Ning Bao

A bstract: We use the framework of fixed-point BCFT tensor networks to present a microscopic CFT derivation of the correspondence between reflected entropy (RE) and entanglement wedge cross section (EW) in AdS ₃ /CFT ₂ , for both bipartite and multipartite settings. These fixed-point tensor networks, obtained by triangulating Euclidean CFT path integrals, allow us to explicitly construct the canonical purification via cutting-and-gluing CFT path integrals. Employing modular flow in the large- c limit, we demonstrate that these intrinsic CFT manipulations reproduce bulk geometric prescriptions, without assuming the AdS/CFT dictionary. The emergence of bulk geometry is traced to coarse-graining over heavy states in the large- c limit. Universal coarse-grained BCFT data for compact 2D CFTs, through the relation to Liouville theory with ZZ boundary conditions, yields hyperbolic geometry on the Cauchy slice. The corresponding averaged replica partition functions reproduce all candidate EWs, arising from different averaging patterns, with the dominant one providing the correct RE and EW. In this way, many heuristic tensor-network intuitions in toy models are made precise and established directly from intrinsic CFT data.

A bstract: The contraction map proof method is the commonly used method to prove holographic entropy inequalities. Existence of a contraction map corresponding to a holographic entropy inequality is a sufficient condition for its validity. But is it also necessary? In this note, we answer that question in affirmative for all linear holographic entropy inequalities with rational coefficients. We show that the pre-image of a non-contraction map is not a hypercube, but a proper cubical subgraph, and show that this manifests as alterations to the geodesic structure in the bulk, which leads to the violation of inequalities by holographic geometries obeying the RT formula.

A bstract: We study a class of quantum states involving multiple entangled CFTs in AdS ₃ /CFT ₂ , associated with multi-boundary black hole geometries, and demonstrate that the Ryu-Takayanagi (RT) formula for entanglement entropy can be derived using only boundary CFT data. Approximating the OPE coefficients by their Gaussian moments within the 2D large- c CFT ensemble, we show that both the norm of the states and the entanglement entropies associated with various bipartitions — reproducing the expected bulk dual results — can be computed purely from the CFT. All macroscopic geometric structures arising from gravitational saddles emerge entirely from the universal statistical moments of the microscopic algebraic CFT data, revealing a statistical-mechanical mechanism underlying semiclassical gravity. We establish a precise correspondence between the CFT norm, the Liouville partition function with ZZ boundary conditions, and the exact gravitational path integral over 3D multi-boundary black hole geometries. For entanglement entropy, each RT phase arises from a distinct leading-order Gaussian contraction, with phase transitions — analogous to replica wormholes — emerging naturally from varying dominant statistical patterns in the CFT ensemble. Our derivation elucidates how the general mechanism behind holographic entropy, namely a boundary replica direction that elongates and becomes contractible in the bulk dual, is encoded explicitly in the statistical structure of the CFT data.

In this paper, we demonstrate that wormholes must be entangled regardless of asymptotic boundary conditions. By assuming black hole complementarity, we argue that traversable wormholes instantiate entanglement-assisted quantum channels and that this entanglement must be present between the stretched horizons as an initial condition prior to traversability. This result demonstrates the forward direction of the ER/EPR conjectures.

We investigate the relationship between superselection rules and quantum error correcting codes. We demonstrate that the existence of a superselection rule implies the Knill-Laflamme condition in quantum error correction. As an example, we examine the code built from quantum chromodynamics, where the proton and neutron states in the model are explored as different superselection sectors that protect logical information. Finally we comment on topological quantum error correcting codes and supersymmetric quantum field theory within this framework.

We propose a deterministic method to find all holographic entropy inequalities that have corresponding contraction maps and argue the completeness of our method. We use a triality between holographic entropy inequalities, contraction maps and partial cubes. More specifically, the validity of a holographic entropy inequality is implied by the existence of a contraction map, which we prove to be equivalent to finding an isometric embedding of a contracted graph. Thus, by virtue of the argued completeness of the contraction map proof method, the problem of finding all holographic entropy inequalities is equivalent to the problem of finding all contraction maps, which we translate to a problem of finding all image graph partial cubes. We give an algorithmic solution to this problem and characterize the complexity of our method. We also demonstrate interesting by-products, most notably, a procedure to generate candidate quantum entropy inequalities.

We establish an equivalence between non-isometry of quantum codes and state dependence of operator reconstruction, and discuss implications of this equivalence for holographic duality. Specifically, we define quantitative measures of non-isometry and state dependence and describe bounds relating these quantities. In the context of holography we show that, assuming known gravitational path integral results for overlaps between semiclassical states, non-isometric bulk-to-boundary maps with a trivial kernel are approximately isometric and bulk reconstruction approximately state-independent. In contrast, non-isometric maps with a non-empty kernel always lead to state-dependent reconstruction. We also show that if a global bulk-to-boundary map is non-isometric, then there exists a region in the bulk which is causally disconnected from the boundary. Finally, we conjecture that, under certain physical assumptions for the definition of the Hilbert space of effective field theory in AdS space, the presence of a global horizon implies a non-isometric global bulk-to-boundary map.

A bstract: We study various notions of ‘subregion duality’ in the context of AdS/CFT. We highlight the differences between the ‘background wedge’ and the ‘operator reconstruction wedges,’ providing a resolution to the paradox raised in [1]. Additionally, we elucidate the distinctions between four different ‘operator reconstruction wedges’ and demonstrate how to enhance the proof for the absence of global symmetries in geometrical states in AdS/CFT [2, 3] as an example of these distinctions.