No Arabic abstract
We study the perturbative series associated to bi-local correlators in Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity, for positive weight $lambda$ of the matter CFT operators. Starting from the known exact expression, derived by CFT and gauge theoretical methods, we reproduce the Schwarzian semiclassical expansion beyond leading order. The computation is done for arbitrary temperature and finite boundary distances, in the case of disk and trumpet topologies. A formula presenting the perturbative result (for $lambda in mathbb{N}/2$) at any given order in terms of generalized Apostol-Bernoulli polynomials is also obtained. The limit of zero temperature is then considered, obtaining a compact expression that allows to discuss the asymptotic behaviour of the perturbative series. Finally we highlight the possibility to express the exact result as particular combinations of Mordell integrals.
Some recently proposed definitions of Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity and supergravities in terms of combinations of minimal string models are explored, with a focus on physics beyond the perturbative expansion in spacetime topology. While this formally involves solving infinite order non-linear differential equations, it is shown that the physics can be extracted to arbitrarily high accuracy in a simple controlled truncation scheme, using a combination of analytical and numerical methods. The non-perturbative spectral densities are explicitly computed and exhibited. The full spectral form factors, involving crucial non-perturbative contributions from wormhole geometries, are also computed and displayed, showing the non-perturbative details of the characteristic `slope, `dip, `ramp and `plateau features. It is emphasized that results of this kind can most likely be readily extracted for other types of JT gravity using the same methods.
Recently, Saad, Shenker and Stanford showed how to define the genus expansion of Jackiw-Teitelboim quantum gravity in terms of a double-scaled Hermitian matrix model. However, the models non-perturbative sector has fatal instabilities at low energy that they cured by procedures that render the physics non-unique. This might not be a desirable property for a system that is supposed to capture key features of quantum black holes. Presented here is a model with identical perturbative physics at high energy that instead has a stable and unambiguous non-perturbative completion of the physics at low energy. An explicit examination of the full spectral density function shows how this is achieved. The new model, which is based on complex matrix models, also allows for the straightforward inclusion of spacetime features analogous to Ramond-Ramond fluxes. Intriguingly, there is a deformation parameter that connects this non-perturbative formulation of JT gravity to one which, at low energy, has features of a super JT gravity.
Recent work has shown that certain deformations of the scalar potential in Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity can be written as double-scaled matrix models. However, some of the deformations exhibit an apparent breakdown of unitarity in the form of a negative spectral density at disc order. We show here that the source of the problem is the presence of a multi-valued solution of the leading order matrix model string equation. While for a class of deformations we fix the problem by identifying a first order phase transition, for others we show that the theory is both perturbatively and non-perturbatively inconsistent. Aspects of the phase structure of the deformations are mapped out, using methods known to supply a non-perturbative definition of undeformed JT gravity. Some features are in qualitative agreement with a semi-classical analysis of the phase structure of two-dimensional black holes in these deformed theories.
We continue the systematic study of the thermal partition function of Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity started in [arXiv:1911.01659]. We generalize our analysis to the case of multi-boundary correlators with the help of the boundary creation operator. We clarify how the Korteweg-de Vries constraints arise in the presence of multiple boundaries, deriving differential equations obeyed by the correlators. The differential equations allow us to compute the genus expansion of the correlators up to any order without ambiguity. We also formulate a systematic method of calculating the WKB expansion of the Baker-Akhiezer function and the t Hooft expansion of the multi-boundary correlators. This new formalism is much more efficient than our previous method based on the topological recursion. We further investigate the low temperature expansion of the two-boundary correlator. We formulate a method of computing it up to any order and also find a universal form of the two-boundary correlator in terms of the error function. Using this result we are able to write down the analytic form of the spectral form factor in JT gravity and show how the ramp and plateau behavior comes about. We also study the Hartle-Hawking state in the free boson/fermion representation of the tau-function and discuss how it should be related to the multi-boundary correlators.
We investigate the non-perturbative degrees of freedom of a class of weakly non-local gravitational theories that have been proposed as an ultraviolet completion of general relativity. At the perturbative level, it is known that the degrees of freedom of non-local gravity are the same of the Einstein--Hilbert theory around any maximally symmetric spacetime. We prove that, at the non-perturbative level, the degrees of freedom are actually eight in four dimensions, contrary to what one might guess on the basis of the infinite number of derivatives present in the action. It is shown that six of these degrees of freedom do not propagate on Minkowski spacetime, but they might play a role at large scales on curved backgrounds. We also propose a criterion to select the form factor almost uniquely.