English

Building up quantum spacetimes with BCFT Legos

High Energy Physics - Theory 2024-04-02 v1 Strongly Correlated Electrons General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Mathematical Physics math.MP Quantum Physics

Abstract

Is it possible to read off the quantum gravity dual of a CFT directly from its operator algebra? In this essay, we present a step-by-step recipe synthesizing results and techniques from conformal bootstrap, topological symmetries, tensor networks, a novel symmetry-preserving real-space renormalization algorithm devised originally in lattice models, and the asymptotics of quantum 6j6j symbols, thereby providing an answer in the affirmative. Quantum 2D Liouville theory serves as a simple and explicit example, illustrating how the quantum gravitational path integral can be built up from local pieces of BCFT correlation functions, which we call the ``BCFT Legos''. The constructive map between gravity and CFT naturally and explicitly bridges local geometrical data, algebraic structures, and quantum entanglement, as envisaged by the ItfromQubit\it{It \, from \, Qubit} motto.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2404.00877,
  title  = {Building up quantum spacetimes with BCFT Legos},
  author = {Ling-Yan Hung and Yikun Jiang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2404.00877},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

11 pages, 6 figures, expanded version of essay written for the Gravity Research Foundation 2024 Awards for Essays on Gravitation

R2 v1 2026-06-28T15:39:53.054Z