Wormhole Phase Transition Ensured by Random Matrix Product States in Gravitationally Prepared States
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Understanding the very early universe and the nature of gravity remains a fundamental challenge in physics, and recent theoretical work explores the idea that the universe’s initial state may be described by ‘gravitationally prepared states’. Sunghoon Jung, Sungjung Kim, Jiwoo Park, and Seokhyeon Song, from institutions including Seoul National University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, now present a new method for modelling these complex states using random matrix product states. This approach allows researchers to precisely calculate the contributions of even the most intricate gravitational effects, including those arising from wormholes, to all orders of approximation.
The team demonstrates that their models accurately predict a key feature of these states, a phase transition related to wormhole formation, and, crucially, reveal that wormholes existing beyond classical solutions contribute to measurable long-distance correlations, offering a potential pathway to probe the universe’s earliest moments. Gravitationally prepared states are quantum field theoretic states created by considering universes with specific boundary conditions for gravity, but not for matter. These states encode quantum gravitational effects originating from the past and can be interpreted as the quantum states of closed universes. Researchers have proposed a method for modelling these states in two dimensions using random matrix product states, a powerful computational tool. This approach allows for the precise calculation of contributions from complex geometric configurations, including higher topologies and replica geometries, to all orders, something previously unattainable with standard methods. The results demonstrate that the crucial bra-ket wormhole phase transition, a key physical phenomenon, is accurately captured by this approach. Holography, Entanglement and Quantum Gravity Foundations This extensive collection of research papers represents a comprehensive exploration of theoretical physics, particularly focusing on quantum gravity, holography, entanglement, and cosmology. The work spans a broad range of interconnected themes, all aiming to understand the fundamental nature of spacetime and gravity. A central pillar of this research is the holographic principle, specifically the AdS/CFT correspondence, which proposes a duality between gravity in Anti-de Sitter space and conformal field theories. Many papers directly address this correspondence and its implications for quantum gravity. A significant focus lies on quantum entanglement and its connection to spacetime geometry. Researchers explore how entanglement can be used to probe and understand the structure of spacetime, investigating concepts like entanglement entropy and Rényi entropy. The quantum properties of black holes, including their entropy and the information paradox, are also prominent areas of investigation, with particular attention paid to wormholes as potential connections between different regions of spacetime. A substantial portion of the research focuses on quantum field theory in curved spacetime, particularly in de Sitter space, which describes the accelerating expansion of the universe. This includes the study of cosmological horizons, quantum fluctuations, and the emergence of spacetime from quantum information. The idea that quantum systems, particularly black holes, can exhibit chaotic behavior and scramble information is a recurring theme, related to concepts like the butterfly effect. Researchers also explore the use of tensor networks, like Matrix Product States, as a way to simulate quantum field theories and study their properties. A central idea running through many of these papers is that spacetime itself is not fundamental, but rather emerges from more fundamental degrees of freedom, such as quantum entanglement. The research demonstrates a growing emphasis on rigorous mathematical frameworks and numerical simulations, with a focus on the emergent nature of spacetime and its connections to cosmology. The field is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on ideas from quantum field theory, general relativity, information theory, condensed matter physics, and numerical methods.
Wormhole Transition Confirmed by Random Matrix Models Scientists have developed random matrix product state models to investigate gravitationally prepared states, which represent the quantum states of universes encoding gravitational effects from the past. These models allow for a detailed examination of how past gravitational effects influence the present state of matter fields, enabling the precise calculation of contributions from various geometric configurations, including complex wormhole structures, to all orders of approximation. The work addresses a fundamental challenge in quantum gravity: understanding how information about a universe’s early, quantum-dominated evolution is encoded in its later, classical state. Researchers demonstrate that the crucial bra-ket wormhole phase transition, a key property of these states, is ensured when the transfer matrix of the random matrix product state model satisfies a defined spectral gapping property, establishing a mathematical condition for the stability and physical relevance of the model. A novel advantage of these models is their ability to account for off-shell wormholes, wormhole topologies lacking classical solutions, expanding the scope of gravitational analysis beyond traditional semiclassical approximations. Experiments reveal that these off-shell wormholes contribute to nonzero long-distance correlators within the gravitationally prepared states, indicating a subtle interconnectedness across vast distances.
The team constructed random matrix product state models in continuous space, opening avenues for studying de Sitter gravitationally prepared states, which model universes undergoing accelerated expansion. Measurements confirm that these models accurately capture the complex interplay between geometry and quantum effects, providing a new toolkit for exploring nonperturbative effects in quantum gravity. This breakthrough provides a new framework for investigating the quantum nature of gravity and the evolution of the universe.
Wormhole Phase Transition via Random Matrix States This research presents a new method for modelling gravitationally prepared states, which are quantum states of the universe encoding information about its gravitational history. Scientists developed a framework using random matrix product states, allowing for a detailed examination of how past gravitational effects influence the present state of matter fields. This approach enables the precise calculation of contributions from various geometric configurations, including complex wormhole structures, to all orders of approximation. A key achievement is demonstrating that the existence of a crucial phase transition related to wormholes, a fundamental property of these states, is ensured when the mathematical properties of the random matrix model meet specific criteria. Importantly, the model allows researchers to investigate the effects of ‘off-shell’ wormholes, those lacking traditional semiclassical solutions, revealing that these structures contribute to measurable long-distance correlations within the gravitationally prepared state.
The team also extended the model to continuous space and explored its implications for understanding de Sitter universes, offering new avenues for studying the early universe and the effects of inflation. Future work will focus on refining the model and applying it to a wider range of cosmological settings, potentially offering deeper insights into the nature of quantum gravity and the evolution of the universe. 👉 More information 🗞 Random matrix product state models of gravitationally prepared states 🧠 ArXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.11966 Tags: