Gravity from micro-equilibration

Abstract

We suggest a mechanism for the emergence of classical dynamical spacetime from an underlying quantum gravitational system. This is an example of a more general process, which we name micro-equilibration, and which can be thought of as local thermalization of entanglement. Applied in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, we propose that this dynamical process underlies generic evolution towards CFT states whose gravitational dual describes smooth bulk geometries. Hence contrary to common expectation, such 'geometric' CFT states are in fact typical in this sense. Correspondingly they can be characterized by a specific universal entanglement structure resulting from micro-equilibration of a generic quantum state.