De Sitter space is sometimes not empty
Vijay Balasubramanian, Yasunori Nomura, Tomonori Ugajin
Abstract
A bstract Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the Hilbert space of an isolated de Sitter universe is one dimensional but can appear larger when probed by a gravitating observer. To test this idea, we compute the von Neumann entropy of a field theory in a two-dimensional de Sitter universe which is entangled in a thermal-like state with the same field theory on a disjoint, asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) black hole. Previously, it was shown that the replica trick for computing the entropy of such entangled gravitating systems requires the inclusion of a non-perturbative effect in quantum gravity — novel wormholes connecting the two spaces. Here we show that: (a) the expected wormholes connecting de Sitter and AdS universes exist, avoiding a no-go theorem via the presence of sources on the AdS boundary; (b) the entanglement entropy vanishes if the nominal entropy of the de Sitter cosmological horizon $$ \left({S}_{\textrm{dS}}={A}_{\textrm{horizon}}^{\textrm{dS}}/4{G}_{\textrm{N}}\right) $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mfenced> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mi>dS</mml:mi> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:mtext>horizon</mml:mtext> <mml:mi>dS</mml:mi> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>G</mml:mi> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:mfenced> </mml:math> is less than the entropy of the AdS black hole horizon $$ \left({S}_{\textrm{BH}}={A}_{\textrm{horizon}}^{\textrm{AdS}}/4{G}_{\textrm{N}}\right) $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mfenced> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mi>BH</mml:mi> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:mtext>horizon</mml:mtext> <mml:mi>AdS</mml:mi> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mo>/</mml:mo> <mml:mn>4</mml:mn> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>G</mml:mi> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:mfenced> </mml:math> , i.e., S dS < S BH ; (c) the entanglement entropy is finite when S dS > S BH . Thus, the de Sitter Hilbert space is effectively nontrivial only when S dS > S BH . The AdS black hole we introduce can be regarded as an “observer” for de Sitter space. In this sense, our result is a non-perturbative generalization of the recent perturbative argument that the algebra of observables on the de Sitter static patch becomes nontrivial in the presence of an observer.