We study the gravitational phase space associated to a stretched horizon within a finite-sized causal diamond in ($\textit{d}$ + 2)-dimensional spacetimes. By imposing the Raychaudhuri equation, we obtain its constrained symplectic form using the covariant phase space formalism and derive the relevant quantum commutators by inverting the symplectic form and quantizing. Finally, we compute the area fluctuations of the causal diamond by taking a Carrollian limit of the stretched horizon in pure Minkowski spacetime, and derive the relationship $$ \left\langle {\left(\Delta A\right)}^2\right\rangle \ge \frac{2\pi G}{d}\left\langle A\right\rangle $$ , showing that the variance of the area fluctuations is proportional to the area itself.

Canada

Luca Ciambelli

United States

Temple He

Kathryn Zurek

Quantum area fluctuations from gravitational phase space

We study geometric modular flows in two-dimensional conformal field theories. We explore which states exhibit a geometric modular flow with respect to a causally complete subregion and, conversely, how to construct a state from a given geometric modular flow. Given suitable boundary conditions, we find that generic geometric modular flows in the Rindler wedge are conformally equivalent. Based on this insight, we show how conformal unitaries can be used to explicitly construct a state for each flow. We analyze these states, deriving general formulas for the energy density and entanglement entropy. We also consider geometric flows beyond the Rindler wedge setting, and in higher dimensions.

Jacqueline Caminiti

Italy

Federico Capeccia

Robert Myers

Geometric modular flows in 2d CFT and beyond

The corner symmetry algebra organizes the physical charges induced by gravity on codimension-2 corners of a manifold. In this letter, we initiate a study of the quantum properties of this group using as a toy model the corner symmetry group of two-dimensional gravity <math altimg='si1.svg'><mrow><mi mathvariant='normal'>SL</mi></mrow><mo stretchy='false'>(</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>,</mo><mi mathvariant='double-struck'>R</mi><mo stretchy='false'>)</mo><mo>&#8905;</mo><msup><mrow><mi>R</mi></mrow><mrow><mn>2</mn></mrow></msup></math>. We first describe the central extensions and how the quantum corner symmetry group arises and give the Casimirs. We then make use of one particular representation to discuss the gluing of corners, achieved by identifying the maximal commuting sub-algebra. This is a concrete implementation of the gravitational constraints at the quantum level.

Poland

Jerzy Kowalski-Glikman

Ludovic Varrin

Quantum corner symmetry: Representations and gluing

When studying gauge theories in the presence of boundaries, local symmetry transformations are typically classified as gauge or physical depending on whether the associated charges vanish or not. Here, we propose that physical charges should further be refined into “dynamical” or “kinematical” depending on whether they are associated with evolution equations or not. To support this proposal, we analyze (A)dS gravity with boundary Weyl rescalings and compare the solution spaces in Bondi-Sachs and Fefferman- Graham coordinates. In line with previous accounts, we show that the Weyl charge vanishes in the Bondi-Sachs gauge but not in the Fefferman-Graham gauge. Conversely, the charges arising from the metric Chern-Simons Lagrangian behave in the opposite way. This indicates that the gauge-dependent Weyl charge differs fundamentally from charges like mass and angular momentum. This interpretation is reinforced by two key observations: the Weyl conformal factor does not satisfy any evolution equation, and the associated charge arises from a corner term in the symplectic structure. These properties justify assigning the Weyl charge a kinematical status. These results can also be derived using the field-dependent diffeomorphism that maps between the two gauges. Importantly, this diffeomorphism does not act tensorially on the variational bi-complex due to its field dependency, and is able to “toggle” charges on or off. This provides an example of a large diffeomorphism $\textit{between}$ gauges, as opposed to a residual diffeomorphism $\textit{within}$ a gauge.

France

Marc Geiller

Field-dependent diffeomorphisms and the transformation of surface charges between gauges

In this work, we demonstrate that quantizing gravity on a null hypersurface leads to the emergence of a CFT associated with each null ray. This result stems from the ultralocal nature of null physics and is derived through a canonical analysis of the Raychaudhuri equation, interpreted as a constraint generating null time reparametrizations. The CFT exhibits a non-zero central charge, providing a mechanism for the quantum emergence of time in gravitational systems and an associated choice of vacuum state. Our analysis reveals that the central charge quantifies the degrees of freedom along each null ray. Throughout our investigation, the area element of a cut plays a crucial role, necessitating its treatment as a quantum operator due to its dynamic nature in phase space or because of quantum backreaction. Furthermore, we show that the total central charge diverges in a perturbative analysis due to the infinite number of null generators. This divergence is resolved if there is a discrete spectrum for the area form operator. We introduce the concept of ‘embadons’ to denote these localized geometric units of area, the fundamental building blocks of geometry at a mesoscopic quantum gravity scale.

Laurent Freidel

Robert Leigh

Quantum null geometry and gravity

We show how to encode the radiative degrees of freedom in 4-dimensional asymptotically AdS spacetimes, using the boundary Cotton and stress tensors. Background radiation leads to a reduction of the asymptotic symmetry group, in contrast to asymptotically flat spacetimes, where a non-vanishing news tensor does not restrict the asymptotic symmetries. Null gauges, such as Λ-BMS, provide a framework for AdS spacetimes that include radiation in the flat limit. We use this to check that the flat limit of the radiative data matches the expected definition in intrinsically asymptotically flat spacetimes. We further dimensionally reduce our construction to the celestial sphere, and show how the 2-dimensional celestial currents can be extracted from the 3-dimensional boundary data.

Sabrina Pasterski

Elisa Tabor

Radiation in holography

Using effective field theory methods, we derive the Carrollian analog of the geodesic action. We find that it contains both “electric” and “magnetic” contributions that are in general coupled to each other. The equations of motion descending from this action are the Carrollian pendant of geodesics, allowing surprisingly rich dynamics. As an example, we derive Carrollian geodesics on a Carroll–Schwarzschild background and discover an effective potential similar to the one appearing in geodesics on Schwarzschild backgrounds. However, the Newton term in the potential turns out to depend on the Carroll particle’s energy. As a consequence, there is only one circular orbit localized at the Carroll extremal surface, and this orbit is unstable. For large impact parameters, the deflection angle is half the value of the general relativistic light-bending result. For impact parameters slightly bigger than the Schwarzschild radius, orbits wind around the Carroll extremal surface. For small impact parameters, geodesics get reflected by the Carroll black hole, which acts as a perfect mirror.

Austria

Daniel Grumiller

Carroll geodesics

Chiral shift symmetries of the massless free bosons in two dimensions are global symmetries that are somewhat similar to asymptotic symmetries. They are most transparent in double-null coordinates where they are parametrized by two functions of one variable. In BMS-type coordinates, half of them appear as an infinite tower of sub-leading super-shift symmetries.

Belgium

Glenn Barnich

Chile

Hernán González

Chiral shift symmetries as an infinite tower of subleading super-shift symmetries

We initiate a study of gravity focusing on generic null hypersurfaces, non-perturbatively in the Newton coupling. We present an off-shell account of the extended phase space of the theory, which includes the expected spin-2 data as well as spin-0, spin-1 and arbitrary matter degrees of freedom. We construct the charges and the corresponding kinematic Poisson brackets, employing a Beltrami parameterization of the spin-2 modes. We explicitly show that the constraint algebra closes, the details of which depend on the non-perturbative mixing between spin-0 and spin-2 modes. Finally we show that the spin zero sector encodes a notion of a clock, called dressing time, which is dynamical and conjugate to the constraint.

Null Raychaudhuri: canonical structure and the dressing time

The fluid-gravity correspondence is a duality between anti–de Sitter Einstein gravity and a relativistic fluid living at the conformal boundary. We show that one can accommodate the causal first-order viscous hydrodynamics recently developed by Bemfica, Disconzi, Noronha, and Kovtun in this framework, by requiring a set of natural conditions for the geometric data at the horizon. The latter hosts an induced Carrollian fluid, whose equations of motion are shown to be tightly tied to the ones describing the fluid at the boundary. Functional expressions for the transport coefficients are found—with those associated to viscosity and heat flux uniquely determined—satisfying a set of known causality requirements for the underlying equations of motion.