Building up spacetime with quantum entanglement

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum entanglement between degrees of freedom underpins the emergence and connectivity of classical spacetime in quantum gravity, suggesting that entanglement structure determines spacetime geometry.

Contribution

It proposes a non-perturbative framework linking quantum entanglement to the formation of connected classical spacetimes in quantum gravity.

Findings

Disentangling degrees of freedom causes regions of spacetime to pull apart.

Entanglement measures quantify the connectivity of spacetime regions.

Supports the idea that spacetime geometry emerges from quantum entanglement.

Abstract

In this essay based on 0907.2939, we argue that the emergence of classically connected spacetimes is intimately related to the quantum entanglement of degrees of freedom in a non-perturbative description of quantum gravity. Disentangling the degrees of freedom associated with two regions of spacetime results in these regions pulling apart and pinching off from each other in a way that can be quantified by standard measures of entanglement.