3D gravity in a box

Abstract

The quantization of pure 3D gravity with Dirichlet boundary conditions on a finite boundary is of interest both as a model of quantum gravity in which one can compute quantities which are ``more local" than S-matrices or asymptotic boundary correlators, and for its proposed holographic duality to T\overline{T}TT¯-deformed CFTs. In this work we apply covariant phase space methods to deduce the Poisson bracket algebra of boundary observables. The result is a one-parameter nonlinear deformation of the usual Virasoro algebra of asymptotically AdS_33 gravity. This algebra should be obeyed by the stress tensor in any T\overline{T}TT¯-deformed holographic CFT. We next initiate quantization of this system within the general framework of coadjoint orbits, obtaining — in perturbation theory — a deformed version of the Alekseev-Shatashvili symplectic form and its associated geometric action. The resulting energy spectrum is consistent with the expected spectrum of T\overline{T}TT¯-deformed theories, although we only carry out the explicit comparison to \mathcal{O}(1/\sqrt{c})𝒪(1/c) in the 1/c1/c expansion.