Resolving the black hole information paradox

The recent progress in string theory strongly suggests that formation and evaporation of black holes is a unitary process. This fact makes it imperative that we find a flaw in the semiclassical reasoning that implies a loss of information. We propose a new criterion that limits the domain of classical gravity: the hypersurfaces of a foliation cannot be stretched too much. This conjectured criterion may have important consequences for the early Universe.Comment: harvmac, 11 pages (1 figure) (This essay received an ``honorable mention'' in the Annual Essay Competition of the Gravity Research Foundation for the year 2000.

On the Effective Equation of State of Dark Energy

In an effective field theory model with an ultraviolet momentum cutoff, there is a relation between the effective equation of state of dark energy and the ultraviolet cutoff scale. It implies that a measure of the equation of state of dark energy different from minus one, does not rule out vacuum energy as dark energy. It also indicates an interesting possibility that precise measurements of the infrared properties of dark energy can be used to probe the ultraviolet cutoff scale of effective quantum field theory coupled to gravity. In a toy model with a vacuum energy dominated universe with a Planck scale cutoff, the dark energy effective equation of state is -0.96.Comment: 7 pages, awarded honorable mention in the 2010 Gravity Research Foundation essay competitio

AdS_3/CFT_2 correspondence at finite temperature

The AdS/CFT correspondence is established for the AdS_3 space compactified on a solid torus with the CFT field on the boundary. Correlation functions that correspond to the bulk theory at finite temperature are obtained in the regularization a'la Gubser, Klebanov, and Polyakov. The BTZ black hole solutions in AdS_3 are T-dual to the solution in the AdS_3 space without singularity.Comment: 9pp., LaTe

Time dependence of entanglement for steady state formation in AdS3_3/CFT2_2

We consider a holographic model of two 1+1-dimensional heat baths at different temperatures joined at time $t=0$, such that a steady state heat-current region forms and expands in space for times $t>0$. After commenting on the causal structure of the dual 2+1-dimensional spacetime, we present how to calculate the time-dependent entanglement entropy of the boundary system holographically. We observe that the increase rate of the entanglement entropy satisfies certain bounds known from the literature on entanglement tsunamis. Furthermore, we check the validity of several non-trivial entanglement inequalities in this dynamic system.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, these proceedings summarize a talk given at the Karl Schwarzschild Meeting 2017 and the much longer paper 1705.04696. v2: reference adde

A not so brief commentary on cosmological entropy bounds

There has been, quite recently, a discussion on how holographic-inspired bounds might be used to encompass the present-day dark energy and early-universe inflation into a single paradigm. In the current treatment, we point out an inconsistency in the proposed framework and then provide a viable resolution. We also elaborate on some of the implications of this framework and further motivate the proposed holographic connection. The manuscript ends with a more speculative note on cosmic time as an emergent (holographically induced) construct.Comment: 12 pages and Revtex; (v2) reference added and a few cosmetic change

Dark solitons in holographic superfluids

5 pages, Revtex, 5 figures, some typos corrected. Reference addedWe construct dark soliton solutions in a holographic model of a relativistic superfluid. We study the length scales associated with the condensate and the charge density depletion, and find that the two scales differ by a non-trivial function of the chemical potential. By adjusting the chemical potential, we study the variation of the depletion of charge density at the interface.Peer reviewe