The purpose of the workshop is to explore different viewpoints on nonlocality and observables, with emphasis on the problems of black holes and cosmology. Goals include sharpening criteria for the regime of breakdown of local effective field theory, understanding of its mechanism, investigation of its consequences for black hole evaporation and inflationary cosmology, and pursuit of an underlying theory with the expected essential nonlocality. The meeting will be small and focused, bringing together a limited number of invited participants investigating these problems.

The Physics

Several developments in recent years strongly suggest a macroscopic breakdown of local effective field theory, but as yet we lack a precise and complete understanding of this breakdown, its consequences, and the physics that replaces local theory. Aspects of this breakdown are indicated by the necessity of resolving the black hole information paradox, by limitations on local observation, by high-energy gravitational scattering, and are also suggested by facets of string theory such as the AdS/CFT correspondence. Such breakdown is potentially a profound aspect of fundamental physics, with important implications (more...)

Invited participants include: N. Arkani-Hamed, T. Banks, R. Bousso, S. Dubovsky, B. Freivogel, S. Giddings, J. Hartle, S. Hartnoll, G. Horowitz, M. Johnson, M. Kleban, A. Maloney, D. Marolf, J. Polchinski, R. Porto, M. Srednicki, and more...

Venue - Hotel MarMonte

The three day workshop will be held at the seaside Hotel MarMonte east of UCSB.