Mathematical and Theoretical Physics Seminar: The OPE Randomness Hypothesis and Euclidean Wormholes
- Event Type
- Ceremony/Service
- Sponsor
- The Math and Physics Departments
- Virtual
- Date
- Feb 25, 2021 1:00 pm
- Speaker
- Alex Belin (CERN)
- Contact
- Janice Benner
- jbenner@illinois.edu
- Views
- 14
- Originating Calendar
- Physics - Mathematical and Theoretical Physics Seminar
Recent developments in holography indicate that the semi-classical Euclidean path-integral of Einstein gravity is much more powerful than previously anticipated. It is capable of reproducing a unitary Page curve for black hole evaporation, and can even capture some features of the discreten nature of black hole microstates. Wormhole geometries play a key role in this context. I will propose a mechanism to explain this in the CFT: the OPE Randomness Hypothesis. This ansatz is a generalization of the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis which applies to chaotic CFTs, and treats OPE coefficients of heavy operators as random variables with a given probability distribution. I will present two applications of this framework: First, it resolves a puzzle in AdS_3/CFT_2 due to the genus-2 wormhole, as raised by Maoz and Maldacena. Second, it provides an argument against global symmetries in quantum gravity.