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Speaker: Steve Shenker, Stanford University

Abstract: I will discuss some aspects of quantum chaos that are present in the physics of black holes.   In particular I will discuss how sensitive dependence on initial conditions, Lyapunov behavior, is realized in these systems and a closely connected universal bound on the size of the quantum Lyapunov exponent.  I will then turn to the behavior of the individual energy eigenvalues of quantum black holes.   In quantum chaotic systems these energies should behave like the eigenvalues of a random matrix, and I will discuss aspects of a gravitational explanation for this behavior in black holes.

 Host: Tom Banks