Gravity Through the Prism of Condensed Matter Physics (Brief Review)
G. E. Volovik
Abstract
In the paper “Life, the Universe, and everything—42 fundamental questions,” Roland Allen and Suzy Lidström presented personal selection of the fundamental questions. Here, based on the condensed matter experience, we suggest the answers to some questions concerning the vacuum energy, black hole entropy and the origin of gravity. In condensed matter we know both the many-body phenomena emerging on the macroscopic level and the microscopic (atomic) physics, which generates this emergence. It appears that the same macroscopic phenomenon may be generated by essentially different microscopic backgrounds. This points to various possible directions in study of the deep quantum vacuum of our Universe.
Topics & Concepts
PhysicsTheoretical physicsEntropy (arrow of time)Vacuum energyUniverseArrow of timeQuantumQuantum mechanicsCosmology and Gravitation TheoriesQuantum Electrodynamics and Casimir EffectBlack Holes and Theoretical Physics