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Codimension-2 surfaces and their Hilbert spaces: low-energy clues for holography from general covariance

Yakov Neiman

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We argue that the holographic principle may be hinted at already from low-energy considerations, assuming diffeomorphism invariance, quantum mechanics and Minkowski-like causality. We consider the states of finite spacelike hypersurfaces in a diffeomorphism-invariant QFT. A low-energy regularization is assumed. We note a natural dependence of the Hilbert space on a codimension-2 boundary surface. The Hilbert product is defined dynamically, in terms of transition amplitudes which are described by a path integral. We show that a canonical basis is incompatible with these assumptions, which opens the possibility for a smaller Hilbert-space dimension than canonically expected. We argue further that this dimension may decrease with surface area at constant volume, hinting at holographic area proportionality. We draw comparisons with other approaches and setups, and propose an interpretation for the non-holographic space of graviton states at asymptotically Minkowski null infinity.


PACS

04.60.-m Quantum gravity

11.10.-z Field theory

MSC

83C45 Quantization of the gravitational field

81S40 Path integrals (See also 58D30)

Subjects

Gravitation and cosmology

Particle physics and field theory

Dates

Issue 24 (21 December 2009)

Received 8 May 2009, in final form 18 October 2009

Published 16 November 2009



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