Quantum extremal islands reproduce the unitary Page curve of an evaporating black hole. This has been derived by including replica wormholes in the gravitational path integral, but for the transient, evaporating black holes most relevant to Hawking's paradox, these wormholes have not been analyzed in any detail. In this paper we study replica wormholes for black holes formed by gravitational collapse in Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity, and confirm that they lead to the island rule for the entropy. The main technical challenge is that replica wormholes rely on a Euclidean path integral, while the quantum extremal islands of an evaporating black hole exist only in Lorentzian signature. Furthermore, the Euclidean equations are non-local, so it is unclear how to bridge the gap between the Euclidean path integral and the local, Lorentzian dynamics of an evaporating black hole. We address these issues with Schwinger-Keldysh techniques and show how the non-local equations reduce to the local `boundary particle' description in special cases.
Replica geometries are not rigid when gravity is dynamical. We numerically construct $1<n\leq 2$ replica saddles in $2d$ gravity coupled to a CFT and compare the resulting Renyi entropies with the field theory result.
The information paradox can be realized in anti-de Sitter spacetime joined to a Minkowski region. In this setting, we show that the large discrepancy between the von Neumann entropy as calculated by Hawking and the requirements of unitarity is fixed by including new saddles in the gravitational path integral. These saddles arise in the replica method as complexified wormholes connecting different copies of the black hole. As the replica number $n \to 1$, the presence of these wormholes leads to the island rule for the computation of the fine-grained gravitational entropy. We discuss these repl…
The replica wormholes are a key to the existence of the islands that play a central role in a recent proposal for the resolution of the black hole information paradox. In this paper, we study the replica wormholes in the JT gravity, a model of two-dimensional quantum gravity coupled to a non-dynamical dilaton, by making use of the 2$d$ conformal field theory (CFT) description, namely, the Liouville theory coupled to the $(2,p)$ minimal matter in the $p\to\infty$ limit. In the Liouville CFT description, the replica wormholes are created by the twist operators and the gravitational part of the b…
We argue that the `island conjecture' and the replica wormhole derivation of the Page curve break monogamy of entanglement through allowing black hole interior states to be non-classically correlated while also pairwise entangled with radiation states. The reason is that quantum degrees of freedom (present in any half of a Hawking pair) cannot all be identified with the environment at semi-classical pair production, and can only be fixed relative to a subsystem, as required for the Page curve, by correlations equivalent to entanglement - regardless of what those correlations are attributed to.…
We define bit models of evaporating black holes which incorporate the effects of replica wormholes. These enter as non-perturbative corrections to the gravitational inner product, arising from spacetime wormholes that connect replica black holes. The resulting models have exactly unitary evolution, predict measurements on Hawking radiation in accord with a Page curve for entropy, and are compatible with a smooth horizon for infalling observers.
Recently, remarkable progress in recovering the Page curve of an evaporating black hole (BH) in Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity has been achieved through use of Quantum Extremal surfaces (QES). Multi-boundary Wormhole (MbW) models have been crucial in parallel model building in three dimensions. Motivated by this we here use the latter models to compute the subregion complexity of the Hawking quanta of the evaporating BH in AdS$_{3}$ and obtain the Page curve associated with this information theoretic measure. We use three- and $n$-boundary wormhole constructions to elucidate our computations of vol…
We study the replica symmetry breaking (RSB) in the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE) random matrix model. We find that the RSB occurs at the transition temperature $T_{\text{RSB}}\sim N^{-2/3}$ in the large $N$ limit. We argue that this transition originates from a landscape of almost degenerate local minima of free energy labeled by Young diagrams. We also discuss a possible implication of our findings for the multiply-coupled Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev models and their holographic dual Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity from the viewpoint of ER=EPR conjecture.
It is widely believed that exact global symmetries do not exist in theories that admit quantum black holes. Here we propose a way to quantify the degree of global symmetry violation in the Hawking radiation of a black hole by using certain relative entropies. While the violations of global symmetry that we consider are non-perturbative effects, they nevertheless give $\mathcal{O}(1)$ contributions to the relative entropy after the Page time. Furthermore, using "island" formulas, these relative entropies can be computed within semi-classical gravity, which we demonstrate with explicit examples.…
Recent work has shown how to understand the Page curve of an evaporating black hole from replica wormholes. However, more detailed information about the structure of its quantum state is needed to fully understand the dynamics of black hole evaporation. Here we study entanglement negativity, an important measure of quantum entanglement in mixed states, in a couple of toy models of evaporating black holes. We find four phases dominated by different types of geometries: the disconnected, cyclically connected, anti-cyclically connected, and pairwise connected geometries. The last of these geometr…
In a 1+1 dimensional QFT on a circle, we consider the von Neumann entanglement entropy of an interval for typical pure states. As a function of the interval size, we expect a Page curve in the entropy. We employ a specific ensemble average of pure states, and show how to write the ensemble-averaged Renyi entropy as a path integral on a singular replicated geometry. Assuming that the QFT is a conformal field theory with a gravitational dual, we then use the holographic dictionary to obtain the Page curve. For short intervals the thermal saddle is dominant. For large intervals (larger than half …
We study the behavior of Rényi entropies for pure states from standard assumptions about chaos in the high-energy spectrum of the Hamiltonian of a many-body quantum system. We compute the exact long-time averages of Rényi entropies and show that the quantum noise around these values is exponentially suppressed in the microcanonical entropy. For delocalized states over the microcanonical band, the long-time average approximately reproduces the equilibration proposal of H. Liu and S. Vardhan, with extra structure arising at the order of non-planar permutations. We analyze the equilibrium approxi…
In a close look at the replica wormhole derivation of the island conjecture, we note a discrepancy in the derived matrix eigenvalues in the limit where the Hawking radiation entropy goes to zero. The small corrections to the density matrix for the radiation infer that ${\rm tr}(ρ_\textsf{R}^2)$, equally a sum over the eigenvalues squared, must be small ($\ll1$) at all times. This is in contradiction with an ensemble dominated by a density matrix with an eigenvalue close to unity. Also, the radiation entropy has been approximated by the ensemble averaged entropy, as in a final state analysis. F…
Motivated by recent studies of the information paradox in (1+1)-D anti-de Sitter spacetime with a bath described by a (1+1)-D conformal field theory, we study the dynamics of second Rényi entropy of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model ($χ$) coupled to a Majorana chain bath ($ψ$). The system is prepared in the thermofield double (TFD) state and then evolved by $H_L+H_R$. For small system-bath coupling, we find that the second Rényi entropy $S^{(2)}_{χ_L, χ_R}$ of the SYK model undergoes a first order transition during the evolution. In the sense of holographic duality, the long-time solution corr…
Euclidean wormholes -- geometries which connect disconnected boundaries -- present a challenge to a standard quantum mechanical interpretation of the theory. One potential resolution is that the gravitational path integral computes the ensemble average of many theories. The connected topologies contribute to the simplest possible observable: the free energy, which is computed using a replica trick. This is distinct from the replica trick used to compute entanglement entropies, and appears in the computation of any extensive quantity. We argue that both JT gravity and a simplified version of CG…
We investigate contributions of spacetime wormholes, describing baby universe emission and absorption, to calculations of entropies and correlation functions, for example those based on the replica method. We find that the rules of the "wormhole calculus," developed in the 1980s, together with standard quantum mechanical prescriptions for computing entropies and correlators, imply definite rules for $\textit{limited}$ patterns of connection between replica factors in simple calculations. These results stand in contrast with assumptions that all topologies connecting replicas should be summed o…
Recent work has shown how to obtain the Page curve of an evaporating black hole from holographic computations of entanglement entropy. We show how these computations can be justified using the replica trick, from geometries with a spacetime wormhole connecting the different replicas. In a simple model, we study the Page transition in detail by summing replica geometries with different topologies. We compute related quantities in less detail in more complicated models, including JT gravity coupled to conformal matter and the SYK model. Separately, we give a direct gravitational argument for ent…
We show that the canonical purification of an evaporating black hole after the Page time consists of a short, connected, Lorentzian wormhole between two asymptotic boundaries, one of which is unitarily related to the radiation. This provides a quantitative and general realization of the predictions of ER=EPR in an evaporating black hole after the Page time; this further gives a standard AdS/CFT calculation of the entropy of the radiation (without modifications of the homology constraint). Before the Page time, the canonical purification consists of two disconnected, semiclassical black holes. …
We show that the presence of replica wormholes in the Euclidean path integral of gravity leads to a non-perturbative violation of charge conservation for any global symmetry present in the low-energy description of quantum gravity. Explicitly, we compute the scattering probability between different charged states in several two-dimensional models of quantum gravity and find a non-vanishing answer. This suggests that the set of all charged states is typically over-complete, which has drastic consequences for the fate of black hole remnants that could carry a global symmetry charge. In the holog…
Recent work has established a route towards the semiclassical validity of the Page curve, and so provided evidence that information escapes an evaporating black hole. However, a protocol to explicitly recover and make practical use of that information in the classical limit has not yet been given. In this paper, we describe such a protocol, showing that an observer may reconstruct the phase space of the black hole interior by measuring the Uhlmann phase of the Hawking radiation. The process of black hole formation and evaporation provides an invertible map between this phase space and the spac…
We consider the capacity of entanglement as a probe of the Hawking radiation in a two-dimensional dilaton gravity coupled with conformal matter of large degrees of freedom. A formula calculating the capacity is derived using the gravitational path integral, from which we speculate that the capacity has a discontinuity at the Page time in contrast to the continuous behavior of the generalized entropy. We apply the formula to a replica wormhole solution in an eternal AdS black hole coupled to a flat non-gravitating bath and show that the capacity of entanglement is saturated by the thermal capac…
We present the gravity description of evaporating black holes that end up with eternal traversable wormholes where every would-be behind horizon degree is available in asymptotic regions. The transition is explicitly realized by a time-dependent bulk solution in the two-dimensional Einstein-dilaton gravity. In this solution, the initial AdS$_2$ black hole is evolved into an eternal traversable wormhole free of any singularity, which may be dubbed as transparentization of black holes to eternal traversable wormholes. The bulk construction completely matches with the boundary description governe…
We study reflected entropy as a correlation measure in black hole evaporation. As a measure for bipartite mixed states, reflected entropy can be computed between black hole and radiation, radiation and radiation. We compute reflected entropy curves in three different models: 3-side wormhole model, End-of-the-World (EOW) brane model in three dimensions and two-dimensional eternal black hole plus CFT model. For 3-side wormhole model, we find that reflected entropy is dual to island cross sections. The reflected entropy between radiation and black hole increases at early time and then decreases t…
We discuss a two-step mechanism to create a new inflationary domain beyond a wormhole throat which is created by a phase transition around an evaporating black hole. The first step is creation of a false vacuum bubble with a thin-wall boundary by the thermal effects of Hawking radiation. Then this wall induces a quantum tunneling to create a wormhole-like configuration. As the space beyond the wormhole throat can expand exponentially, being filled with false vacuum energy, this may be interpreted as creation of another inflationary universe in the final stage of the black hole evaporation.
The JLMS formula relates the bulk and boundary relative entropies and is fundamental to the holographic dictionary, providing justification for entanglement wedge reconstruction. We revisit the replica trick for relative entropy and find corrections of the JLMS formula in a variety of scenarios, even after accounting for effects of quantum extremality. We analyze the problem in the PSSY model, a model of Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity coupled to end-of-the-world branes. We find non-perturbative (in $G$) corrections that are always present, arising from subdominant replica wormhole gravitational sad…
We investigate the internal structure of charged black holes with a spherically symmetric model in the double-null coordinate system. Hawking radiation is considered using the S-wave approximation of semiclassical back-reaction and discharge is simulated by supplying an oppositely charged matter to the black hole. In the stage of formation, the internal structure is determined by the mass and charge of collapsing matter. When the charge-mass ratio is small, a wormhole-like internal structure is observed. The structure becomes analogous to the static limit as the ratio reaches unity. After the …
We examine an interesting set of recent proposals describing a `wormhole paradigm' for black holes. These proposals require that in some effective variables, semiclassical low-energy dynamics emerges at the horizon. We prove the `effective small corrections theorem' to show that such an effective horizon behavior is not compatible with the requirement that the black hole radiate like a piece of coal as seen from outside. This theorem thus concretizes the fact that the proposals within the wormhole paradigm require some nonlocality linking the hole and its distant radiation. We try to illustrat…
This work is the first step in a two-part investigation of real-time replica wormholes. Here we study the associated real-time gravitational path integral and construct the variational principle that will define its saddle-points. We also describe the general structure of the resulting real-time replica wormhole saddles, setting the stage for construction of explicit examples. These saddles necessarily involve complex metrics, and thus are accessed by deforming the original real contour of integration. However, the construction of these saddles need not rely on analytic continuation, and our f…
We use the replica method to compute the entanglement entropy of a universe without gravity entangled in a thermofield-double-like state with a disjoint gravitating universe. Including wormholes between replicas of the latter gives an entropy functional which includes an "island" on the gravitating universe. We solve the back-reaction equations when the cosmological constant is negative to show that this island coincides with a causal shadow region that is created by the entanglement in the gravitating geometry. At high entanglement temperatures, the island contribution to the entropy function…
We reformulate recent insights into black hole information in a manner emphasizing operationally-defined notions of entropy, Lorentz-signature descriptions, and asymptotically flat spacetimes. With the help of replica wormholes, we find that experiments of asymptotic observers are consistent with black holes as unitary quantum systems, with density of states given by the Bekenstein-Hawking formula. However, this comes at the cost of superselection sectors associated with the state of baby universes. Spacetimes studied by Polchinski and Strominger in 1994 provide a simple illustration of the as…
We continue the study of real-time replica wormholes initiated in arXiv:2012.00828. Previously, we had discussed the general principles and had outlined a variational principle for obtaining stationary points of the real-time gravitational path integral. In the current work we present several explicit examples in low-dimensional gravitational theories where the dynamics is amenable to analytic computation. We demonstrate the computation of Rényi entropies in the cases of JT gravity and for holographic two-dimensional CFTs (using the dual gravitational dynamics). In particular, we explain how t…
In the 1980's, work by Coleman and by Giddings and Strominger linked the physics of spacetime wormholes to `baby universes' and an ensemble of theories. We revisit such ideas, using features associated with a negative cosmological constant and asymptotically AdS boundaries to strengthen the results, introduce a change in perspective, and connect with recent replica wormhole discussions of the Page curve. A key new feature is an emphasis on the role of null states. We explore this structure in detail in simple topological models of the bulk that allow us to compute the full spectrum of associat…
We set up a new version of black hole information paradox in an eternal Narayan black hole, a generic two-dimensional dilaton gravity theory with non-trivial on-shell bulk action and a product of dimensional reduction from higher-dimensional AdS black brane, joined to Minkowski bath on both sides. We also report both similarities as well as important differences between our model and the famous model of JT gravity coupled with baths. The contradiction of Hawking's result of entanglement entropy with unitarity is resolved by including a new saddle in the Euclidean gravitational path integral. A…
We develop a universal approximation for the Renyi entropies of a pure state at late times in a non-integrable many-body system, which macroscopically resembles an equilibrium density matrix. The resulting expressions are fully determined by properties of the associated equilibrium density matrix, and are hence independent of the details of the initial state, while also being manifestly consistent with unitary time-evolution. For equilibrated pure states in gravity systems, such as those involving black holes, this approximation gives a prescription for calculating entanglement entropies using…
Naively, a resolution of the black hole information paradox appears to involve microscopic details of a theory of quantum gravity. However, recent work has argued that a unitary Page curve can be recovered by including novel replica instantons in the gravitational path integral. Moreover, replica instantons seem to rely on disorder averaging the microscopic theory, without a definite connection to a single, underlying unitary quantum system. In this letter, we show that disorder averaging and replica instantons emerge naturally from a gravitational effective theory built out of typical microsc…
We study a thermofield double type entangled state on two disjoint universes $A$ and $B$, where one of the universes is asymptotically flat containing a black hole. As we increase the entanglement temperature, this black hole receives back-reaction from the stress energy tensor of the state. This results in lengthening of the wormhole region in the black hole interior, and decreasing of its horizon area, both of which are key features of an evaporating black hole. We then compute the entanglement entropy on the universe $A$ through the island formula, and argue that it naturally follows the Pa…
