Random tensor networks provide useful models that incorporate various important features of holographic duality. A tensor network is usually defined for a fixed graph geometry specified by the connection of tensors. In this paper, we generalize the random tensor network approach to allow quantum superposition of different spatial geometries. We setup a framework in which all possible bulk spatial geometries, characterized by weighted adjacient matrices of all possible graphs, are mapped to the boundary Hilbert space and form an overcomplete basis of the boundary. We name such an overcomplete basis as holographic coherent states. A generic boundary state can be expanded in this basis, which describes the state as a superposition of different spatial geometries in the bulk. We discuss how to define distinct classical geometries and small fluctuations around them. We show that small fluctuations around classical geometries define “code subspaces” which are mapped to the boundary Hilbert space isometrically with quantum error correction properties. In addition, we also show that the overlap between different geometries is suppressed exponentially as a function of the geometrical difference between the two geometries. The geometrical difference is measured in an area law fashion, which is a manifestation of the holographic nature of the states considered.
Random tensor networks provide useful models that incorporate various important features of holographic duality. A tensor network is usually defined for a fixed graph geometry specified by the connection of tensors. In this paper, we generalize the random tensor network approach to allow quantum superposition of different spatial geometries. We setup a framework in which all possible bulk spatial geometries, characterized by weighted adjacient matrices of all possible graphs, are mapped to the boundary Hilbert space and form an overcomplete basis of the boundary. We name such an overcomplete basis as holographic coherent states. A generic boundary state can be expanded in this basis, which describes the state as a superposition of different spatial geometries in the bulk. We discuss how to define distinct classical geometries and small fluctuations around them. We show that small fluctuations around classical geometries define “code subspaces” which are mapped to the boundary Hilbert space isometrically with quantum error correction properties. In addition, we also show that the overlap between different geometries is suppressed exponentially as a function of the geometrical difference between the two geometries. The geometrical difference is measured in an area law fashion, which is a manifestation of the holographic nature of the states considered.
We study the holographic properties of a class of quantum geometry states characterized by a superposition of discrete geometric data, in the form of generalized tensor networks. This class specifically includes spin networks, the kinematic states of lattice gauge theory, and discrete quantum gravity. We employ an algebraic, operatorial definition of holography based on quantum information channels, an approach which is particularly valuable in settings, such as the one we consider, where the relevant Hilbert space of states does not factorize into subsystem Hilbert spaces due to gauge invariance. We apply random tensor network techniques (successfully used in the AdS/CFT context) to analyze information transport properties of the bulk-to-boundary and boundary-to-boundary maps associated with this superposition of quantum geometries and produce typicality results about the average over the geometric data coloring the fixed graph structure. In this context, one naturally obtains a nontrivial area operator encoding the dominant contribution to entropy calculations. Among our main results is the requirement that one can only isometrically map a bulk region onto boundaries with fixed total area. We furthermore inquire about similar state-induced mappings between segments of the boundary and discuss related conditions for isometric behavior. These generalizations make further steps toward quantum gravity implementations of tensor network holography.
We study criteria for and properties of boundary-to-boundary holography in a class of spin network states defined by analogy to projected entangled pair states (PEPS). In particular, we consider superpositions of states corresponding to well-defined, discrete geometries on a graph. By applying random tensor averaging techniques, we map entropy calculations to a random Ising model on the same graph, with distribution of couplings determined by the relative sizes of the involved geometries. The superposition of tensor network states with variable bond dimension used here presents a picture of a genuine quantum sum over geometric backgrounds. We find that, whenever each individual geometry produces an isometric mapping of a fixed boundary region C to its complement, then their superposition does so iff the relative weight going into each geometry is inversely proportional to its size. Additionally, we calculate average and variance of the area of the given boundary region and find that the average is bounded from below and above by the mean and sum of the individual areas, respectively. Finally, we give an outlook on possible extensions to our program and highlight conceptual limitations to implementing these.
Tensor networks provide a natural framework for exploring holographic duality because they obey entanglement area laws. They have been used to construct explicit toy models realizing many of the interesting structural features of the AdS/CFT correspondence, including the non-uniqueness of bulk operator reconstruction in the boundary theory. In this article, we explore the holographic properties of networks of random tensors. We find that our models naturally incorporate many features that are analogous to those of the AdS/CFT correspondence. When the bond dimension of the tensors is large, we show that the entanglement entropy of all boundary regions, whether connected or not, obey the Ryu-Takayanagi entropy formula, a fact closely related to known properties of the multipartite entanglement of assistance. We also discuss the behavior of Rényi entropies in our models and contrast it with AdS/CFT. Moreover, we find that each boundary region faithfully encodes the physics of the entire bulk entanglement wedge, i.e., the bulk region enclosed by the boundary region and the minimal surface. Our method is to interpret the average over random tensors as the partition function of a classical ferromagnetic Ising model, so that the minimal surfaces of Ryu-Takayanagi appear as domain walls. Upon including the analog of a bulk field, we find that our model reproduces the expected corrections to the Ryu-Takayanagi formula: the bulk minimal surface is displaced and the entropy is augmented by the entanglement of the bulk field. Increasing the entanglement of the bulk field ultimately changes the minimal surface behavior topologically, in a way similar to the effect of creating a black hole. Extrapolating bulk correlation functions to the boundary permits the calculation of the scaling dimensions of boundary operators, which exhibit a large gap between a small number of low-dimension operators and the rest. While we are primarily motivated by the AdS/CFT duality, the main results of the article define a more general form of bulk-boundary correspondence which could be useful for extending holography to other spacetimes.
Tensor networks implementing quantum error correcting codes have recently been used to construct toy models of holographic duality explicitly realizing some of the more puzzling features of the AdS/CFT correspondence. These models reproduce the Ryu-Takayanagi entropy formula for boundary intervals, and allow bulk operators to be mapped to the boundary in a redundant fashion. These exactly solvable, explicit models have provided valuable insight but nonetheless suffer from many deficiencies, some of which we attempt to address in this article. We propose a new class of tensor network models that subsume the earlier advances and, in addition, incorporate additional features of holographic duality, including: (1) a holographic interpretation of all boundary states, not just those in a “code” subspace, (2) a set of bulk states playing the role of “classical geometries” which reproduce the Ryu-Takayanagi formula for boundary intervals, (3) a bulk gauge symmetry analogous to diffeomorphism invariance in gravitational theories, (4) emergent bulk locality for sufficiently sparse excitations, and (5) the ability to describe geometry at sub-AdS resolutions or even flat space.
Abstract In holographic CFTs satisfying eigenstate thermalization, there is a regime where the operator product expansion can be approximated by a random tensor network. The geometry of the tensor network corresponds to a spatial slice in the holographic dual, with the tensors discretizing the radial direction. In spherically symmetric states in any dimension and more general states in 2d CFT, this leads to a holographic error-correcting code, defined in terms of OPE data, that can be systematically corrected beyond the random tensor approximation. The code is shown to be isometric for light operators outside the horizon, and non-isometric inside, as expected from general arguments about bulk reconstruction. The transition at the horizon occurs due to a subtle breakdown of the Virasoro identity block approximation in states with a complex interior.
Holographic quantum-error correcting codes are models of bulk/boundary dualities such as the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, where a higher-dimensional bulk geometry is associated with the code's logical degrees of freedom. Previous discrete holographic codes based on tensor networks have reproduced the general code properties expected from continuum AdS/CFT, such as complementary recovery. However, the boundary states of such tensor networks typically do not exhibit the expected correlation functions of CFT boundary states. In this work, we show that a new class of exact holographic codes, extending the previously proposed hyperinvariant tensor networks into quantum codes, produce the correct boundary correlation functions. This approach yields a dictionary between logical states in the bulk and the critical renormalization group flow of boundary states. Furthermore, these codes exhibit a state-dependent breakdown of complementary recovery as expected from AdS/CFT under small quantum gravity corrections.