Probabilistic deconstruction of a theory of gravity, part I: Flat space

Abstract

We define and analyze a stochastic process in anti-de Sitter Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity, induced by the quantum dynamics of the boundary and whose random variable takes values in AdS2. With the boundary in a thermal state and for appropriate parameters, we take the asymptotic limit of the quantum process at short time scales and flat space, and show associated classical joint distributions have the Markov property. We find that Einstein’s equations of the theory, sans the cosmological constant term, arise in the semi-classical limit of the quantum evolution of probability under the asymptotic process. In particular, in flat Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity, the area of compactified space solved for by Einstein’s equations can be identified as a probability density evolving under the Markovian process.