We explore an identity between two branching graphs and propose a physical meaning in the context of the gauge-gravity correspondence. From the mathematical point of view, the identity equates probabilities associated with GT, the branching graph of the unitary groups, with probabilities associated with Y, the branching graph of the symmetric groups. In order to furnish the identity with physical meaning, we exactly reproduce these probabilities as the square of three point functions involving certain hook-shaped backgrounds. We study these backgrounds in the context of LLM geometries and discover that they are domain walls interpolating two AdS spaces with different radii. We also find that, in certain cases, the probabilities match the eigenvalues of some observables, the embedding chain charges. We finally discuss a holographic interpretation of the mathematical identity through our results.

In our model of quantum gravity the quantum development of a Cauchy hypersurface is governed by a wave equation derived as the result of a canonical quantization process. To find physically interesting solutions of the wave equation we employ the separation of variables by considering a temporal eigenvalue problem which has a complete countable set of eigenfunctions with positive eigenvalues and also a spatial eigenvalue problem which has a complete set of eigendistributions. Assuming that the Cauchy hypersurface is asymtotically Euclidean we prove that the temporal eigenvalues are also spatial eigenvalues and the product of corresponding eigenfunctions and eigendistributions, which will be smooth functions with polynomial growth, are the physically interesting solutions of the wave equation. We consider these solutions to describe the quantum development of the Cauchy hypersurface.

This article considers the quasi-local energy in reference to a general static spacetime. We follow the approach developed by the authors in [19, 20, 7, 9] and define the quasi-local energy as a difference of surface Hamiltonians, which are derived from the Einstein-Hilbert action. The new quasi-local energy provides an effective gauge independent measurement of how far a spacetime deviates away from the reference static spacetime on a finitely extended region.

In this article, we study the small sphere limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy defined in [18,19]. Given a point p in a spacetime N , we consider a canonical family of surfaces approaching p along its future null cone and evaluate the limit of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy. The evaluation relies on solving an "optimal embedding equation" whose solutions represent critical points of the quasi-local energy. For a spacetime with matter fields, the scenario is similar to that of the large sphere limit found in [7]. Namely, there is a natural solution which is a local minimum, and the limit of its quasi-local energy recovers the stress-energy tensor at p . For a vacuum spacetime, the quasi-local energy vanishes to higher order and the solution of the optimal embedding equation is more complicated. Nevertheless, we are able to show that there exists a solution which is a local minimum and that the limit of its quasi-local energy is related to the Bel-Robinson tensor. Together with earlier work [7], this completes the consistency verification of the Wang-Yau quasi-local energy with all classical limits.

In a recent paper (arXiv: ) it was shown that all global energy eigenstates of asymptotically $AdS_3$ chiral gravity have non-negative energy at the linearized level. This result was questioned (arXiv: ) by Carlip, Deser, Waldron and Wise (CDWW), who work on the Poincare patch. They exhibit a linearized solution of chiral gravity and claim that it has negative energy and is smooth at the boundary. We show that the solution of CDWW is smooth only on that part of the boundary of $AdS_3$ included in the Poincare patch. Extended to global $AdS_3$, it is divergent at the boundary point not included in the Poincare patch. Hence it is consistent with the results of (arXiv: 0801.4566).