Ohkyung Kwon
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The Latest Research Program

Our first experiment, the Holometer, concluded scientific operations in 2020 after a seminal effort spanning more than a decade — featured in the explainers below. We are now working with our collaborators at Cardiff University since 2019 to design a far more powerful instrument using state-of-the-art quantum technology. Commissioning is well underway, so stay tuned for more updates!

QI: Quantum-enhanced Interferometry for new physics

  • UK Research and Innovation: Quantum projects launched to solve the universe's mysteries
  • UK National Quantum Technologies Programme: Quantum Technologies for Fundamental Physics
  • Cardiff University press release on how the QI consortium will lead the search for dark matter and quantum space-time
  • Quantum Technology Hub at Birmingham: Exploring the unanswered questions of our universe with quantum technologies

Recent Quanta Magazine Articles

  • New models of quantum space-time are being proposed, building upon the Holometer's original foundational insight and targeting the same experimental regime. Here is a feature covering one such project at Caltech — by Thomas Lewton
  • A feature on how the Cardiff and Caltech teams are searching for dark matter and quantum space-time — by Thomas Lewton

The new experiment at Cardiff is funded by the following agencies, institutions, and organizations:
Cardiff Funding Sources

The Holometer: Our first experiment

Holographic Universe Graphic

Hunting the Holographic Universe

Strip the Cosmos — Series 3, Episode 10 (season finale)
Produced by Windfall Films for Discovery Science.  Aired December 24, 2018.
Documentary Official Site

Scientific American Feb 2012
Scientific American Sept 2015

Scientific American Feature Stories

​February 2012 — Volume 306, Issue 2
  • The Quantum Universe: Is Space Digital?​ — by Michael Moyer
September 2015 — Volume 313, Issue 3 (Special Issue: 100 Years of General Relativity)
  • Cleaning Up After Einstein: A new generation of physicists hope to succeed where Einstein failed ​— by Corey S. Powell

BBC Science Focus Mar 2013
BBC Science Focus Mar 2013

BBC Science Focus Cover Story

March 2013 — Issue 252
  • The Universe is a Hologram — by Marcus Chown

Select Talks for General Audiences

  • "The Fermilab Holometer: Is the Universe a Hologram?" — Fermilab Ask-a-Scientist public lecture:   [Slides]
    This was delivered at the level of a college freshman interested in science.
  • "A History of Reality" — At a transdisciplinary academic retreat hosted by the Samsung Foundation:   [Slides]   [Transcript]
    ​This was delivered for a general science audience, comprised of graduate student scholars supported by the foundation.

About the Holometer Instrument

  • A  short video tour, by Fermilab Visual Media Services:
Fermilab Logo
  • Our instrument highlighted in the news and perspectives blog of the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity:
CQG Plus

BBC Horizon

What is Reality? 

BBC Horizon — Season 47, Episode 9
Aired January 17, 2011

Documentary Official Site

News Reports on Results from the Holometer

  • Fermilab News: Random twists of place: How quiet is quantum space-time at the Planck scale?
  • ScienceAlert: A new measurement of quantum space-time has found nothing going on
  • Fermilab News: Holometer rules out first theory of space-time correlations
  • Symmetry: Holometer rules out first theory of space-time correlations
  • Science Magazine: Controversial experiment sees no evidence that the universe is a hologram​​
  • Vice Motherboard: Experiment finds no evidence the universe is a hologram (But it still might be)
  • Discover: Reality check: The universe is (probably) not a hologram
  • Gizmodo: Fermilab experiment finds no evidence that we live in a hologram
  • IBT (UK): Universe a hologram? Not according to Fermilab Holometer experiment
  • IBT (AU): Scientists release result of world’s first experiment on a 'holographic universe'

Media Coverage of the Holometer Design Concept

  • Fermilab News: Do we live in a 2-D hologram?
  • ​​​University of Chicago / KICP: Experiment probes nature of space and time
  • University of Chicago: Hologram reflection
  • Smithsonian Magazine: What is the universe? Real physics has some mind-bending answers
  • Guardian / Nautilus: Relativity versus quantum mechanics / Will quantum mechanics swallow relativity?
  • Symmetry: Searching for the holographic universe
  • Symmetry: Now playing: Reality. In 3D
  • Symmetry: Hogan's holometer: Testing the hypothesis of a holographic universe
  • Wired: Fermilab is finding out if the Universe is flat
  • Wired: World's most precise clocks could reveal Universe is a hologram
  • New Scientist: Experiment tests whether universe is a hologram
  • New Scientist: Our world may be a giant hologram
  • Financial Times: Physics: is the world really 3D?
  • NBC News: Do we live in a 2-D hologram? Physicists aim to find out
  • Daily Beast: Is the Cosmos just a big hologram?
  • Newsweek: Government physicists think we may be living in a 2-D hologram
  • New Statesman: Particle accelerator experiment begins search for evidence that we live in a hologram
  • Vox: Some physicists believe we're living in a giant hologram — and it's not that far-fetched
  • Popular Science: Fermilab is building a 'Holometer' to determine once and for all whether reality is just an illusion
  • Vice Motherboard: Meet the government researcher trying to prove the universe is a 2D hologram
  • Vice Motherboard: There is growing evidence that our universe is a giant hologram
  • The Verge: A physics experiment might soon tell us if we're living in a 2D hologram
  • CSM: Is the universe a big hologram? This device could find out.
  • Huffington Post: Freaky physics experiment may prove our universe is a two-dimensional hologram
  • Phys.org: Holometer experiment to test if the universe is a hologram
  • Space.com: Is the universe a 2D hologram? Experiment aims to find out

The Holometer team was funded by the following agencies, institutions, and organizations:
Holometer Funding Sources
kwon [at] uchicago.edu                         © 2022                         0000-0002-0785-4346
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Theory
  • Experiment
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