de Sitter Microstates from $T\bar T+\Lambda_2$ and the Hawking-Page Transition

Abstract

We obtain microstates accounting for the Gibbons-Hawking entropy in $dS_3$, along with a subleading logarithmic correction, from the solvable $T\bar T+\Lambda_2$ deformation of a seed CFT with sparse light spectrum. The microstates arise as the dressed CFT states near dimension $\Delta=c/6$, associated with the Hawking-Page transition; they dominate the real spectrum of the deformed theory. We exhibit an analogue of the Hawking-Page transition in de Sitter. Appropriate generalizations of the $T\bar T+\Lambda_2$ deformation are required to treat model-dependent local bulk physics (subleading at large central charge) and higher dimensions. These results add considerably to the already strong motivation for the continued pursuit of such generalizations along with a more complete characterization of $T\bar T$ type theories, building from existing results in these directions.