De Sitter microstates from TT̄ + Λ2 and the Hawking-Page transition

A bstract We obtain microstates accounting for the Gibbons-Hawking entropy in dS 3 , along with a subleading logarithmic correction, from the solvable T T̄ T ¯ + Λ 2 deformation of a seed CFT with sparse light spectrum. The microstates arise as the dressed CFT states near dimension ∆ = c/ 6, associated with the Hawking-Page transition; they dominate the real spectrum of the deformed theory. We exhibit an analogue of the Hawking-Page transition in de Sitter. Appropriate generalizations of the T T̄ T ¯ + Λ 2 deformation are required to treat model-dependent local bulk physics (subleading at large central charge) and higher dimensions. These results add considerably to the already strong motivation for the continued pursuit of such generalizations along with a more complete characterization of T T̄ T ¯ type theories, building from existing results in these directions.