English

Density matrix of de Sitter JT gravity

High Energy Physics - Theory 2026-04-01 v1 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity in two-dimensional de Sitter space is an intriguing toy model for a quantum mechanical description of an inflationary phase of the universe, including initial conditions. Starting from exact solutions of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation, we study a conditional density matrix of the system. We find that the ground state is a mixed state, rather than a pure Hartle-Hawking state. Our results are consistent with the semiclassical double-trumpet amplitude, and with recent work on complex geometries containing bra-ket wormholes. We also analyze semiclassical wave functions for metric, dilaton, and an additional inflaton field. The probability distribution for the size of the universe is flat.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.29538,
  title  = {Density matrix of de Sitter JT gravity},
  author = {Wilfried Buchmuller and Alexander Westphal},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.29538},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

1+32 pages, LaTeX, 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:45:55.059Z