HEP Theory Journal Club

Gravity from Averaging CFTs

Alex Maloney

McGill

I will explore the idea that certain theories of gravity in Anti-de Sitter space are dual to an average over an ensemble of quantum theories, rather than to a specific quantum theory. This is motivated by relationships between black holes and the physics of disordered systems. I will describe an ensemble average over free boson CFTs and compute the average partition function. The result takes the form of a sum over geometries exactly as one would expect in a theory of gravity. This can be interpreted as a completely explicit example of a holographic duality, although in an exotic (but relatively simple) theory of quantum gravity.