Holography and unitarity

Abstract

If holography is an equivalence between quantum theories, one might expect it to be described by a map that is a bijective isometry between bulk and boundary Hilbert spaces, preserving the hamiltonian and symmetries. Holography has been believed to be a property of gravitational (or string) theories, but not of non-gravitational theories; specifically Marolf has argued that it originates from the gauge symmetries and constraints of gravity. These observations suggest study of the assumed holographic map as a function of the gravitational coupling G. The zero coupling limit gives ordinary quantum field theory, and is therefore not necessarily expected to be holographic. This, and the structure of gravity at non-zero G, raises important questions about the full map. In particular, construction of a holographic map appears to require as input a solution of the nonperturbative analog of the bulk gravitational constraints, that is, the unitary bulk evolution. Moreover, examination of the candidate boundary algebra, including the boundary hamiltonian, reveals commutators that don’t close in the usual fashion expected for a boundary theory.