Gravity in two dimensions

by Dr Daniel Grumiller (Vienna University of Technology)

Thursday 7 Apr 2011, 16:00 → 17:30 Europe/Brussels

E/3rd floor-E.349 - Seminar room (E.349) (Marc de Hemptinne (chemin du Cyclotron, 2, Louvain-la-Neuve))

Two-dimensional gravity provides a useful expedient for testing ideas about (quantum) gravity in higher dimensions. Two-dimensional dilaton gravity in particular is capable to effectively describe several higher-dimensional black holes, like Schwarzschild, Reissner-Nordstrom, or BTZ black holes. Following a specific example, namely a scaling limit of the Einstein-Hilbert action as the dimension descends to two, I review basic concepts and recent progress in this field. Finally, by adding matter to the mix interesting dynamics emerges, which leads to unitary scattering of matter waves on their own gravitational self-energy and entails the creation of 'virtual black hole' intermediate states.