English

The landscape of complexity measures in 2D gravity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2025-11-14 v3 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

We investigate the broad landscape of holographic complexity measures for theories dual to two-dimensional (2D) dilaton gravity. Previous studies have largely focused on the complexity=volume and complexity=action proposals for holographic complexity. Here we systematically construct and analyze a wide class of generalized complexity functionals, focusing on codimension-one bulk observables. Two complementary approaches are presented: one inspired by dimensional reduction of codimension-one observables from higher-dimensional gravity, and another that adopts a purely 2D perspective. We verify the resulting observables exhibit hallmark features of complexity, such as linear growth at late times and the switchback effect. We further offer heuristic interpretations of the role of multiple extremal surfaces when they appear. Finally, we comment on the bulk-to-boundary dictionary via the covariant Peierls bracket in 2D gravity. Our work lays the groundwork for a richer understanding of quantum complexity in low-dimensional holographic dualities.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.20943,
  title  = {The landscape of complexity measures in 2D gravity},
  author = {Elena Cáceres and Rafael Carrasco and Vaishnavi Patil and Juan F. Pedraza and Andrew Svesko},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.20943},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

v1:25 pages (+ Appendices), 6 figures; v2: references added; v3: matching the published version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:35:49.396Z