Recent Development of Quantum Gravity and Applications to Cosmology and Black Hole Physics (26w5588)

The Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics will host the "Recent Development of Quantum Gravity and Applications to Cosmology and Black Hole Physics" workshop in Hangzhou, China from May 31 to June 5, 2026.

The existence of black holes is one of the major predictions of Einstein's theory of general relativity and has been one of the most outstanding problems in physics since 1970s, especially after Hawking in 1974 discovered that black holes can radiate thermally as a black body, and two years later found the information paradox, which shows the inconsistence of black hole evolution with the principles of quantum mechanics. In the past seven decades or so, the studies have been carried out both semi-classically and in full theories of quantum gravity, including string theory and loop quantum gravity. However, with the detections of gravitational waves by LIGO in 2015, and later joined by Virgo and KAGRA, and the direct observations of the M87 and Sagittarius $A^*$ supermassive black holes by Event Horizon Telescope, two new observational windows to the regime of strong gravity have opened, including the regions near the horizons of black holes. As a matter of fact, there have been already tentative evidence for the presence of quantum gravitational effects on several observed gravitational waves, although further confirmations are still needed.

In this 5-day workshop, we shall bring the fields leaders, both theoretical and observational, together across the boundaries of several different fields: quantum field theory, quantum gravity, quantum cosmology, gravitational waves, and black hole physics. The workshop is very timely and important, and has been already received strong support from various leaders of the fields. The Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics will host the ``Recent Development of Quantum Gravity and Applications to Cosmology and Black Hole Physics" workshop in 2026 in Hangzhou, China.

The Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics (IASM) in Hangzhou, China, and the Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation and Discovery (BIRS) in Banff, are collaborative Canada-US-Mexico ventures that provide an environment for creative interaction as well as the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and methods within the Mathematical Sciences, with related disciplines and with industry. The research station in Banff is supported by Canada's Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Alberta Technology and Innovation.