Emergent Area Operators in the Boundary

Abstract:In some cases in two and three bulk dimensions without bulk local degrees of freedom, I look for area operators in a fixed boundary theory. In each case, I define an exact quantum error-correcting code (QECC) and show that it admits a central decomposition. However, the area operator that arises from this central decomposition vanishes. A non-zero area operator, however, emerges after coarse-graining. The expectation value of this operator approximates the actual entanglement entropy for a class of states that do not form a linear subspace. These non-linear constraints can be interpreted as semiclassicality conditions. The coarse-grained area operator is ambiguous, and this ambiguity can be matched with that in defining fixed-area states.

arXiv:2511.01382 [hep-th]

(or arXiv:2511.01382v3 [hep-th] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2511.01382 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

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