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Discrete bulk spectrum in Jackiw-Teitelboim theory

Dongsu Bak1,*, Chanju Kim2,†, and Sang-Heon Yi1,‡

  • *Contact author: dsbak@uos.ac.kr
  • †Contact author: cjkim@ewha.ac.kr
  • ‡Contact author: shyi704@uos.ac.kr
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Phys. Rev. D 112, 126002 – Published 2 December, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/98z9-qdhq

Abstract

We argue that a discrete bulk spectrum with random statistics appears naturally in the Lorentzian description of Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity if an extra confining potential is introduced in the region where the renormalized geodesic length becomes of order eS0. The existence of such an extra confining potential may be inferred from the late behavior of complexity and also from the Saad-Shenker-Stanford (SSS) duality between JT gravity and the matrix model. We derive the explicit form of the extra confining potential from the well-established density of states obtained in the Euclidean approach to JT gravity. This extra potential is implicitly determined by the solution of the Abel’s integral equation, which turns out to be identical to the string equation of the matrix model in the SSS duality formulation of JT gravity. Thanks to the extra confining potential and the random nature of the spectrum, the time evolution of the Krylov complexity, which is identified with the renormalized geodesic length, naturally exhibits four phases, namely, a ramp, a peak, a slope, and a plateau.

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Phys. Rev. D 112, 126002– Published 2 December, 2025
  • Received 29 April 2025
  • Accepted 14 November 2025
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