Algebraic approach to spacetime bulk reconstruction

Abstract

Motivated by the theory of holographic quantum error correction in the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, together with the kink transform conjecture on the bulk AdS description of boundary cocycle flow, we characterize (approximate) complementary recovery in terms of (approximate) intertwining of bulk and boundary cocycle derivatives. Using the geometric modular structure in vacuum AdS, we establish an operator algebraic subregion-subregion duality of boundary causal diamonds and bulk causal wedges for Klein-Gordon fields in the universal cover of AdS. Our results suggest that, from an algebraic perspective, the kink transform is bulk cocycle flow, which (in the above case) induces the bulk geometry via geometric modular action and the corresponding notion of time. As a by-product, we find that if the von Neumann algebra of a boundary CFT subregion is a type $\mathrm{III}_1$ factor with an ergodic vacuum, then the von Neumann algebra of the corresponding dual bulk subregion, is either $\mathbb{C}1$ (with a one-dimensional Hilbert space) or a type $\mathrm{III}_1$ factor.