Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: We study whether varying the topological boundary of the doubled Virasoro TQFT can produce distinct torus pairings for an ensemble interpretation of 3D gravity. In the ordinary nondegenerate sector, every bounded pairing that commutes with the modular transformations is scalar, and vacuum normalization selects the diagonal pairing. The proof identifies the modular transformations with the even Weil representation and applies the Cowling--Steger lattice-restriction theorem. Under the ordinary block-diagonal vacuum--continuum ansatz, positivity and the two vacuum marginals also make a Borel-measure pairing bounded, without assuming absolute continuity; modular invariance then forces the same diagonal pairing. These two classes therefore contain no distinct torus pairings to average. A nontrivial Virasoro boundary ensemble must involve genus-one data outside these classes, additional sectors or vacuum--continuum couplings, or information invisible in the torus pairing. Elementary proofs in explicit regular sectors explain the rigidity mechanisms, and numerical calculations provide independent checks.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Author: Yu, Xingyang
Institution: Virginia Tech
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7203908792