Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics (LITP) at the University of Michigan will be organizing a Workshop on Quantum Black Holes from March 4-7, 2026.
Black holes have long been a perfect testing ground for ideas at the intersection of general relativity, quantum field theory, and statistical mechanics. Over the past decade, remarkable progress has refined our understanding of the quantum nature of black holes, including but not limited to:
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Microscopic Understanding of Entropy: Advances in string theory and supersymmetric localization techniques have led to precise counting of microstates for certain black holes, providing a statistical foundation for the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula.
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Quantum Corrections: Effective field theory methods are being used to quantify higher-order quantum corrections to black hole spacetimes, modifying thermodynamic properties and Hawking radiation with calculable effects.
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Information Paradox and Resolution Proposals: Novel approaches involving quantum extremal surfaces, the “island formula,” and replica wormholes are generating major breakthroughs in our understanding of how information might escape from evaporating black holes. The use of techniques for quantum information theory is taking central stage in the modern understanding of black holes.
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Holography and Bulk Reconstruction: Insights from AdS/CFT and related dualities are enabling reconstruction of bulk spacetime from boundary quantum degrees of freedom, with black holes serving as key test cases.
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Non-Equilibrium Processes: New results on the dynamics of black hole formation, evaporation, and quantum chaos are outlining a more detailed physical picture of black holes as quantum many-body systems.
The goal of the workshop is to convene leading experts whose research addresses quantum effects in black hole physics, including entropy calculations, information paradox, quantum gravity corrections, and holographic methods.
Invited speakers:
Jerome Gauntlett (Imperial College London)
Yiming Chen (Stanford University)
Kasia Budzik (Harvard University)
.... and 13 more to be confirmed
