{
  "abstract": "We derive a large-N wormhole saddle in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model for the variance of the thermal one-point function of a heavy operator across realizations of the microscopic couplings. We propose that this saddle describes a double trumpet geometry. In the double-scaling limit, we express the wormhole as a transition amplitude in an emergent bulk Hilbert space of chords connecting the two boundaries. In the Schwarzian limit, the chords proliferate and the wormhole defines a quantum transition amplitude in the open-universe Hilbert space of Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity. Comparing the SYK wormhole amplitude with its counterpart in JT gravity coupled to matter provides a direct test of the heavy-operator randomness hypothesis in SYK. The microscopic SYK couplings specify the α-parameters of the wormhole. For a fixed realization of the couplings, we compute the observable in the corresponding α-state. We provide the bulk wavefunction of the associated half-wormhole, which exhibits erratic correlations in the length basis that do not self-average. We extend the bulk description to the Hilbert space of a closed universe. We point out that the correlation chords from which the wormhole geometry emerges structurally resemble local observer worldlines.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.20699",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Valérie Bettaque"
    },
    {
      "name": "Martin Sasieta"
    },
    {
      "name": "Brian Swingle"
    },
    {
      "name": "Alejandro Vilar López"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/41tjp5rjr3bpn.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.20699",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "41tjp5rjr3bpn",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20699",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "LicenseRef-arXiv-nonexclusive-1.0",
  "licence_label": "arXiv licence",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3106|Black Holes and Theoretical Physics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7222411628",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.20699",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-14",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/41tjp5rjr3bpn.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:29:50Z",
      "native_id": "2610.20699",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.20699"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-th",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "An SYK wormhole under the microscope",
  "title_text": "An SYK wormhole under the microscope",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:29:50Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/41tjp5rjr3bpn",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}