Koenraad Schalm Group - String Theory and Experiment

Truth is stranger than fiction. In 1997 Juan Maldaceña discovered a remarkable dictionary that translates equation for equation the physics of black holes in string theory into the more conventional physics of quantum mechanics of interacting particles. The remarkable possibility exists that near future quantum matter experiments can contain signatures of string theory.

This translation goes both ways. From another viewpoint the physics of particles such as electrons in a chip can be viewed as the physics of black holes. This discovery has set off a small revolution in physics. All of a sudden we can explore questions that were previously inaccessible. 

We have used this surprising line of investigation to show that certain mysteries of electrons in exotic materials can become tractable problems in black hole physics.