Theory HEP Seminar

Wormholes, islands, and ER = EPR

Arjun Kar

University of British Columbia

I will present a “minimal” model of black hole evaporation which uses replica wormholes and the island formula to recover the unitary Page curve. This model focuses on a class of entangled states between a gravitating region and a non-gravitating radiation system, combining advantageous features of previous models of evaporation to give a more flexible formalism. As an example of its flexibility, I will discuss its application to de Sitter black holes, where the island formula yields results which seem to be in tension with some old expectations about quantum gravity in de Sitter space. Finally, I will discuss how the calculation is modified when dynamical gravity is turned on in the radiation system. In that setting, replica wormholes connecting the gravity and radiation systems lead to a realization of the ER = EPR principle.