Signatures of Bulk Topology from the 't Hooft Worldsheet
Abstract
We study entanglement entropy in a certain ansatz of matrix quantum mechanics (MQM) wavefunctions which behave as generating functionals for a planar 't Hooft expansion. We argue that these 't Hooft diagrammatics can directly probe aspects of the topology of the bulk dual, such as the contractibility of a thermal or replica S1 cycle. Our argument relies on treating 't Hooft diagrams as a non-perturbative definition of off-shell string theory worldsheets in which contractibility of replica cycle leads to worldsheets punctured by a conical deficit (as first described by Susskind and Uglum). We describe how a deconfinement transition in the MQM is tied to the exchange of dominant topologies, as well as to a candidate description of open string 'edge modes' of Susskind and Uglum. Lastly, we study toy models of black hole evaporation and show that the boundary planar expansion itself diagnoses the exchange of dominance between the disconnected topology and replica wormhole topology, without ensemble averaging and without independently postulating which bulk saddles should be included.
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BibTeX
@misc{fliss2026signatures,
title = {{Signatures of Bulk Topology from the 't Hooft Worldsheet}},
author = {Jackson R. Fliss and Alexander Frenkel},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.36015},
eprint = {2609.36015},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.36015},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Signatures of Bulk Topology from the 't Hooft Worldsheet
AU - Jackson R. Fliss
AU - Alexander Frenkel
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.36015
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.36015
AB - We study entanglement entropy in a certain ansatz of matrix quantum mechanics (MQM) wavefunctions which behave as generating functionals for a planar 't Hooft expansion. We argue that these 't Hooft diagrammatics can directly probe aspects of the topology of the bulk dual, such as the contractibility of a thermal or replica S^1 cycle. Our argument relies on treating 't Hooft diagrams as a non-perturbative definition of off-shell string theory worldsheets in which contractibility of replica cycle leads to worldsheets punctured by a conical deficit (as first described by Susskind and Uglum). We describe how a deconfinement transition in the MQM is tied to the exchange of dominant topologies, as well as to a candidate description of open string 'edge modes' of Susskind and Uglum. Lastly, we study toy models of black hole evaporation and show that the boundary planar expansion itself diagnoses the exchange of dominance between the disconnected topology and replica wormhole topology, without ensemble averaging and without independently postulating which bulk saddles should be included.
ER -