Theory HEP Seminar

Double scaled SYK from 3D de Sitter gravity

Herman Verlinde

Princeton

In this talk, I study the partition function of 3D de Sitter gravity defined as the trace over the Hilbert space obtained by quantizing the moduli space of non-rotating Schwarzschild-de Sitter spacetimes. Motivated by the correspondence with DSSYK, the Hamiltonian is identified with the gravitational Wilson-line that measures the conical deficit angle. After expressing the Hamiltonian in terms of canonical variables, we find that its spectrum exactly matches that of double scaled SYK. I describe how to compute the scalar two-point function and comment on the connection with 2D Virasoro gravity.