General Covariance from the Quantum Renormalization Group

by Vasudev Shyam (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics)

Thursday 9 Feb 2017, 15:00 → 16:30 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio G. Marconi)

The quantum renormalization group (QRG) is a constructive prescription for holography where the beta functions for a quantum field theory are mapped into holographic actions living in a space of one higher dimension than the space on which the original field theory does.The extra dimension of the `bulk' corresponds to the energy scale of the `boundary' field theory, which is reminiscent of AdS/CFT.  The RG flow of a planar matrix field theory can be mapped into equations of motion for bulk fields which are identified with the sources of the singlet operators of the boundary theory. The metric of the boundary theory which is also such a source, gains dynamics through this prescription. In order for this emergent theory of a dynamical metric to be general relativity however, it is necessary to propose a consistency condition on the RG flow of the boundary theory that mirrors the hypersurface deformation algebra of GR. I will describe what these consistency conditions are and how they are imposed in the context of QRG.