Modave lectures on bulk reconstruction in AdS/CFT

Abstract: These lecture notes are based on a series of lectures given at the XIII Modave summer school in mathematical physics. We review the construction due to Hamilton, Kabat, Lifschytz and Lowe for reconstructing local bulk operators from CFT operators in the context of AdS/CFT and show how to recover bulk correlation functions from this definition. Building on the work of these authors, it has been noted that the bulk displays quantum error correcting properties. We will discuss tensor network toy models to exemplify these remarkable features. We will discuss the role of gauge invariance and of diffeomorphism symmetry in the reconstruction of bulk operators. Lastly, we provide another method of bulk reconstruction specified to AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$ in which bulk operators create cross-cap states in the CFT.