GQFI-WST Seminar: Jan de Boer "The OPE Randomness Hypothesis, Euclidean Wormholes, and EFT"
Recent developments in holography indicate that the semi-classical Euclidean path-integral of Einstein gravity is much more powerful than previously anticipated. It is capable of reproducing a unitary Page curve for black hole evaporation, and can even capture some features of the discrete nature of black hole microstates. Wormhole geometries play a key role in this context. In this talk, Jan de Boer (University of Amsterdam) proposes a mechanism to explain this in the CFT: the OPE Randomness Hypothesis. This ansatz is a generalization of the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis which applies to chaotic CFTs, and treats OPE coefficients of heavy operators as random variables with a given probability distribution. Jan gives two applications of this framework: First, it resolves a factorization puzzle in AdS_3/CFT_2 due to the genus-2 wormhole, as raised by Maoz and Maldacena. Second, it provides an argument against global symmetries in quantum gravity.
The Virtual Seminar Series “GQFI-Warsaw String Theory” (GQFI-WST) is a joint initiative between the strings/holography groups at the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) in Potsdam and the University Warsaw. The calendar for upcoming GQFI-WST seminars can be found here: https://gqfi.aei.mpg.de/node/3.
This talk is primarily based on arXiv:2006.05499 [hep-th] (https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.05499) and arXiv:2012.07875 [hep-th] (https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.07875).
This talk was recorded on March 31, 2021 at the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam-Golm.