What is Holographic principle: Definition and 60 Discussions

The holographic principle is a tenet of string theories and a supposed property of quantum gravity that states that the description of a volume of space can be thought of as encoded on a lower-dimensional boundary to the region—such as a light-like boundary like a gravitational horizon. First proposed by Gerard 't Hooft, it was given a precise string-theory interpretation by Leonard Susskind, who combined his ideas with previous ones of 't Hooft and Charles Thorn. As pointed out by Raphael Bousso, Thorn observed in 1978 that string theory admits a lower-dimensional description in which gravity emerges from it in what would now be called a holographic way. The prime example of holography is the AdS/CFT correspondence.
The holographic principle was inspired by black hole thermodynamics, which conjectures that the maximal entropy in any region scales with the radius squared, and not cubed as might be expected. In the case of a black hole, the insight was that the informational content of all the objects that have fallen into the hole might be entirely contained in surface fluctuations of the event horizon. The holographic principle resolves the black hole information paradox within the framework of string theory.
However, there exist classical solutions to the Einstein equations that allow values of the entropy larger than those allowed by an area law, hence in principle larger than those of a black hole. These are the so-called "Wheeler's bags of gold". The existence of such solutions conflicts with the holographic interpretation, and their effects in a quantum theory of gravity including the holographic principle are not fully understood yet.

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  1. P

    Understanding the Holographic Principle

    Hi, Today in a classical mechanics lecture, we were posed a question on whether there will be gravitational attraction between masses if the 2 masses were squashed into a 2D masses(so is flat). At first, i thought the force should still exist, since the force only depends on masses, so maybe...
  2. C

    Entanglement and the Holographic principle

    Consider if you will... A pair of objects in an quantum entangled state. In such a state, observing the state of one object will determine the state of the other and thus the entangled system collapses. Therefor it seems that one object carries information about its entangled twin. A...
  3. M

    Explaining the Holographic Principle - Physics & Math

    Can someone please explain the holographic principle to me? I'm decent in my physics and math, so you don't need to dumb things down too much :smile:
  4. S

    How is entropy defined by boundary area in Holographic Principle?

    Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_Principle The principle states that the description of a volume of space should be thought of as encoded on a boundary to the region, preferably a light-like boundary like a gravitational horizon. For a black hole, the principle states that...
  5. F

    Holographic Principle Research Paper

    Hello, I am doing a research paper for a final and I chose the holographic principle as my topic. Does anyone have any good sources, or information pertaining to this? Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you. P.S.- I have looked at some of the first links on google, and wikipedia
  6. M

    Holographic principle responsible for life?

    The holographic principle claims that physics on the surface of a sphere determines the physics inside the volume enclosed by that sphere. And in particular, the entropy calculated from the surface of the sphere limits the entropy inside the sphere. If so, then entropy per unit volume would go...
  7. T

    Holographic Principle: Entropy & Area for Observers Moving w/BH

    If the entropy, S of a black hole is proportional to the area of the horizon, A, then, what about an observer moving with a constant velocity, v with the BH? Another observer moving with a constant acceleration with respect to the BH? After all, entropy is an invariant but area is not. So...
  8. DaveC426913

    Exploring the Holographic Principle

    I've finished reading Brian Greene's "Fabric of the Cosmos" and the last chapter intrigued me. He talks about how Hawking et al have proven that the maximum entropy inside a black hole is a function of the surface area of the BH, not the volume. This can be expanded to any volume of space...
  9. S

    What is the Holographic Principle and its relation to information and entropy?

    Hi there.. If was wondering about the relation between information and entropy, in the following context. The way I understand Gerard 't Hoofd's holographic principle is this. We know that the entropy of a black hole is A/4. Now suppose that a volume V was found to have an excess in entropy...
  10. D

    What is the Holographic Principle and how is it related to string theory?

    Can anyone give me a basic definition of what the "Holographic Principle" is, exactly? Or care to discuss the idea at all? Thanks.
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