Test of Emergent Gravity

Abstract

In this paper we examine a small but detailed test of the emergent gravity picture with explicit solutions in gravity and gauge theory. We first derive symplectic U(1) gauge fields starting from the Eguchi-Hanson metric in four-dimensional Euclidean gravity. The result precisely reproduces the U(1) gauge fields of the Nekrasov-Schwarz instanton previously derived from the top-down approach. In order to clarify the role of noncommutative spacetime, we take the Braden-Nekrasov U(1) instanton defined in ordinary commutative spacetime and derive a corresponding gravitational metric. We show that the K\"ahler manifold determined by the Braden-Nekrasov instanton exhibits a spacetime singularity while the Nekrasov-Schwarz instanton gives rise to a regular geometry-the Eguchi-Hanson space. This result implies that the noncommutativity of spacetime plays an important role for the resolution of spacetime singularities in general relativity. We also discuss how the topological invariants associated with noncommutative U(1) instantons are related to those of emergent four-dimensional Riemannian manifolds according to the emergent gravity picture.Comment: v3; 22 pages, version to appear in Phys. Rev.