Vafa and Scaling Symmetry

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The word conformal we've been throwing around a lot. Is it good enough to think about that as a scaling symmetry? Like you zoom in twice as much and the system looks the same as it did at your original zoom. That's all conformal means. Things look the same on all different length scales. It was just like there's a speed limit to the black hole rotating. There's also a certain amount of charge you can put in a black hole. And am I right to say that you look at that limit in a certain number of dimensions with supersymmetry and everything? That's right. We looked at the limit.

Quantum gravity research is inspired by experiment — all of the experimental data that supports quantum mechanics, and supports general relativity — but it’s only inspiration, not detailed guidance. So it’s easy to “do research on quantum gravity” and get lost in a world of toy models and mathematical abstraction. Today’s guest, Andrew Strominger, is a leading researcher in string theory and quantum gravity, and one who has always kept his eyes on the prize: connecting to the real world. We talk about the development of string theory, the puzzle of a positive cosmological constant, and how black holes and string theory can teach us about each other.

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Andrew Strominger received his Ph.D. in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently the Gwill E. York Professor of Physics at Harvard University. Among his awards are the Dirac Medal, the Klein Medal, the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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