English

Violation of Unitarity in Gravitational Subregions

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2022-07-04 v1 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

This essay contends that in quantum gravity, some spatial regions do not admit a unitary Hilbert space. Because the gravitational path integral spontaneously breaks CPT symmetry, "states" with negative probability can be identified on either side of trapped surfaces. I argue that these negative norm states are tolerable, by analogy to quantum mechanics. This viewpoint suggests a resolution of the firewall paradox, similar to black hole complementarity. Implications for cosmology are briefly discussed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2104.03253,
  title  = {Violation of Unitarity in Gravitational Subregions},
  author = {Aron C. Wall},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2104.03253},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

8 pages, 3 figs. Submitted to the Gravity Research Foundation 2021 Essay Competition