{"id":179015,"date":"2023-12-24T05:25:07","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T11:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/the-strangest-coincidence-in-physics-the-ads-cft-correspondence"},"modified":"2023-12-24T05:25:07","modified_gmt":"2023-12-24T11:25:07","slug":"the-strangest-coincidence-in-physics-the-ads-cft-correspondence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/the-strangest-coincidence-in-physics-the-ads-cft-correspondence","title":{"rendered":"The strangest coincidence in physics: The AdS\/CFT correspondence"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Attempts to turn string theory into a workable theory of nature have led to the potential conclusion that our universe is a hologram\u2014that what we perceive as three spatial dimensions is actually composed of only two. The greatest realization of this hologram-led program is a proposal that goes by the awkward and clunky name of the AdS\/CFT correspondence, first proposed by string theorist Juan Maldacena in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

The AdS\/CFT correspondence is not a solution to the problems posed by string theory<\/a> per se, but a statement motivated by advances in the theory when one takes the holographic principle seriously. It is also not a revolution<\/a> by itself, but it does tell us that we are not entirely misguided when we make the bold claim that we live in a hologram<\/a>, and begin to dream about what that revelation might entail.<\/p>\n

We need to, briefly I assure you, unpack these acronyms to see how powerful this connection is, and what it might teach us about the wider universe<\/a>. The \u201cAdS\u201d stands for anti-de Sitter, which is a particular kind of solution to Einstein\u2019s general theory of relativity. The name comes from Dutch physicist Willem de Sitter, who constructed a mock universe that was empty of all matter and energy with the exception of a strong outwards curvature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attempts to turn string theory into a workable theory of nature have led to the potential conclusion that our universe is a hologram\u2014that what we perceive as three spatial dimensions is actually composed of only two. The greatest realization of this hologram-led program is a proposal that goes by the awkward and clunky name of [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1497,1923,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-holograms","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}