A theory of reparameterizations for AdS3_3 gravity

We rewrite the Chern-Simons description of pure gravity on global AdS$_3$ and on Euclidean BTZ black holes as a quantum field theory on the AdS boundary. The resulting theory is (two copies of) the path integral quantization of a certain coadjoint orbit of the Virasoro group, and it should be regarded as the quantum field theory of the boundary gravitons. This theory respects all of the conformal field theory axioms except one: it is not modular invariant. The coupling constant is $1/c$ with $c$ the central charge, and perturbation theory in $1/c$ encodes loop contributions in the gravity dual. The QFT is a theory of reparametrizations analogous to the Schwarzian description of nearly AdS$_2$ gravity, and has several features including: (i) it is ultraviolet-complete; (ii) the torus partition function is the vacuum Virasoro character, which is one-loop exact by a localization argument; (iii) it reduces to the Schwarzian theory upon compactification; (iv) it provides a powerful new tool for computing Virasoro blocks at large $c$ via a diagrammatic expansion. We use the theory to compute several observables to one-loop order in the bulk, including the "heavy-light" limit of the identity block. We also work out some generalizations of this theory, including the boundary theory which describes fluctuations around two-sided eternal black holes.Comment: 74 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor fixes; v3: various improvements and typos fixed; added new material on PSL(2,R) currents, Euclidean black holes, and a derivation of the boundary measure from the bul

Comments on the Necessity and Implications of State-Dependence in the Black Hole Interior

We revisit the "state-dependence" of the map that we proposed recently between bulk operators in the interior of a large AdS black hole and operators in the boundary CFT. By refining recent versions of the information paradox, we show that this feature is necessary for the CFT to successfully describe local physics behind the horizon --- not only for single-sided black holes but even in the eternal black hole. We show that state-dependence is invisible to an infalling observer who cannot differentiate these operators from those of ordinary quantum effective field theory. Therefore the infalling observer does not observe any violations of quantum mechanics. We successfully resolve a large class of potential ambiguities in our construction. We analyze states where the CFT is entangled with another system and show that the ER=EPR conjecture emerges from our construction in a natural and precise form. We comment on the possible semi-classical origins of state-dependence.Comment: 136 pages, 16 figure

Holographic Entanglement Entropy

We review the developments in the past decade on holographic entanglement entropy, a subject that has garnered much attention owing to its potential to teach us about the emergence of spacetime in holography. We provide an introduction to the concept of entanglement entropy in quantum field theories, review the holographic proposals for computing the same, providing some justification for where these proposals arise from in the first two parts. The final part addresses recent developments linking entanglement and geometry. We provide an overview of the various arguments and technical developments that teach us how to use field theory entanglement to detect geometry. Our discussion is by design eclectic; we have chosen to focus on developments that appear to us most promising for further insights into the holographic map. This is a draft of a few chapters of a book which will appear sometime in the near future, to be published by Springer. The book in addition contains a discussion of application of holographic ideas to computation of entanglement entropy in strongly coupled field theories, and discussion of tensor networks and holography, which we have chosen to exclude from the current manuscript.Comment: 154 pages. many figures. preliminary version of book chapters. comments welcome. v2: typos fixed and references adde

Computer Science for Continuous Data:Survey, Vision, Theory, and Practice of a Computer Analysis System

Building on George Boole's work, Logic provides a rigorous foundation for the powerful tools in Computer Science that underlie nowadays ubiquitous processing of discrete data, such as strings or graphs. Concerning continuous data, already Alan Turing had applied "his" machines to formalize and study the processing of real numbers: an aspect of his oeuvre that we transform from theory to practice.The present essay surveys the state of the art and envisions the future of Computer Science for continuous data: natively, beyond brute-force discretization, based on and guided by and extending classical discrete Computer Science, as bridge between Pure and Applied Mathematics

Supergravity Solitons, their Superpartners and Fluid/Gravity Correspondence

The first part of this thesis aims to explore the effects caused by the presence of Grassmann numbers in the fluid/gravity correspondence. We extend the fluid/gravity correspondence by considering supergravity theories in the bulk and by computing the black hole superpartner. The resulting metric is a supergravity black hole solution with its associated charges and entropy dependent upon Grassmann numbers. Moreover by fluid/gravity techniques we find that also the fluid dynamics parameters, such as the temperature and the velocity, are in general affected by Grassmann numbers. In the second part of the work we analyze matter coupled supergravities in 4 and 5 dimensions. In particular we focus on the modification of the attractor mechanism due to the backreaction of the supersymmetry multiplet to the presence of fermionic zero modes

Entanglement dynamics and chaos in long-range quantum systems

Over the past twenty years, experimental and technological progresses have motivated a renewed attention to the study of non-equilibrium isolated many-body systems, leading to a relatively well-established paradigm in the case of local Hamiltonians. In the present thesis, I have used quantum information theoretical tools to study out-of-equilibrium dynamics, with particular attention on long-range interacting many-body systems. I have explored the dynamics of bipartite and multipartite entanglement in connection to chaos and scrambling in various long-range (clean and disordered) models. The results contained in this thesis contribute to establishing semi-classical tools as powerful techniques for the description of the quantum information spreading in long-range systems. I have further considered a different, yet connected question, concerning the multipartite entanglement structure of chaotic eigenstates and its generic evolution