Absolute entropy and the observer's no-boundary state

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Blommaert, Andreas, Kudler-Flam, Jonah, Urbach, Erez Y.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Blommaert, Andreas
Kudler-Flam, Jonah
Urbach, Erez Y.
author_facet Blommaert, Andreas
Kudler-Flam, Jonah
Urbach, Erez Y.
contents We investigate the no-boundary proposal for closed universes with an observer. We argue that the observer's no-boundary state is the identity operator on the physical Hilbert space, i.e., the maximum entropy state and show this explicitly in Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity. Geometrically, the no-boundary state is a bra-ket wormhole. Expectation values in the no-boundary state provide a trace for the observer's algebra, which allows one to define von Neumann entropy for observers in different universes as the relative entropy with respect to the no-boundary state. This result is consistent with all previously discussed cases of traces for invariantly defined regions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_14771
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Absolute entropy and the observer's no-boundary state
Blommaert, Andreas
Kudler-Flam, Jonah
Urbach, Erez Y.
High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
We investigate the no-boundary proposal for closed universes with an observer. We argue that the observer's no-boundary state is the identity operator on the physical Hilbert space, i.e., the maximum entropy state and show this explicitly in Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity. Geometrically, the no-boundary state is a bra-ket wormhole. Expectation values in the no-boundary state provide a trace for the observer's algebra, which allows one to define von Neumann entropy for observers in different universes as the relative entropy with respect to the no-boundary state. This result is consistent with all previously discussed cases of traces for invariantly defined regions.
title Absolute entropy and the observer's no-boundary state
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.14771