No Arabic abstract
We present a microscopic model of a bridge connecting two large Anti-de-Sitter Universes. The Universes admit a holographic description as three-dimensional ${cal N}=4$ supersymmetric gauge theories based on large linear quivers, and the bridge is a small rank-$n$ gauge group that acts as a messenger. On the gravity side, the bridge is a piece of a highly-curved AdS$_5times$S$_5$ throat carrying $n$ units of five-form flux. We derive a universal expression for the mixing of the two massless gravitons: $M^2 simeq 3n^2 (kappa_4^2 + kappa_4^{prime,2})/16pi^2$, where $M$ is the mass splitting of the gravitons, $kappa_4^2, kappa_4^{prime,2}$ are the effective gravitational couplings of the AdS$_4$ Universes, and $n$ is the quantized charge of the gate. This agrees with earlier results based on double-trace deformations, with the important difference that the effective coupling is here quantized. We argue that the apparent non-localities of holographic double-trace models are resolved by integrating-in the (scarce) degrees of freedom of the gate.
We study $widehat{text{CGHS}}$ gravity, a variant of the matterless Callan-Giddings-Harvey-Strominger model. We show that it describes a universal sector of the near horizon perturbations of non-extremal black holes in higher dimensions. In many respects this theory can be viewed as a flat space analog of Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity. The result for the Euclidean path integral implies that $widehat{text{CGHS}}$ is dual to a Gaussian ensemble that we describe in detail. The simplicity of this theory allows us to compute exact quantities such as the quenched free energy and provides a useful playground to study baby universes, averages and factorization. We also give evidence for the existence of a non-perturbative completion in terms of a matrix model. Finally, flat wormhole solutions are discussed.
We apply the recently proposed transfer matrix formalism to 2-dimensional quantum gravity coupled to $(2, 2k-1)$ minimal models. We find that the propagation of a parent universe in geodesic (Euclidean) time is accompanied by continual emission of baby universes and derive a distribution function describing their sizes. The $kto infty~ (cto -infty)$ limit is generally thought to correspond to classical geometry, and we indeed find a classical peak in the universe distribution function. However, we also observe dramatic quantum effects associated with baby universes at finite length scales.
We argue that the holographic description of four-dimensional BPS black holes naturally includes multi-center solutions. This suggests that the holographic dual to the gauge theory is not a single AdS_2 times S^2 but a coherent ensemble of them. We verify this in a particular class of examples, where the two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory gives a holographic description of the black holes obtained by branes wrapping Calabi-Yau cycles. Using the free fermionic formulation, we show that O(e^{-N}) non-perturbative effects entangle the two Fermi surfaces. In an Euclidean description, the wave-function of the multi-center black holes gets mapped to the Hartle-Hawking wave-function of baby universes. This provides a concrete realization, within string theory, of effects that can be interpreted as the creation of baby universes. We find that, at least in the case we study, the baby universes do not lead to a loss of quantum coherence, in accord with general arguments.
A complete quantum field theoretic study of charged and neutral particle creation in a rapidly/adiabatically expanding Friedman-Robertson-Walker metric for an O(4) scalar field theory with quartic interactions (admitting a phase transition) is given. Quantization is carried out by inclusion of quantum fluctuations. We show that the quantized Hamiltonian admits an su(1,1) invariance. The squeezing transformation diagonalizes the Hamiltonian and shows that the dynamical states are squeezed states. Allowing for different forms of the expansion parameter, we show how the neutral and charged particle production rates change as the expansion is rapid or adiabatic. The effects of the expansion rate versus the symmetry restoration rate on the squeezing parameter is shown.
We formulate the baby universe construction rigorously by giving a primordial role to the algebra of observables of quantum gravity rather than the Hilbert space. Utilizing diffeomorphism invariance, we study baby universe creation and annihilation via change in topology. We then construct the algebra of boundary observables for holographic theories and show that it enhances to contain an extra Abelian tensor factor to describe the bulk in the quantum regime; via the gravitational path integral we realize this extra tensor factor, at the level of the Hilbert space, in the context of the GNS representation. We reformulate the necessary assumptions for the baby universe hypothesis using the GNS representation. When the baby universe hypothesis is satisfied, we demonstrate that the miraculous cancellations in the corresponding gravitational path integral have a natural explanation in terms of the character theory of Abelian $C^ast$-algebras. We find the necessary and sufficient mathematical condition for the baby universe hypothesis to hold, and transcribe it into sufficient physical conditions. We find that they are incompatible with a baby universe formation that is influenced by any bulk process from the AdS/CFT correspondence. We illustrate our construction by applying it to two settings, which leads to a re-interpretion of some topological models of gravity, and to draw an analogy with the topological vacua of gauge theory.