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In this Letter we prove a simple theorem in quantum information theory, which implies that bulk operators in the Anti-de Sitter / Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence can be reconstructed as CFT operators in a spatial subregion $A$, provided that they lie in its entanglement wedge. This is an improvement on existing reconstruction methods, which have at most succeeded in the smaller causal wedge. The proof is a combination of the recent work of Jafferis, Lewkowycz, Maldacena, and Suh on the quantum relative entropy of a CFT subregion with earlier ideas interpreting the correspondence as a quantum error correcting code., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure; v2: corrected the proof of the reconstruction theorem, added new references, acknowledgements, and minor clarifications; v3: added an appendix and minor clarifications, title changed to match PRL version

We propose a family of exactly solvable toy models for the AdS/CFT correspondence based on a novel construction of quantum error-correcting codes with a tensor network structure. Our building block is a special type of tensor with maximal entanglement along any bipartition, which gives rise to an isometry from the bulk Hilbert space to the boundary Hilbert space. The entire tensor network is an encoder for a quantum error-correcting code, where the bulk and boundary degrees of freedom may be identified as logical and physical degrees of freedom respectively. These models capture key features of entanglement in the AdS/CFT correspondence; in particular, the Ryu-Takayanagi formula and the negativity of tripartite information are obeyed exactly in many cases. That bulk logical operators can be represented on multiple boundary regions mimics the Rindler-wedge reconstruction of boundary operators from bulk operators, realizing explicitly the quantum error-correcting features of AdS/CFT recently proposed by Almheiri et. al in arXiv:1411.7041., Comment: 40 Pages + 25 Pages of Appendices. 38 figures. Typos and bibliographic amendments and minor corrections

In this note I elaborate on some features of a recent proposal of Papadodimas and Raju for a CFT description of the interior of a one-sided AdS black hole in a pure state. I clarify the treatment of 1/N corrections, and explain how the proposal is able to avoid some of the pitfalls that have disrupted other recent ideas. I argue however that the proposal has the uncomfortable property that states in the CFT Hilbert space do not have definite physical interpretations, unlike in ordinary quantum mechanics. I also contrast the "state-dependence" of the proposal with more familiar phenomena, arguing that, unlike in quantum mechanics, the measurement process (including the apparatus) in something like the PR proposal or its earlier manifestations cannot be described by unitary evolution. These issues render the proposal somewhat ambiguous, and it seems new ideas would be needed to make some version of it work. I close with some brief speculation on to what extent quantum mechanics should hold for the experience of an infalling observer., 44 Pages. v2: Fixed an inconsistency in the treatment of bulk gauge fixing, and added an appendix explaining this in some detail. Main conclusions unaltered

In these lectures I give an introduction to the quantum physics of black holes, including recent developments based on quantum information theory such as the firewall paradox and its various cousins. I also give an introduction to holography and the AdS/CFT correspondence, focusing on those aspects which are relevant for the black hole information problem., Comment: v1: a lot of pages and figures. v2: still a lot of pages and figures, now with typos corrected. v3: version accepted to reviews of modern physics. more typo corrections, and a rewrite of section 4.6 for clarity. v4: Dedication to Jacob Bekenstein added, as well as a few references v5: more detailed explanation of Hawking's evaporation rate, minor corrections

Last year we argued that if slow-roll inflation followed the decay of a false vacuum in a large landscape, the steepening of the scalar potential between the inflationary plateau and the barrier generically leads to a potentially observable suppression of the scalar power spectrum at large distances. Here we revisit this analysis in light of the recent BICEP2 results. Assuming that both the BICEP2 B-mode signal and the Planck analysis of temperature fluctuations hold up, we find that the data now discriminate more sharply between our scenario and $\Lambda$CDM. Nonzero tensor modes exclude standard $\Lambda$CDM with notable but not yet conclusive confidence: at $\sim 3.8\,\sigma$ if $r\approx0.2$, or at $\sim 3.5\,\sigma$ if $r=0.15$. Of the two steepening models of our previous work, one is now ruled out by existing bounds on spatial curvature. The other entirely reconciles the tension between BICEP2 and Planck. Upcoming $EE$ polarization measurements have the potential to rule out unmodified $\Lambda$CDM decisively. Next generation Large Scale Structure surveys can further increase the significance. More precise measurements of $BB$ at low $\ell$ will help distinguish our scenario from other explanations. If steepening is confirmed, the prospects for detecting open curvature increase but need not be large., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. v2: journal version, minor corrections

We study the partition function of the free Sp(N) conformal field theory recently conjectured to be dual to asymptotically de Sitter higher-spin gravity in four-dimensions. We compute the partition function of this CFT on a round sphere as a function of a finite mass deformation, on a squashed sphere as a function of the squashing parameter, and on an S2xS1 geometry as a function of the relative size of S2 and S1. We find that the partition function is divergent at large negative mass in the first case, and for small $S^1$ in the third case. It is globally peaked at zero squashing in the second case. Through the duality this partition function contains information about the wave function of the universe. We show that the divergence at small S1 occurs also in Einstein gravity if certain complex solutions are included, but the divergence in the mass parameter is new. We suggest an interpretation for this divergence as indicating an instability of de Sitter space in higher spin gravity, consistent with general arguments that de Sitter space cannot be stable in quantum gravity., 30 pages plus appendices, 6 figures

We assess two potential signals of the formation of our universe by the decay of a false vacuum. Negative spatial curvature is one possibility, but the window for its detection is now small. However, another possible signal is a suppression of the CMB power spectrum at large angles. This arises from the steepening of the effective potential as it interpolates between a flat inflationary plateau and the high barrier separating us from our parent vacuum. We demonstrate that these two effects can be parametrically separated in angular scale. Observationally, the steepening effect appears to be excluded at large l; but it remains consistent with the slight lack of power below l about 30 found by the WMAP and Planck collaborations. We give two simple models which improve the fit to the Planck data; one with observable curvature and one without. Despite cosmic variance, we argue that future CMB polarization and most importantly large-scale structure observations should be able to corroborate the Planck anomaly if it is real. If we further assume the specific theoretical setting of a landscape of metastable vacua, as suggested by string theory, we can estimate the probability of seeing a low-l suppression in the CMB. There are significant theoretical uncertainties in such calculations, but we argue the probability for a detectable suppression may be as large as O(1), and in general is significantly larger than the probability of seeing curvature., 34 pages plus appendices, 16 figures. v2: Corrections and clarifications to section 3.2, conclusions unchanged. References added

In this paper we discuss quantum computational restrictions on the types of thought experiments recently used by Almheiri, Marolf, Polchinski, and Sully to argue against the smoothness of black hole horizons. We argue that the quantum computations required to do these experiments take a time which is exponential in the entropy of the black hole under study, and we show that for a wide variety of black holes this prevents the experiments from being done. We interpret our results as motivating a broader type of non-locality than is usually considered in the context of black hole thought experiments, and claim that once this type of non-locality is allowed there may be no need for firewalls. Our results do not threaten the unitarity of of black hole evaporation or the ability of advanced civilizations to test it., Comment: Significant revision of sections 4.1-4.3; the general discussion of error correction is corrected (heh), and its relation to the AMPS experiment is made more explicit. Also a new section 3.4 is added, which gives a rigorous proof of the hardness of decoding for generic initial states. Comments are added to the introduction about an external entity "pausing" the black hole

In this paper we introduce a simple discrete stochastic model of eternal inflation that shares many of the most important features of the continuum theory as it is now understood. The model allows us to construct a multiverse and rigorously analyze its properties. Although simple and easy to solve, it has a rich mathematical structure underlying it. Despite the discreteness of the space-time the theory exhibits an unexpected nonperturbative analog of conformal symmetry that acts on the boundary of the geometry. The symmetry is rooted in the mathematical properties of trees, $p$-adic numbers, and ultrametric spaces; and in the physical property of detailed balance. We provide self-contained elementary explanations of the unfamiliar mathematical concepts, which have also appeared in the study of the $p$-adic string. The symmetry acts on a huge collection of very low-dimensional ``multiverse fields'' that are not associated with the usual perturbative degrees of freedom. They are connected with the late-time statistical distribution of bubble-universes in the multiverse. The conformal symmetry which acts on the multiverse fields is broken by the existence of terminal decays---to hats or crunches---but in a particularly simple way. We interpret this symmetry breaking as giving rise to an arrow of time. The model is used to calculate statistical correlations at late time and to discuss the measure problem. We show that the natural cutoff in the model is the analog of the so-called light-cone-time cutoff. Applying the model to the problem of the cosmological constant, we find agreement with earlier work.

Correlation functions in Liouville theory are meromorphic functions of the Liouville momenta, as is shown explicitly by the DOZZ formula for the three-point function on the sphere. In a certain physical region, where a real classical solution exists, the semiclassical limit of the DOZZ formula is known to agree with what one would expect from the action of the classical solution. In this paper, we ask what happens outside of this physical region. Perhaps surprisingly we find that, while in some range of the Liouville momenta the semiclassical limit is associated to complex saddle points, in general Liouville's equations do not have enough complex-valued solutions to account for the semiclassical behavior. For a full picture, we either must include "solutions" of Liouville's equations in which the Liouville field is multivalued (as well as being complex-valued), or else we can reformulate Liouville theory as a Chern-Simons theory in three dimensions, in which the requisite solutions exist in a more conventional sense. We also study the case of "timelike" Liouville theory, where we show that a proposal of Al. B. Zamolodchikov for the exact three-point function on the sphere can be computed by the original Liouville path integral evaluated on a new integration cycle., 86 pages plus appendices, 9 figures, minor typos fixed, references added, more discussion of the literature added

We present the necessary and sufficient conditions for a Euclidean scale factor to be a solution of the Coleman-De Luccia equations for some analytic potential $V(\phi)$, with a Lorentzian continuation describing the growth of a bubble of lower-energy vacuum surrounded by higher-energy vacuum. We then give a set of explicit examples that satisfy the conditions and thus are closed-form analytic examples of Coleman-De Luccia geometries., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures; (v3) removed a footnote, other minor corrections, version published in JCAP