Quantum Spacetime: Gravity, Black Holes, Cosmology, and Information
Quantum Spacetime: Gravity, Black Holes, Cosmology, and Information Program
2029 - 2030
Quantum gravity asks for a description in which geometry itself becomes quantum, yet different approaches organize the problem in very different ways. Canonical and loop methods, string theory and holography, quantum field theory in curved spacetime, quantum-information approaches, causal or discrete models, mathematical relativity, and cosmology each provide controlled calculations in particular regimes. The 2029-2030 TIAMS program will place these frameworks in sustained contact around benchmark questions that force explicit comparison: singularities, observables, entropy, information recovery, locality, and the emergence of semiclassical spacetime.
Fall 2029
Quantum Geometry, Cosmology, and Gravitational Phenomenology
The fall semester program will focus on singularity resolution, early-universe dynamics,
covariance, relational observables, initial conditions, inflation and alternatives,
and the chain from microscopic assumptions to potential phenomenology.
Spring 2030
Black Holes, Holography, and Quantum Information
The spring semester will focus on gravitational entropy and entanglement, Page-curve and island calculations, bulk reconstruction, information recovery, subsystem structure in constrained theories, and the relation between information-theoretic organization and emergent locality.
The year-long bridge
The year is deliberately pluralistic: common calculations and observables will be used to expose both shared structure and genuine differences among frameworks. TIAMS will use extended residence to give researchers time to compare definitions and approximations on the same problem. Working groups will identify what counts as singularity resolution in each framework, how observables are defined when diffeomorphism or gauge constraints are active, which entropy statements are universal, and where semiclassical reasoning is reliable. Tutorials and research-school activity will give graduate students and postdocs the prerequisites to join those comparisons. Progress includes sharper mathematical formulations, controlled limiting calculations, explicit entropy or reconstruction results, robust phenomenological constraints, and a precise account of where two approaches agree or disagree. Computational and visualization tools can help researchers compare solutions or causal structures, but the common standard will be transparent assumptions, identifiable observables, and calculations that other groups can reproduce or challenge.
Program Details
- What replaces classical spacetime at singularities, and what criteria should count as genuine singularity resolution?
- How should covariance, locality, time, and observables be formulated when geometry is itself quantum?
- Which structures are shared across quantum-gravity frameworks, and which differences reflect genuinely distinct physical content?
- What do black-hole entropy, entanglement, information, and complexity reveal about microscopic or emergent spacetime
- Which quantum-gravity effects could lead to robust consequences in cosmology, black-hole dynamics, or gravitational observations?
- How do holographic reconstruction and quantum-information ideas constrain the emergence of semiclassical locality?
- Quantum geometry and canonical gravity
- Loop quantum gravity and loop quantum cosmology
- String theory and holography
- Black-hole information and gravitational entropy
- Quantum field theory in curved spacetime
- Relational observables and covariance
- Early-universe cosmology and phenomenology
- Entanglement, complexity, and emergent locality
- Parampreet Singh — TIAMS scientific lead; LSU
The year uses two linked residential semesters with overlapping visitors from several quantum-gravity communities. Each semester begins with common-language tutorials, includes a focused workshop and a longer working-group period, and closes with a synthesis. Cross-semester groups on observables, semiclassical limits, entropy, and information should preserve continuity while allowing Fall cosmology questions and Spring black-hole questions to remain scientifically distinct.
Preliminary Workshops, Schools, or Focused Meetings
Fall opening tutorials / research school on quantum geometry and cosmological models
Dates TBA
Fall focused workshop on singularities, observables, and phenomenology
Dates TBA
Spring opening tutorials on black holes, holography, and quantum information
Dates TBA
Spring focused workshop on entropy, reconstruction, and information recovery
Dates TBA
Year-end synthesis on semiclassical emergence and cross-framework comparison
Dates TBA
Seminars and Working Groups
- Singularity-resolution criteria
- Relational observables and covariance
- Early-universe initial data and phenomenology
- Gravitational entropy and subsystem structure
- Islands/Page curves and information recovery
- Bulk reconstruction/emergent locality
Each group should compare at least two formalisms or make explicit why a comparison is mathematically ill posed.
The program is intended for researchers in quantum gravity, general relativity, mathematical relativity, cosmology, string theory, holography, quantum field theory, quantum information, and mathematical physics. Faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students are invited. Researchers in geometry, analysis, operator algebras, information theory, and numerical relativity should consider participating when their methods bear directly on observables, entropy, semiclassical limits, or model comparison. The program welcomes serious work from multiple quantum-gravity traditions and will organize interactions around shared problems across institutional and theoretical traditions. Researchers who are skeptical of a particular framework can be especially valuable when they can formulate a concrete test, observable, or limiting argument that sharpens the comparison.
- Extended residence as a scientific anchor or long-term collaborator.
- One- to three-month visits overlapping with a benchmark working group.
- Short targeted visits around a calculation, model, or focused meeting.
- Research-school, tutorial, and workshop participation.
- Weekly seminars and working-group activity.
- Expression of interest through the TIAMS participation form.
Graduate students and postdocs will be invited into benchmark-problem groups after common-language tutorials in geometry, quantum fields, cosmology, black-hole physics, and information concepts appropriate to each semester. Junior researchers should be able to follow one quantity—an observable, entropy, reconstruction map, or cosmological prediction—across more than one framework, learning both how to calculate it and where comparisons cease to be meaningful. Repeated access to senior visitors is intended to make that translation part of their research training. They should also have regular opportunities to present partial comparisons and receive criticism from researchers outside their home approach.
Possible outcomes include explicit quantum-geometric or cosmological calculations, sharper definitions of observables and singularity resolution, entropy and reconstruction results, tests of semiclassical approximations, phenomenological constraints, open-problem comparisons across frameworks, numerical tools, and durable collaborations connecting gravity and quantum information.
Researchers may express interest in one semester or the full year through the TIAMS Program Participation form.
Applicants should identify the framework(s), benchmark problem, preferred dates, potential contribution, and any support request.