Liouville quantum gravity — holography, JT and matrices

Abstract

We study two-dimensional Liouville gravity and minimal string theory on spaces with fixed length boundaries. We find explicit formulas describing the gravitational dressing of bulk and boundary correlators in the disk. Their structure has a striking resemblance with observables in 2d BF (plus a boundary term), associated to a quantum deformation of SL(2, ℝ), a connection we develop in some detail. For the case of the (2, p) minimal string theory, we compare and match the results from the continuum approach with a matrix model calculation, and verify that in the large p limit the correlators match with Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity. We consider multi-boundary amplitudes that we write in terms of gluing bulk one-point functions using a quantum deformation of the Weil-Petersson volumes and gluing measures. Generating functions for genus zero Weil-Petersson volumes are derived, taking the large p limit. Finally, we present preliminary evidence that the bulk theory can be interpreted as a 2d dilaton gravity model with a sinh Φ dilaton potential.