field theory. In this talk, I explore the 
conception of emergence that is relevant to analogue spacetime in the 
condensed matter models. This is a conception of emergence that also 
applies more generally to other effective field theories, and, as I 
argue, one that is best understood without appeal to the idea of 
reduction. I finish by briefly mentioning some potential implications 
for quantum gravity.