IAS Program on Particle Theory - The (Holographic) Chemistry of Black Holes

Abstract

Black Holes are amongst the strangest objects in the universe. They form from the collapse of matter into an object whose gravitational pull is so strong, nothing can escape from them. Yet a black hole also radiates heat like a blackbody, with a temperature equal to its surface gravity, an entropy equal to its area, and an energy equal to its mass. Over the past 10 years we have come to understand the vacuum energy  — as embodied by a cosmological constant — plays a pivotal role in the thermodynamic behaviour of black holes. Mass becomes chemical enthalpy, the notion of a thermodynamic volume appears, and black holes exhibit a broad range of chemical phenomena, including liquid/gas phase transitions similar to a Van der Waals fluid,  triple points similar to that of water, re-entrant phase transitions that appear in gels and heat engines. Under certain conditions they can even behave like superfluid helium! Now known as "Black Hole Chemistry", the speaker will review this subject and then go on to describe new work that is providing a pathway toward understanding these phenomena from the perspective of Gauge-Gravity duality, in which phase transitions in the (gravitational) bulk become dual to phase transitions in the dual gauge theory.

About the Speaker

Prof. Robert MANN is a Professor of Physics at the University of Waterloo who specializes in black holes, cosmology, particle physics, quantum foundations, and quantum information. Formerly President of the Canadian Association of Physicists in 2010, he has received several awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship, Outstanding Referees Awards from the American Physical Society and the European Physical Society,  several awards for Teaching Excellence including a Distinguished Teacher award from the University of Waterloo, an award from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance, and  the 2019 Medal of Excellence from the Canadian Association of Physicists. In 2022 he was awarded the distinction of University Professor, the highest recognition of excellence offered at the University of Waterloo. In 2024 he was recognized as a Fellow of the Canadian Association of Physicists.  

About the Program

For more information, please refer to the program website at http://iasprogram.ust.hk/particle_theory.

For Attendees' Attention

• Seating is on a first come, first served basis.