Diamonds in the Bulk and Large-$N$ Scaling in AdS/CFT

TL;DR

The work investigates whether causal diamonds in AdS/CFT harbor finite-entropy subsystems whose bulk field algebras reflect Type $III_1$ structures in the $N \to \infty$ limit. By analyzing free scalar, Dirac, vector, and tensor fields near the diamond horizon, the authors show the near-horizon dynamics reduce to a 1+1D massless description on a stretched horizon with $c=1$ per bulk spin-0 primary, but argue that the bulk algebra only emerges in a double-scaled limit where the boundary UV cutoff and $N$ are sent to infinity together. In this double-scaling regime, the bulk field theory description becomes valid at scales above the AdS radius, while sub-AdS locality remains unresolved for finite cutoffs, challenging LL’s claim that finite-$N$ diamonds yield bulk local algebras. The Polchinski-Susskind arena is used to illustrate that finite-$N$ boundary algebras cannot reproduce bulk locality at sub-AdS scales, reinforcing that a correlated double scaling is essential for a consistent bulk description. Collectively, the paper clarifies the emergence of bulk locality in AdS/CFT, showing that sub-AdS bulk physics requires careful scaling of both $N$ and the UV cutoff, and that tensor-network pictures capture locality at or above the AdS scale rather than arbitrary sub-AdS distances.

Abstract

Quantum Field Theory (QFT) introduced us to the notion that a causal diamond in space-time corresponded to a subsystem of a quantum mechanical system defined on the global space-time. Work by Jacobson, Fischler and Susskind, and particularly Bousso suggested that, in the quantum theory of gravity, this subsystem should have a density matrix of finite entropy. These authors formalized older intuitive arguments based on black hole physics. Although mathematically, Type II von Neumann algebras admit finite entropy density matrices, the black hole arguments suggest that the number of physical states in these subsystems is finite. The conjecture that de Sitter (dS) space has a finite number of physical states was first made by Fischler and one of the present authors. Leutheusser and Liu showed that, in the $N = \infty$ limit, causal diamonds with finite area in AdS radius units had Type $III_1$ von Neumann sub-algebras of the full operator algebra. They claimed that this was true for finite values of the UV cutoff, and that the algebra was the algebra of bulk local fields in the diamond. We will argue that the second part of this conjecture is incorrect and that the bulk field algebra emerges only in a double scaled limit, where the boundary UV cutoff is taken to infinity as $N$ is taken to infinity. There is never a bulk field theory description that resolves distances smaller than the AdS radius.

Figures (1)

• Figure 2: A causal diamond (blue) in the global AdS. $\alpha_{\diamond}$ is where the wedge region (red) touches the casual diamond. $\alpha_{\infty}$ is the future tip of the causal diamond when we impose a UV cutoff.