holes also thermalize and reach quantum chaos in a time of order (Planck constant)/((Boltzmann constant) x (absolute temperature)), where the absolute temperature is the black hole's Hawking temperature. And this similarity to quantum matter without quasiparticles is not a co-incidence: for the SYK models, Sachdev had argued that the strange metal has a holographic dual description in terms of the quantum theory of black holes in a curved spacetime with 1 space dimension. This connection, and other related work by Sachdev and collaborators, have led to valuable insights on the properties of electronic quantum matter, and on the nature of Hawking radiation from black holes. Solvable models of strange metals obtained from the gravitational mapping have inspired analyses of more realistic models of strange metals in the high temperature superconductors and other compounds. Such predictions have been connected to experiments, including some that are in good quantitative agreement with observations on graphene. These topics are discussed in more detail in Research. Resonating valence bonds and Z2 quantum spin liquids P.W. Anderson proposed that Mott insulators realize antiferromagnets which could form resonating valence bond (RVB) or quantum spin liquid states with an energy gap to spin excitations without breaking time-reversal symmetry. It was conjectured that such RVB states have excitations with fractional quantum numbers, such as a fractional spin 1/2. The existence of such RVB ground states, and of the deconfinement of fractionalized excitations was first established by Read and Sachdev and Wen by the connection to a Z2 gauge theory. Sachdev was also the first to show that the RVB state is an odd Z2 gauge theory, as described in Research. An odd Z2 spin liquid has a background Z2 electric charge on each lattice site (equivalently, translations in the x and y directions anti-commute with each other in the super-selection sector of states associated with a Z2 gauge flux (also known as the m sector)). Sachdev showed that antiferromagnets with half-integer spin form odd Z2 spin liquids, and those with integer spin form even Z2 spin liquids. Using this theory, various universal properties of the RVB state were understood, including constraints on the symmetry transformations of the anyon excitations. Sachdev also obtained many results on the confinement transitions of the RVB state, including restrictions on proximate quantum phases and the nature of quantum phase transitions to them. Career Sachdev attended school at St. Joseph's Boys' High School, Bangalore and