Quantum Computation Toward Quantum Gravity

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to enlighten the emerging relevance of Quantum Information Theory in the field of Quantum Gravity. As it was suggested by J. A. Wheeler, information theory must play a relevant role in understanding the foundations of Quantum Mechanics (the "It from bit" proposal). Here we suggest that quantum information must play a relevant role in Quantum Gravity (the "It from qubit" proposal). The conjecture is that Quantum Gravity, the theory which will reconcile Quantum Mechanics with General Relativity, can be formulated in terms of quantum bits of information (qubits) stored in space at the Planck scale. This conjecture is based on the following arguments: a) The holographic principle, b) The loop quantum gravity approach and spin networks, c) Quantum geometry and black hole entropy. From the above arguments, as they stand in the literature, it follows that the edges of spin networks pierce the black hole horizon and excite curvature degrees of freedom on the surface. These excitations are micro-states of Chern-Simons theory and account of the black hole entropy which turns out to be a quarter of the area of the horizon, (in units of Planck area), in accordance with the holographic principle. Moreover, the states which dominate the counting correspond to punctures of spin j = 1/2 and one can in fact visualize each micro-state as a bit of information. The obvious generalization of this result is to consider open spin networks with edges labeled by the spin −1/ 2 representation of SU(2) in a superposed state of spin "on" and spin "down." The micro-state corresponding to such a puncture will be a pixel of area which is "on" and "off" at the same time, and it will encode a qubit of information. This picture, when applied to quantum cosmology, describes an early inflationary universe which is a discrete version of the de Sitter universe.