Complexity Equals (Almost) Anything

Abstract

Recent investigations [arXiv:2111.02429][arXiv:2210.09647][arXiv:2304.05453] have introduced an infinite class of novel gravitational observables in Asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) space that reside on codimension-one or -zero regions of the bulk spacetime. These observables encompass well-established holographic complexity measures such as the maximum volume of the extremal hypersurfaces and the action or spacetime volume of the Wheeler-DeWitt (WDW) patch. Furthermore, this family of observables exhibits two universal properties when applied to the thermofield double (TFD) state: they exhibit linear growth at late times and faithfully reproduce the switchback effect. This implies that any observable from this class has the potential to serve as a gravitational dual for the circuit complexity of boundary states.