Bulk Locality and Quantum Error Correction in AdS/CFT

TL;DR

This paper explores the connection between bulk locality in AdS/CFT and quantum error correction, providing a new perspective on bulk operator reconstruction and subregion duality through tensor networks and operator algebra quantum error correction.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interpretation of AdS/CFT bulk locality as a quantum error correcting code, clarifies the limits of subregion duality, and proposes tensor network methods to analyze these concepts.

Findings

Bulk notions have natural CFT interpretations via quantum error correction.

Bulk operator reconstruction relates to quantum secret sharing schemes.

Tensor network calculations can determine the extent of bulk reconstruction.

Abstract

We point out a connection between the emergence of bulk locality in AdS/CFT and the theory of quantum error correction. Bulk notions such as Bogoliubov transformations, location in the radial direction, and the holographic entropy bound all have natural CFT interpretations in the language of quantum error correction. We also show that the question of whether bulk operator reconstruction works only in the causal wedge or all the way to the extremal surface is related to the question of whether or not the quantum error correcting code realized by AdS/CFT is also a "quantum secret sharing scheme", and suggest a tensor network calculation that may settle the issue. Interestingly, the version of quantum error correction which is best suited to our analysis is the somewhat nonstandard "operator algebra quantum error correction" of Beny, Kempf, and Kribs. Our proposal gives a precise formulation of the idea of "subregion-subregion" duality in AdS/CFT, and clarifies the limits of its validity.