Exact Path Integral for 3D Quantum Gravity

Overview

In this talk, the speaker will present the calculation on the exact partition function of the 3D Euclidean pure quantum gravity by using its equivalence to the 3D Chern-Simons theory and the localization technique. The resultant partition function is a J-function, which agrees with the prediction by Witten in the case in which the central charge is 24.

The speaker obtained a good expression for the partition function in the summation form over Virasoro characters for the vacuum and primaries. He also checked that the coefficients in the summation form are positive integers which satisfied the Cardy formula. The results give a physical interpretation that these coefficients represent the number of primary fields in the dual CFT, which correspond to the microscopic states of 3D black holes.

About the program

For more information, please refer to the program website at http://iasprogram.ust.hk/particle_theory.