Stanford physicist Monika Schleier-Smith is testing the idea that gravity is an emergent phenomenon arising from quantum entanglement.
Using laser-cooled clouds of atoms, she is “stitching together a fabric of space and time” by entangling thousands of atoms, which all interact with one another.
This direction of simulating quantum gravity is one that is high risk, but potentially high reward.
Even if it does not provide a deeper understanding of gravity, it could provide new tools to measure and analyze quantum systems.
There is controversy attached to this idea that gravity and space-time emerge from quantum entanglement, but Schleier-Smith finds the idea “fascinating.”
More generally, this direction of simulating quantum gravity is one that she finds high risk, but also high reward.
This approach is not currently widely used in the field, but she believes it may provide new insights for theorists who work on understanding gravity.
