SYK collective field theory as complex Liouville gravity

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Blommaert, Andreas, Tietto, Damiano, Verlinde, Herman
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Blommaert, Andreas
Tietto, Damiano
Verlinde, Herman
author_facet Blommaert, Andreas
Tietto, Damiano
Verlinde, Herman
contents We establish a precise relationship between the $GΣ$ collective field theory of the double scaled SYK model and the worldsheet theory of the complex Liouville string a.k.a. sine dilaton gravity. The relationship is similar to the lightcone gauge in critical string theory, and to what transpires when we gravitationally dress to an observer in gravity: one of the Liouville fields plays the role of a dynamical clock with respect to which the second Liouville field evolves. This other Liouville field is identified with the collective field of SYK, which thus acquires a direct gravity interpretation. The relevant 2D worldsheet geometry is that of a disk with specific crosscap and FZZT boundary conditions, as deduced from the $GΣ$ formulation. We compute the CLS amplitude on this geometry and find that this coincides with the DSSYK partition function. We indicate how our results can be lifted to 3D gravity, previewing upcoming work. An outflow of our results is that physical operators of DSSYK are mapped to holonomy operators (Verlinde lines) of complex Liouville theory on the crosscap geometry, which in turn have a 3D representation in terms of line operators in 3D de Sitter gravity. We show that the partition function of SYK can be represented as the expectation value of a circular gravitational Wilson line on $\mathbb{RP}^3$ (a.k.a. elliptic 3D de Sitter space).
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_18462
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SYK collective field theory as complex Liouville gravity
Blommaert, Andreas
Tietto, Damiano
Verlinde, Herman
High Energy Physics - Theory
We establish a precise relationship between the $GΣ$ collective field theory of the double scaled SYK model and the worldsheet theory of the complex Liouville string a.k.a. sine dilaton gravity. The relationship is similar to the lightcone gauge in critical string theory, and to what transpires when we gravitationally dress to an observer in gravity: one of the Liouville fields plays the role of a dynamical clock with respect to which the second Liouville field evolves. This other Liouville field is identified with the collective field of SYK, which thus acquires a direct gravity interpretation. The relevant 2D worldsheet geometry is that of a disk with specific crosscap and FZZT boundary conditions, as deduced from the $GΣ$ formulation. We compute the CLS amplitude on this geometry and find that this coincides with the DSSYK partition function. We indicate how our results can be lifted to 3D gravity, previewing upcoming work. An outflow of our results is that physical operators of DSSYK are mapped to holonomy operators (Verlinde lines) of complex Liouville theory on the crosscap geometry, which in turn have a 3D representation in terms of line operators in 3D de Sitter gravity. We show that the partition function of SYK can be represented as the expectation value of a circular gravitational Wilson line on $\mathbb{RP}^3$ (a.k.a. elliptic 3D de Sitter space).
title SYK collective field theory as complex Liouville gravity
topic High Energy Physics - Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.18462