Journal Article

Wormhole calculus, replicas, and entropies

Turiaci, Gustavo J., Giddings, Steven B.

2020

Overview

A bstract We investigate contributions of spacetime wormholes, describing baby universe emission and absorption, to calculations of entropies and correlation functions, for example those based on the replica method. We find that the rules of the “wormhole calculus”, developed in the 1980s, together with standard quantum mechanical prescriptions for computing entropies and correlators, imply definite rules for limited patterns of connection between replica factors in simple calculations. These results stand in contrast with assumptions that all topologies connecting replicas should be summed over, and call into question the explanation for the latter. In a “free” approximation baby universes introduce probability distributions for coupling constants, and we review and extend arguments that successive experiments in a “parent” universe increasingly precisely fix such couplings, resulting in ultimately pure evolution. Once this has happened, the nontrivial question remains of how topology-changing effects can modify the standard description of black hole information loss.

• Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg,Springer Nature B.V,Springer Berlin,SpringerOpen
• Subject: Black Holes / Classical and Quantum Gravitation / Correlators / Couplings / Elementary Particles / Emission analysis / Gauge-gravity correspondence / High energy physics / Mathematical analysis / Nonperturbative Effects / Physics / Physics and Astronomy / PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS / Quantum Field Theories / Quantum Field Theory / Quantum mechanics / Quantum Physics / Questions / Regular Article - Theoretical Physics / Relativity Theory / String Theory / Topology / Universe / Wormholes