We present a mathematical framework which underlies the connection between information theory and the bulk spacetime in the AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$ correspondence. A key concept is kinematic space: an auxiliary Lorentzian geometry whose metric is defined in
terms of conditional mutual informations and which organizes the entanglement pattern of a CFT state. When the field theory has a holographic dual obeying the Ryu-Takayanagi proposal, kinematic space has a direct geometric meaning: it is the space of bulk geodesics studied in integral geometry. Lengths of bulk curves are computed by kinematic volumes, giving a precise entropic interpretation of the length of any bulk curve. We explain how basic geometric concepts -- points, distances and angles -- are reflected in kinematic space, allowing one to reconstruct a large class of spatial bulk geometries from boundary entanglement entropies. In this way, kinematic space translates between information theoretic and geometric descriptions of a CFT state. As an example, we discuss in detail the static slice of AdS$_3$ whose kinematic space is two-dimensional de Sitter space.
We construct perturbatively controlled non-Fermi liquids in 3+1 spacetime dimensions, using mild power-law translation breaking interactions. Our mechanism balances the leading tree level effects from such gradients against quantum effects from the i
nteraction between the Fermi surface and a critical boson. We exhibit this in a model where finite density fermions interact with a scalar field via a Yukawa coupling of the form $g(x)propto |x|^kappa$. The approximate non-Fermi liquid behavior arises in the limit of small $kappa$ and persists over an exponentially large window of scales, being cut off by the regime where the coupling becomes large, or by superconducting instabilities. The translation breaking coupling introduces anisotropic deformations of the Fermi surface depending on the direction of the gradient. An extension of this mechanism to 2+1 dimensions could provide a strongly translation-breaking, but weakly coupled non-fermi liquid, something we leave for further work.
