Wormholes in Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

We introduce a geometric path integral definition of wormhole partition functions in a general class of 1D quantum systems obtained by quantizing a phase space. We compute the wormhole partition function in a semi-classical limit and in some simple examples. The partition function of the n-fold wormhole is found to be identical to the n-th Renyi entropy of a thermal mixed state of the doubled system. This mixed state incorporates three types of quantum statistical behavior: classically correlated, quantum entangled, and classically uncorrelated. We apply our prescription to 2D CFTs with Virasoro symmetry and recover the holographic dual formulation in terms of AdS3 gravity.