Tom Banks, UC Santa Cruz

The theory called Holographic Space-time is an attempt to generalize String Theory so that one can discuss local regions of space-time. It's key feature is a mapping between quantum concepts and the geometry of space-time. Causality conditions are imposed, as in quantum field theory, by insisting that things which cannot have mutual quantum interference are things that are causally separated. Geometrical sizes are encoded via the Holographic Principle: the number of quantum states in a region is determined by the area of a certain surface surrounding that region. In 1995, Jacobson showed that one could derive Einstein's equations by imposing this principle in every space-time region. Einstein's equations are the hydrodynamic equations of a system whose statistics obeys the Holographic connection between space-time and the number of quantum states. Dr. Banks will outline the application of these ideas to a new model of the early inflationary universe, as well as to a rough prediction of the masses of supersymmetric particles.