Horizon Edge Partition Functions in $\Lambda>0$ Quantum Gravity
High Energy Physics - Theory
2026-04-15 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Abstract
We obtain the spectra of codimension-2 horizon "edge" degrees of freedom for gravity and higher-spin gauge fields in de Sitter space and in the static Nariai spacetime, advancing previous Lorentzian and Euclidean analyses of one-loop thermodynamics. The edge spectra exhibit universal shift symmetries, revealing a novel symmetry-breaking structure in one-loop partition functions with positive cosmological constant. For the graviton, these modes admit a geometric interpretation as fluctuations of the cosmic horizon, which also persists in the Nariai case.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2603.20913,
title = {Horizon Edge Partition Functions in $\Lambda>0$ Quantum Gravity},
author = {Y. T. Albert Law and Varun Lochab},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.20913},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
6 pages + appendix, 2 figures. Short PRL version of arXiv:2501.17912 and arXiv:2506.02142. Published PRL version