Researchers working at QLab are investigating one of physics' biggest open questions: how space-time and gravity might arise from more basic quantum ingredients. The effort sits at the crossroads of quantum information, gravity theory and holography, where scientists search for a deeper description of the universe.
A central theme in this work is quantum error correction, a concept best known from quantum computing. In this context, it is being used as a mathematical and conceptual tool to study how stable, large-scale structures could emerge from underlying quantum degrees of freedom. That makes it especially relevant to attempts to explain why space-time appears smooth and coherent at everyday scales.
The research also focuses on holographic universes, an idea suggesting that gravitational physics in a higher-dimensional space may be encoded by a quantum theory on a lower-dimensional boundary. By probing that relationship, physicists hope to better understand how gravity itself could be an emergent phenomenon rather than a fundamental starting point.
Taken together, these studies point toward a broader goal: building a workable quantum theory of gravity. While the problem remains far from solved, the QLab work highlights how tools from quantum error correction and holography are helping researchers explore the possible quantum origin of the fabric of the universe.
