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1. Black hole to cosmic horizon microstates in string/M theory: timelike boundaries and internal averaging

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2023)160  

   Silverstein, Eva (May 2023, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> In this note, we resolve an apparent obstacle to string/M theory realizations of dS observer patch holography, finding a new role for averaging in quantum gravity. The solvable$$ T\overline{T} $$ $T\overline{T}$(+Λ₂) deformation recently provided a detailed microstate count of thedS₃cosmic horizon, reproducing the refined Gibbons-Hawking entropy computed by Anninos et al. along with the correct radial bulk geometry. On the gravity side, the deformation brings in the boundary to just outside a black hole horizon, where it is indistinguishable from the dS cosmic horizon, enabling a continuous passage to a bounded patch of dS. In string/M theory, the relationship between AdS/CFT and dS involves uplifts that change the internal topology, e.g. replacing an internal sphere$$ \mathbbm{S} $$ $S$with an internal hyperbolic spaceℍ(and incorporating varying warp and conformal factors). We connect these two approaches, noting that the differences in the extra dimensions between AdS black hole and dS solutions are washed out by internal averaging in the presence of a timelike boundary skirting the horizon. This helps to motivate a detailed investigation into the possibility of such timelike boundaries in (A)dS solutions of string/M theory, and we take initial steps toward suitable generalizations of Liouville walls as one approach. 

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2. Species scale in diverse dimensions

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP05(2024)112  

   van_de_Heisteeg, Damian; Vafa, Cumrun; Wiesner, Max; Wu, David H (May 2024, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> In a quantum theory of gravity, the species scale Λ_scan be defined as the scale at which corrections to the Einstein action become important or alternatively as codifying the “number of light degrees of freedom”, due to the fact that$$ {\Lambda}_s^{-1} $$ ${\Lambda }_s^{-1}$is the smallest size black hole described by the EFT involving only the Einstein term. In this paper, we check the validity of this picture in diverse dimensions and with different amounts of supersymmetry and verify the expected behavior of the species scale at the boundary of moduli space. This also leads to the evaluation of the species scale in the interior of the moduli space as well as to the computation of the diameter of the moduli space. We also find evidence that the species scale satisfies the bound$$ {\frac{\left|\nabla {\Lambda}_s\right|}{\Lambda_s}}^2\le \frac{1}{d-2} $$ ${\frac{\left(\nabla {\Lambda }_s\right)}{{\Lambda }_s}}^2\le \frac{1}{d-2}$all over moduli space including the interior. 

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3. Entanglement negativity and replica symmetry breaking in general holographic states

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2025)022  

   Dong, Xi; Kudler-Flam, Jonah; Rath, Pratik (January 2025, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> The entanglement negativity$$ \mathcal{E} $$ $E$(A:B) is a useful measure of quantum entanglement in bipartite mixed states. In random tensor networks (RTNs), which are related to fixed-area states, it was found in ref. [1] that the dominant saddles computing the even Rényi negativity$$ {\mathcal{E}}^{(2k)} $$ $E^{\left(2k\right)}$generically break theℤ_2kreplica symmetry. This calls into question previous calculations of holographic negativity using 2D CFT techniques that assumedℤ_2kreplica symmetry and proposed that the negativity was related to the entanglement wedge cross section. In this paper, we resolve this issue by showing that in general holographic states, the saddles computing$$ {\mathcal{E}}^{(2k)} $$ $E^{\left(2k\right)}$indeed break theℤ_2kreplica symmetry. Our argument involves an identity relating$$ {\mathcal{E}}^{(2k)} $$ $E^{\left(2k\right)}$to thek-th Rényi entropy on subregionAB^∗in the doubled state$$ {\left.|{\rho}_{AB}\right\rangle}_{A{A}^{\ast }{BB}^{\ast }} $$ ${\left(,{\rho }_{\mathrm{AB}}\right)}_{A{A}^{\ast }{\mathrm{BB}}^{\ast }}$, from which we see that theℤ_2kreplica symmetry is broken down toℤ_k. Fork< 1, which includes the case of$$ \mathcal{E} $$ $E$(A:B) atk= 1/2, we use a modified cosmic brane proposal to derive a new holographic prescription for$$ {\mathcal{E}}^{(2k)} $$ $E^{\left(2k\right)}$and show that it is given by a new saddle with multiple cosmic branes anchored to subregionsAandBin the original state. Using our prescription, we reproduce known results for the PSSY model and show that our saddle dominates over previously proposed CFT calculations neark= 1. Moreover, we argue that theℤ_2ksymmetric configurations previously proposed are not gravitational saddles, unlike our proposal. Finally, we contrast holographic calculations with those arising from RTNs with non-maximally entangled links, demonstrating that the qualitative form of backreaction in such RTNs is different from that in gravity. 

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4. Non-planar corrections in ABJM theory from quantum M2 branes

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2024)056  

   Giombi, Simone; Kurlyand, Stefan A; Tseytlin, Arkady A (November 2024, Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A<sc>bstract</sc> The quantization of semiclassical strings in AdS spacetimes yields predictions for the strong-coupling behaviour of the scaling dimensions of the corresponding operators in the planar limit of the dual gauge theory. Finding non-planar corrections requires computing string loops (corresponding to torus and higher genus surfaces), which is a challenging task. It turns out that in the case of theU_k(N) ×U_−k(N) ABJM theory there is an alternative approach: one may semiclassically quantize M2 branes in AdS₄×S⁷/ℤ_kwhich are wrapped around the 11d circle of radius 1/k=λ/N. Such M2 branes are the M-theory generalization of the strings in AdS × CP³. In this work, we show that by expanding in large M2 brane tensionT₂~$$ \sqrt{kN} $$ $\sqrt{\mathrm{kN}}$for fixedk, followed by an expansion in largek, we can predict the largeλasymptotics of the non-planar corrections to the dimensions of the dual ABJM operators. As a specific example, we consider the M2 brane configuration that generalizes the long folded string with large spin in AdS₄, and compute the 1-loop correction to its energy. This calculation allows us to determine non-planar corrections to the universal scaling function or cusp anomalous dimension. We extend our analysis to the semiclassical M2 branes that generalize the “short” and “long” circular strings with two equal angular momenta in CP³. The “short” M2 brane corresponds to a dual operator whose dimension at strong coupling scales as ∆ ∼λ^1/4+ …, and we derive the leading non-planar correction to it. 

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5. Gravity from thermodynamics: Optimal transport and negative effective dimensions

   https://doi.org/10.21468/SciPostPhys.15.2.039  

   De Luca, Giuseppe Bruno; De Ponti, Nicolò; Mondino, Andrea; Tomasiello, Alessandro (January 2023, SciPost Physics)

   We prove an equivalence between the classical equations of motion governing vacuum gravity compactifications (and more general warped-product spacetimes) and a concavity property of entropy under time evolution. This is obtained by linking the theory of optimal transport to the Raychaudhuri equation in the internal space, where the warp factor introduces effective notions of curvature and (negative) internal dimension. When the Reduced Energy Condition is satisfied, concavity can be characterized in terms of the cosmological constant\Lambda $\Lambda$; as a consequence, the masses of the spin-two Kaluza-Klein fields obey bounds in terms of\Lambda $\Lambda$alone. We show that some Cheeger bounds on the KK spectrum hold even without assuming synthetic Ricci lower bounds, in the large class of infinitesimally Hilbertian metric measure spaces, which includes D-brane and O-plane singularities. As an application, we show how some approximate string theory solutions in the literature achieve scale separation, and we construct a new explicit parametrically scale-separated AdS solution of M-theory supported by Casimir energy. 

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