English

Concerns about the replica wormhole derivation of the island conjecture

High Energy Physics - Theory 2021-02-10 v2

Abstract

In a close look at the replica wormhole derivation of the island conjecture, we note a discrepancy in the derived matrix eigenvalues in the limit where the Hawking radiation entropy goes to zero. The small corrections to the density matrix for the radiation infer that tr(ρR2){\rm tr}(\rho_\textsf{R}^2), equally a sum over the eigenvalues squared, must be small (1\ll1) at all times. This is in contradiction with an ensemble dominated by a density matrix with an eigenvalue close to unity. Also, the radiation entropy has been approximated by the ensemble averaged entropy, as in a final state analysis. For ρR=ρR(σ)\rho_\textsf{R}=\rho_\textsf{R}(\sigma) with σ\sigma the set of variables used in the average, the ensemble average is only an accurate estimate of the entropy after σ\sigma has been measured. At the formation of each Hawking pair, there is a distribution over σ\sigma that affects the entropy. Without a real time determination of σ\sigma, the radiation entropy follows Hawking's result during the evaporation. A question remains of how quickly such determinations can be assumed to occur. A complete argument for that the radiation entropy follows the Page curve should address this.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2101.05879,
  title  = {Concerns about the replica wormhole derivation of the island conjecture},
  author = {Anna Karlsson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2101.05879},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

14 pages. v2: references and a footnote added