Towards bit threads in general gravitational spacetimes

Abstract: The concept of the generalized entanglement wedge was recently proposed by Bousso and Penington, which states that any bulk gravitational region $a$ possesses an associated generalized entanglement wedge $E(a)\supset a$ on a static Cauchy surface $M$ in general gravitational spacetimes, where $E(a)$ may contain an entanglement island $I(a)$. It suggests that the fine-grained entropy for bulk region $a$ is given by the generalized entropy $S_{\text{gen}}(E(a))$. Motivated by this proposal, we extend the quantum bit thread description to general gravitational spacetimes, no longer limited to the AdS spacetime. By utilizing the convex optimization techniques, a dual flow description for the generalized entropy $S_{\text{gen}}(E(a))$ of a bulk gravitational region $a$ is established on the static Cauchy surface $M$, such that $S_{\text{gen}}(E(a))$ is equal to the maximum flux of any flow that starts from the boundary $\partial M$ and ends at bulk region $a$, or equivalently, the maximum number of bit threads that connect the boundary $\partial M$ to the bulk region $a$. In addition, the nesting property of flows is also proved. Thus the basic properties of the entropy for bulk regions, i.e. the monotonicity, subadditivity, Araki-Lieb inequality and strong subadditivity, can be verified from flow perspectives by using properties of flows, such as the nesting property. Moreover, in max thread configurations, we find that there exists some lower bounds on the bulk entanglement entropy of matter fields in the region $E(a)\setminus a$, particularly on an entanglement island region $I(a) \subset (E(a)\setminus a)$, as required by the existence of a nontrivial generalized entanglement wedge. Our quantum bit thread formulation may provide a way to investigate more fine-grained entanglement structures in general spacetimes.