Quantum entanglement can act as the microscopic ingredient from which macroscopic notions of space and connectivity emerge, a perspective shaped by developments in holographic duality and quantum information. Juan Maldacena at Institute for Advanced Study formulated a correspondence between certain quantum field theories and gravitational spacetimes that provides a controlled setting where entanglement and geometry can be compared. Shinsei Ryu at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Tadashi Takayanagi at University of Tokyo established a quantitative bridge by relating entanglement entropy in the boundary theory to minimal surface areas in the higher-dimensional geometry, yielding a concrete measure that ties quantum correlations to geometric quantities. Building on these results, Mark Van Raamsdonk at University of British Columbia argued that varying the pattern of entanglement alters the connectedness of the dual spacetime, suggesting that entanglement functions as the glue of geometry rather than as a mere property riding on a preexisting manifold.
Entanglement as geometric glue
In practical terms, entangled degrees of freedom encode relational information that can be reorganized into effective spatial relations. Tensor network models developed by Fernando Pastawski at Perimeter Institute, Beni Yoshida at California Institute of Technology, Daniel Harlow at Boston University and John Preskill at California Institute of Technology provide illustrative toy systems where network connectivity reproduces key features of gravitational bulk geometry and exhibits built-in quantum error correction. These constructions show why local semiclassical geometry can be robust to certain microscopic perturbations: redundancy of entanglement patterns protects emergent geometric data in a manner analogous to fault tolerance in quantum computation. The uniqueness of this phenomenon lies in the reversal of perspective, with spacetime treated as a collective, code-like manifestation of underlying entanglement structure.
Implications for black holes and cosmology
This line of research is relevant because it reframes long-standing puzzles such as the black hole information problem and the origin of cosmic spacetime in experimentally inspired language, connecting theoretical high-energy physics with techniques from quantum information science. The consequences include new proposals for how information escapes evaporating black holes and for how early-universe quantum correlations might seed large-scale structure, while the impact on human and institutional activity is evident in multinational collaborations spanning Princeton, Tokyo, Vancouver, Pasadena and Boston. Continuing exploration of entanglement-driven emergence promises both deeper conceptual clarity about the nature of space and potential guidance for quantum simulation platforms that emulate aspects of quantum gravity.
