Observing quantum gravity in asymptotically AdS space

Abstract

A question is studied whether an observer can discover quantum gravity being in the semi-classical regime. It is shown that it is indeed possible to probe a certain quantum gravity effect by employing an appropriately designed detector. The effect is related to the possibility of having topologically inequivalent geometries at once in the path integral approach. A CFT state which is expected to describe the eternal AdS black hole in the large N limit is discussed. It is argued under certain assumptions that the black hole boundary should be merely a patch of the entire AdS boundary. This leads then to a conclusion that that CFT state is the ordinary CFT vacuum restricted to that patch. If existent, the bulk CFT operators can behave as the ordinary semi- classical quantum field theory in the large N limit in the weak sense.