CFT/gravity correspondence on the isolated horizon

A quantum isolated horizon can be modelled by an SU(2) Chem-Simons theory on a punctured 2-sphere. We show how a local 2-dimensional conformal symmetry arises at each puncture inducing an infinite set of new observables localised at the horizon which satisfy a Kac-Moody algebra. By means of the isolated horizon boundary conditions, we represent the gravitational flux degrees of freedom in terms of the zero modes of the Kac-Moody algebra defined on the boundary of a punctured disk. In this way, our construction encodes a precise notion of CFT/gravity correspondence. The higher modes in the algebra represent new nongeometric charges which can be represented in terms of free matter field degrees of freedom. When computing the CFT partition function of the system, these new states induce an extra degeneracy factor, representing the density of horizon states at a given energy level, which reproduces the Bekenstein's holographic bound for an imaginary Immirzi parameter. This allows us to recover the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy formula without the large quantum gravity corrections associated with the number of punctures. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.