Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: A bstract Gravitationally prepared states are quantum field theoretic states prepared by gravitational path integrals with spatial boundaries that have fixed boundary conditions for gravity but not for matter fields. They can be interpreted as quantum field theoretic states of closed universes encoding quantum gravitational effects of the past. We propose a method of modeling gravitationally prepared states in two dimensions with random matrix product states (RMPS). Such RMPS models allow us to compute quantities which include contributions of higher topologies and replica geometries to all orders. The bra-ket wormhole phase transition is a crucial physical property of gravitationally prepared states. We show that a RMPS model shows behavior qualitatively similar to the bra-ket wormhole phase transition if it satisfies the spectral gapping property , which we define. We define a class of models called O( k ) models satisfying this property. A novel advantage of RMPS models is that they allow us to compute effects corresponding to off-shell wormholes , i.e., wormhole topologies without semiclassical solutions. In particular, numerical results in RMPS models suggest that off-shell wormholes lead to nonzero long-distance correlators in gravitationally prepared states. We also define RMPS models in continuous space, and discuss implications for studying de Sitter gravitationally prepared states.
Source: Journal of High Energy Physics
Authors: Sunghoon Jung, Sungjung Kim, Jiwoo Park, Seokhyeon Song
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4417447040