Shedding light on quantum aspects of gravity from lab to astrophysics

by Anupam Mazumdar (University of Groningen)

Tuesday 24 Sept 2019, 15:00 → 16:30 Europe/Rome

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

Is gravity classical or quantum?, it is increasingly believed by the community that before formulating quantum theory of gravity this answer should be settled in a laboratory. Formulating the right question has not been an easy task - given the fact that both gravity and quantum mechanics have been with us for almost 100 years. In this talk, I will provide a right protocol which will possibly settle the issue of gravity being classical or quantum by the quantum concepts of superposition and entanglement. If gravity were quantum, then it would have immediate consequences for some of the profound mysteries of classical theory of general theory of relativity. One such is the curvature singularities, which have plagued the ultraviolet aspects of classical gravity and hard to be tamed. I will shed some light on how the experimental protocol on gravity can be helpful for us to understand the singularities of general theory of relativity, and how could we potentially test them in astrophysics.