Work

Why emergence of gravity in matrix theories is entropic

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Matrix theories exhibit the phenomenon of spacetime emergence in certain regimes of their dynamics. In this work, I posit that the key to this emergence is a hierarchy between two timescales; very slow modes that an observer measures plus a chaotic cloud of very fast modes. This then leads to a natural operator algebra for measurements for the slow modes and an associated density matrix for the full system. I show that this density matrix implies the same gravitational potential energy that has been identified previously in the literature; furthermore, I show that the corresponding emergent gravitational force is nothing but the entropic force associated with the entropy of the fast modes of the system. I also demonstrate that the posited regime corresponds to distances being super-Planckian in the dual 11-dimensional supergravity.

Source: Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

DOI: 10.1103/1d5g-2c3n

Author: Vatche Sahakian

Institution: Harvey Mudd College

Language: English

Topic: Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories

Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funder: National Science Foundation

Award: RUI: Weaving Space with Quantum Entanglement, and Black Holes in Stochastic Matrix Theory