Holographic duality in the quantum world

The 'Fundamentals and applications of holographic duality' (HOLOERG) project was motivated by this connection with far-reaching implications on the fundamental laws of nature. This could provide scientists with a new understanding of quantum field theory phenomena.

Major efforts were devoted to applying holography to understand high temperature superconductivity and properties of superconductors that are hard to capture with conventional approaches. During the HOLOERG project, this radically new 'holographic duality' approach offered new insights. In the classical theory of gravitation, space-time curves around each massive object like a rubber sheet around a bowling ball. In the quantum field theory, particles called gravitons mediate the force of gravity. The reconciliation of the two theories helped explain how strongly interacting systems are weakly linked to each other.

Such strongly interacting systems appear in nature, for example in superconductors and Josephson junctions. These are made by sandwiching a thin layer of a non-superconducting material between two layers of superconducting material. Further interesting applications are found in condensed matter physics.

HOLOERG scientists developed the mathematical ability to describe the quantum universe in holographic terms. Specifically, phenomena taking place in a 3D region were corresponded to very different phenomena taking place on its 2D outer boundary. This mathematical correspondence was applied also to 4D regions.

This approach extended the conventional view of quantum physics describing physical phenomena using disturbances to fields, manifested as particles or waves. To understand the curious behaviour of matter, the HOLOERG project looked at the interior — between lower and higher dimensions — with exciting implications for lab experiments.