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arXiv:2510.13941 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Diffeomorphism invariant tensor networks for 3d gravity

Vijay Balasubramanian, Charlie Cummings

Published May 20, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

A bstract Tensor networks prepare states which share many features of states in quantum gravity. However, standard constructions are not diffeomorphism invariant and do not support an algebra of non-commuting area operators. Recently, analogues of both problems were addressed in a tensor network discretization of topological field theories (TFT) with finite or compact gauge groups. Here, we extend this work towards gravity by generalizing to gauge groups that are discrete or continuous, compact or non-compact. Applied to SL(2, ℝ ) × SL(2, ℝ ) Chern-Simons theory, our construction can be interpreted as building states of three dimensional gravity with a negative cosmological constant. Our tensor networks prepare states which satisfy the constraints of Chern-Simons theory. In metric variables, this implies that the states we construct satisfy the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and momentum constraints, and so are diffeomorphism invariant.

DOI
10.1007/jhep05(2026)231

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A bstract Tensor networks prepare states which share many features of states in quantum gravity. However, standard constructions are not diffeomorphism invariant and do not support an algebra of non-commuting area operators. Recently, analogues of both problems were addressed in a tensor network discretization of topological field theories (TFT) with finite or compact gauge groups. Here, we extend this work towards gravity by generalizing to gauge groups that are discrete or continuous, compact or non-compact. Applied to SL(2, ℝ ) × SL(2, ℝ ) Chern-Simons theory, our construction can be interpreted as building states of three dimensional gravity with a negative cosmological constant. Our tensor networks prepare states which satisfy the constraints of Chern-Simons theory. In metric variables, this implies that the states we construct satisfy the Wheeler-DeWitt equation and momentum constraints, and so are diffeomorphism invariant.
We derive an entropy formula for recently proposed tensor network models which prepare diffeomorphism invariant states of topological quantum field theories with non-compact and/or continuous gauge groups. We show that our entropy formula generalizes the notion of ``topological entanglement entropy'' to incorporate the infinite number of particle-like excitations in such theories. When our networks are endowed with gauge group SL(2,R)\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{R})SL(2,R), we can interpret them as models of three-dimensional gravity with small Newton's constant and possibly non-invertible metrics.
We derive an entropy formula for a recently proposed tensor network model of states in 3D gravity which satisfy the constraint equations of diffeomorphism invariance, and including the effects of matter. After accounting for the invertibility of the spacetime metric, we argue that this formula matches the quantum extremal surface formula (for small but finite GNG_NGN​), and is not restricted to time symmetric spacetimes. We derive the result via canonical quantization without relying on path integrals, and discuss an extension to compact bulk subregions.
Holographic tensor networks model AdS/CFT, but so far they have been limited by involving only systems that are very different from gravity. Unfortunately, we cannot straightforwardly discretize gravity to incorporate it, because that would break diffeomorphism invariance. In this note, we explore a resolution. In low dimensions gravity can be written as a topological gauge theory, which can be discretized without breaking gauge-invariance. However, new problems arise. Foremost, we now need a qualitatively new kind of “area operator,” which has no relation to the number of links along the cut and is instead topological. Secondly, the inclusion of matter becomes trickier. We successfully construct a tensor network both including matter and with this new type of area. Notably, while this area is still related to the entanglement in “edge mode” degrees of freedom, the edge modes are no longer bipartite entangled pairs. Instead they are highly multipartite. Along the way, we calculate the entropy of novel subalgebras in a particular topological gauge theory. We also show that the multipartite nature of the edge modes gives rise to non-commuting area operators, a property that other tensor networks do not exhibit.
A bstract We study the existence and limitations of hyperinvariant tensor networks incorporating a local SU(2) symmetry. As discrete implementations of the anti de-Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, such networks have created bridges between the fields of quantum information theory and quantum gravity. Adding SU(2) symmetry to the tensor network allows a direct connection to spin network states, a basis of the kinematic Hilbert space of loop quantum gravity (LQG). We consider a particular situation where the states can be interpreted as kinematic quantum states for three-dimensional quantum gravity. We demonstrate an entanglement-geometry correspondence realized in certain quantum states of the gravitational field in LQG, showing that models similar to the ones introduced by [F. Pastawski et al., JHEP 06, 149 (2015)] can be obtained as quantum gravitational models from first principles. We provide examples of hyperinvariant tensor networks, but also prove constraints on their existence in the form of no-go theorems that exclude absolutely maximally entangled states as well as general holographic codes from local SU(2)-invariance, as long as the logical index also transforms covariantly under the gauge group. We calculate surface areas as expectation values of the LQG area operator and discuss further possible constraints as a consequence of a decay of correlations on the boundary.
A bstract Tensor networks are useful toy models for understanding the structure of entanglement in holographic states and reconstruction of bulk operators within the entanglement wedge. They are, however, constrained to only prepare so-called “fixed-area states” with flat entanglement spectra, limiting their utility in understanding general features of holographic entanglement. Here, we overcome this limitation by constructing a variant of random tensor networks that enjoys bulk gauge symmetries. Our model includes a gauge theory on a general graph, whose gauge-invariant states are fed into a random tensor network. We show that the model satisfies the quantum-corrected Ryu-Takayanagi formula with a nontrivial area operator living in the center of a gauge-invariant algebra. We also demonstrate nontrivial, n -dependent contributions to the Rényi entropy and Rényi mutual information from this area operator, a feature shared by general holographic states.
One approach to analyzing entanglement in a gauge theory is embedding it into a factorized theory with edge modes on the entangling boundary. For topological quantum field theories (TQFT), this naturally leads to factorizing a TQFT by adding local edge modes associated with the corresponding CFT. In this work, we instead construct a minimal set of edge modes compatible with the topological invariance of Chern-Simons theory. This leads us to propose a minimal factorization map. These minimal edge modes can be interpreted as the degrees of freedom of a particle on a quantum group. Of particular interest is three-dimensional gravity as a Chern-Simons theory with gauge group SL (2,\mathbb{R}) × ( 2 , ℝ ) × SL (2,\mathbb{R}) ( 2 , ℝ ) . Our minimal factorization proposal uniquely gives rise to quantum group edge modes factorizing the bulk state space of 3d gravity. This agrees with earlier proposals that relate the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy in 3d gravity to topological entanglement entropy.