Integral Geometry and Holography

May 20, 2015
41 pages
Published in:
  • JHEP 10 (2015) 175
  • Published: Oct 27, 2015
e-Print:
Report number:
  • SU-ITP-15-07

Citations per year

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Abstract: (Springer)
We present a mathematical framework which underlies the connection between information theory and the bulk spacetime in the AdS3_{3}/CFT2_{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 AdS3_{3} whose kinematic space is two-dimensional de Sitter space.
Note:
  • 23 pages + appendices, including 23 figures and an exercise sheet with solutions; a Mathematica visualization tool
  • Gauge-gravity correspondence
  • AdS-CFT Correspondence
  • field theory: conformal
  • space: de Sitter
  • entropy: entanglement
  • duality: holography
  • dimension: 2
  • kinematics
  • geometry
  • anti-de Sitter