Timelike-bounded $dS_4$ holography from a solvable sector of the $T^2$ deformation

Abstract

Recent research has leveraged the tractability of $T\bar T$ style deformations to formulate timelike-bounded patches of three-dimensional bulk spacetimes including $dS_3$. This proceeds by breaking the problem into two parts: a solvable theory that captures the most entropic energy bands, and a tuning algorithm to treat additional effects and fine structure. We point out that the method extends readily to higher dimensions, and does not require factorization of the full $T^2$ operator (the higher dimensional analogue of $T\bar T$ defined in [1]). Focusing on $dS_4$, we first define a solvable theory at finite $N$ via a restricted $T^2$ deformation of the $CFT_3$ on ${S}^2\times \mathbb{R}$, in which $T$ is replaced by the form it would take in symmetric homogeneous states, containing only diagonal energy density $E/V$ and pressure (-$dE/dV$) components. This defines a finite-N solvable sector of $dS_4/\text{deformed-CFT}_3$, capturing the radial geometry and count of the entropically dominant energy band, reproducing the Gibbons-Hawking entropy as a state count. To accurately capture local bulk excitations of $dS_4$ including gravitons, we build a deformation algorithm in direct analogy to the case of $dS_3$ with bulk matter recently proposed in [2]. This starts with an infinitesimal stint of the solvable deformation as a regulator. The full microscopic theory is built by adding renormalized versions of $T^2$ and other operators at each step, defined by matching to bulk local calculations when they apply, including an uplift from $AdS_4/CFT_3$ to $dS_4$ (as is available in hyperbolic compactifications of M theory). The details of the bulk-local algorithm depend on the choice of boundary conditions; we summarize the status of these in GR and beyond, illustrating our method for the case of the cylindrical Dirichlet condition which can be UV completed by our finite quantum theory.