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Main Authors: Kruthoff, Jorrit, Levine, Adam
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.10162
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author Kruthoff, Jorrit
Levine, Adam
author_facet Kruthoff, Jorrit
Levine, Adam
contents We explore dilaton gravity with general dilaton potentials in the semi-classical limit viewed both as a gas of blunt defects and also as a semi-classical theory in its own right. We compare the exact defect gas picture with that obtained by naively canonically quantizing the theory in geodesic gauge. We find a subtlety in the canonical approach due to a non-perturbative ambiguity in geodesic gauge. Unlike in JT gravity, this ambiguity arises already at the disk level. This leads to a distinct mechanism from that in JT gravity by which the semi-classical approximation breaks down at low temperatures. Along the way, we propose that new, previously un-studied saddles contribute to the density of states of dilaton gravity. This in particular leads to a re-interpretation of the disk-level density of states in JT gravity in terms of two saddles with fixed energy boundary conditions: the disk, which caps off on the outer horizon, and another, sub-leading complex saddle which caps off on the inner horizon. When the theory is studied using a defect expansion, we show how the smooth classical geometries of dilaton gravity arise from a dense gas of very blunt defects in the $G_N \to 0$ limit. The classical saddle points arise from a balance between the attractive force on the defects toward negative dilaton and a statistical pressure from the entropy of the configuration. We end with speculations on the nature of the space-like singularity present inside black holes described by certain dilaton potentials.
format Preprint
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institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
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spellingShingle Semi-classical dilaton gravity and the very blunt defect expansion
Kruthoff, Jorrit
Levine, Adam
High Energy Physics - Theory
We explore dilaton gravity with general dilaton potentials in the semi-classical limit viewed both as a gas of blunt defects and also as a semi-classical theory in its own right. We compare the exact defect gas picture with that obtained by naively canonically quantizing the theory in geodesic gauge. We find a subtlety in the canonical approach due to a non-perturbative ambiguity in geodesic gauge. Unlike in JT gravity, this ambiguity arises already at the disk level. This leads to a distinct mechanism from that in JT gravity by which the semi-classical approximation breaks down at low temperatures. Along the way, we propose that new, previously un-studied saddles contribute to the density of states of dilaton gravity. This in particular leads to a re-interpretation of the disk-level density of states in JT gravity in terms of two saddles with fixed energy boundary conditions: the disk, which caps off on the outer horizon, and another, sub-leading complex saddle which caps off on the inner horizon. When the theory is studied using a defect expansion, we show how the smooth classical geometries of dilaton gravity arise from a dense gas of very blunt defects in the $G_N \to 0$ limit. The classical saddle points arise from a balance between the attractive force on the defects toward negative dilaton and a statistical pressure from the entropy of the configuration. We end with speculations on the nature of the space-like singularity present inside black holes described by certain dilaton potentials.
title Semi-classical dilaton gravity and the very blunt defect expansion
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.10162