Dr. Deepak Vaid

Research in AdS/CFT has shown that quantum error correction must play an important role in the emergence of macroscopic spacetime from entanglement between some, as yet undetermined, fundamental, "pre-geometric" degrees of freedom. One approach to quantum gravity is loop quantum gravity (LQG) in which these pre-geometric degrees of freedom take the form of spin network states. I show that by considering the action of diffeomorphisms on spin-networks one arrives at the Yang-Baxter equation. Solutions of this equation correspond to quantum circuits which can generate qutrit states (of the form |000> + |111>) which are the fundamental ingredient of certain well known quantum error correction schemes. This provides support for spin networks as a physically plausible candidate for the "atoms" of spacetime and also suggests avenues for connecting LQG with the AdS/CFT conjecture. (https://arxiv.org/abs/1912.11725)