Introducing Tom Hartman:

Joining the department in January, 2026

I will join Stanford in January, after eleven years on the faculty at Cornell. My research is on quantum gravity and quantum field theory. The broad goal is to explore the basic properties of matter and spacetime: How does spacetime emerge from quantum mechanics? How can we predict the behavior of strongly interacting quantum fields? How do we describe black holes and the very early universe near singularities, where ordinary space and time break down?

These questions are all connected. There is strong theoretical evidence that spacetime, as described by General Relativity, is only an approximate, low-energy description of the underlying quantum degrees of freedom. This is known as holographic duality. The mechanism is not fully understood, but we know that two of the crucial ingredients are quantum entanglement and strongly interacting quantum fields. This means that we can use quantum field theory and quantum information to study gravity, and vice versa.

In my research group, we use this idea in various ways. For example, we calculate what happens when matter falls into a black hole or scatters around it, and use the results to develop new analytical and computational techniques in quantum field theory. We have used this strategy to make new predictions for quantum matter and classical phase transitions that can be tested experimentally and numerically. We have also developed methods to analyze strongly interacting field theories using quantum information and the conformal bootstrap, and used them to see how the equations of General Relativity come from entanglement.

I am a quantum field theorist at heart, and I am most drawn to problems that connect QFT to other areas --- black holes, cosmology, quantum information, particle physics, condensed matter, and occasionally pure mathematics. At the moment, I am focused on understanding higher topologies in the gravitational path integral, QFTs with random interactions, and observables called light-ray correlators in strongly interacting field theories.

Outside of research, I look forward to exploring the Bay Area with my family, and hiking and camping in the Sierras and the other nearby mountains.