The gravitational dynamics of kinematic space

Abstract

We show that the dynamics of the kinematic space of a 2-dimensional CFT is gravitational and described by Jackiw-Teitelboim theory. We discuss the first law of this 2-dimensional dilaton gravity theory to support the relation between modular Hamiltonian and dilaton that underlies the kinematic space construction. It is further argued that Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity can be derived from a 2-dimensional version of Jacobson's maximal vacuum entanglement hypothesis. Applied to the kinematic space context, this leads us to the statement that the kinematic space of a 2-dimensional boundary CFT can be obtained from coupling the boundary CFT to JT gravity through a maximal vacuum entanglement principle.

35 pages, 5 figures, v2: changes to presentation including restructured sections and added clarifications, matches published version