Black Holes, Quantum Gravity and Holography: a perspective from (2+1)-dim gravity

Gravity is intrinsically different from other physical forces. Gravity is geometry. This raises the fundamental question: how does geometry emerge from a quantum theory? Black holes have inspired revolutionary ideas to attack this question, with one impressive outcome being the holographic principle.

In this talk I will review how we understand quantum gravity for theories defined in a (2+1)-dimensional spacetime; these theories are coined as 3D gravity. 3D gravity has the potential to be an exactly solvable model of quantum gravity, and has also shown to provide novel insight to the fundamental mechanics behind the holographic principle. I will overview recent progress on understanding quantum aspects of these theories with emphasis on black holes physics. In this context, an important question is how to treat, characterize and probe black holes. The answer to this question will provide an interesting arena to explore locality in quantum gravity--and perhaps the lack of it.