Inside the horizon with AdS/CFT

Abstract

Using the eternal BTZ black hole as a concrete example, we show how spacelike singularities and horizons can be described in terms of AdS/CFT amplitudes. Our approach is based on analytically continuing amplitudes defined in a Euclidean signature. This procedure yields finite Lorentzian amplitudes. The naive divergences associated with the Milne type singularity of BTZ black holes are regulated by an iepsilon prescription inherent in the analytic continuation and a cancellation between future and past singularities. The boundary description corresponds to a tensor product of two CFTs in an entangled state, as in previous work. We give two bulk descriptions corresponding to two different analytic continuations. In the first, only regions outside the horizon appear explicitly, and so amplitudes are manifestly finite. In the second, regions behind the horizon and on both sides of the singularity appear, thus yielding finite amplitudes for virtual particles propagating through the black hole singularity. This equivalence between descriptions only outside and both inside and outside the horizon is reminiscent of the ideas of black hole complementarity.

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