The ER= EPR Theory posited by Juan Maldacena is a formulation of a way to show quantum mechanics and general relativity can coexist together since these two seemingly different concepts one from QM and the other from GR are actually one and the same. ( allegedly ) I assume when physicists entangle particles in the laboratory or where ever particles are entangled by nature that we have yet to learn that in fact a mini black hole worm hole bridge is there so that particles or what have you can be entangled from different points in the universe instantaneously. I'm assuming this is what the theory is saying? My mystery is that I thought that string theory was the most promising way to let Quantum mechanics and general relativity unify in one elegant theory that included gravity and the other fundamental particles. Is er=epr describing something NOT described in string theory or is er=epr perhaps a subset of string theory?
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1$\begingroup$ The ER=EPR was initiated by Leonard Susskind, though Maldecena has contributed to it. Maldecena's big contribution is to show that gravitation in the AdS_n spacetime is equivalent to a conformal field theory CFT_{n-1} on the conformally flat boundary. $\endgroup$– Lawrence B. CrowellCommented Sep 1, 2016 at 22:18
1 Answer
Suppose there is a string falling into a black hole. It becomes time-dilated so that UV modes become visible at a distance. In addition, the string appears to spread out by the gravitational lens of the curved spacetime. It then wraps around the horizon and merges with all the other strings that have fallen into the black hole. At the stretched horizon, a membrane a string or Planck length above the horizon these strings all merge into one large string. This is a sort of quantum critical point where the physics of these strings in effect "become the black hole."
The physics of the black hole is then governed by this membrane densely filled with this grand string. The emission of a quanta of Hawking radiation is then a nonlocal effect where a quantum state, or string if you will, is emitted by the black hole, but where the outside observer still witnesses this initial infalling string as merged into the strings on the stretched horizon. As a result, if you watch something fall into a black hole its quantum states appear frozen on the horizon at the same time they appear outside the horizon by Hawking radiation. This entanglement process removes the locality of a physical event with black hole quantum physics.
The AMPs problem then emerged, which is due to the fact that this growing entanglement with Hawking radiation will exceed entropy bounds. There can't be any additional entanglement as that would violate quantum monogamy. This is where ER=EPR comes into play.
The string paradigm is still an aspect of this physics. It is though apparent that physics requires something deeper, and string theory is becoming subsumed into other physics.
