2–8 Sept 2025
Mon-Repos, Corfu, Greece
Europe/Athens timezone

Holographic Spacetime Foam: Theory and Observations

4 Sept 2025, 15:40
20m
Mon-Repos, Corfu, Greece

Mon-Repos, Corfu, Greece

Speakers

Eric Steinbring (NRC/HAA)Prof. Y. Jack Ng (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Description

Spacetime is foamy: it undergoes quantum fluctuations, with distance uncertainty scaling as the cube root of distances, consistent with the holographic principle - hence the name "holographic spacetime foam" (HSF) (also known as "holographic quantume foam"). HSF, in conjunction with thermodynamics, naturally demands the existence of a dark sector, the quanta of which obey infinite statistics. Applied to the cosmos, HQF yields a cosmology with critical energy density and a dynamical cosmological constant, as well as a phenomenologically viable dark matter sector. An early cosmic acceleration can also be traced to HQF. Most importantly, it is verified by observations of gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A: the brightest ever seen in the optical/near-infrared through to X-rays; even at 251 TeV. That is possible only for HSF if accounting for how real telescopes see foam.

Co-author

Prof. Y. Jack Ng (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Presentation materials