Contact: conferences@perimeterinstitute.caLocation: Waterloo, ON, Canada
We are excited to announce that registrations and the call for abstracts are now open for:
Relativity Reframed: Quantum Reference Frames and Gravity,
A conference to be held at Perimeter Institute on October 26th to 30th, 2026.
Registration: https://events.perimeterinstitute.ca/event/2058/registrations/
Call for abstracts (deadline July 5th): https://events.perimeterinstitute.ca/event/2058/abstracts/
Confirmed speakers:
Goncalo Araujo-Regado (OIST)
Vijay Balasubramanian (University of Pennsylvania)
Caslav Brukner (IQOQI Vienna)
Thomas Galley (IQOQI Vienna)
Kristina Giesel (FAU Erlangen-Nuernberg)
Luca Illesiu (UC Berkeley)
Daan Janssen (University of York)
Viktoria Kabel (ETH Zurich)
Leon Loveridge (University of South-Eastern Norway)
Luca Marchetti (IPMU Tokyo / OIST)
Don Marolf (UC Santa Barbara)
Gautam Satishchandran (Princeton University)
Antony Speranza (University of Amsterdam)
Tomasz Taylor (Northeastern University)
Jordan Wilson-Gerow (Carnegie-Mellon University)
Ying Zhao (MIT)
Kathryn Zurek (Caltech)
Conference abstract:
Quantum reference frames (QRFs) have emerged as a powerful and rapidly developing framework in fundamental physics, providing a systematic approach to formulating theories without fixed classical backgrounds. By making explicit the relational structure of physical laws, QRFs supply concrete tools to define subsystems, observables, and quantum information in diffeomorphism-invariant and dynamically fluctuating spacetimes. Their applications span quantum gravity, algebraic and curved-spacetime quantum field theory, quantum information, cosmology, and phenomenology, refining our understanding of locality, causality, symmetry, and measurement beyond semiclassical regimes. In gravitational settings, QRFs clarify relational observables, edge modes, soft degrees of freedom, and entanglement in quantum spacetime, and shed new light on the role of observers in dynamical geometries.
This conference will convene researchers advancing these developments at a pivotal stage for the field. By bringing together high-energy theory, quantum foundations, and emerging experimental directions, the workshop aims to sharpen central conceptual questions, explore phenomenological implications, and strengthen the link between formal structure and operational meaning. The goal is to consolidate QRFs as a coherent framework for describing observers, information, and subsystems in a relational universe.