State-independent Black Hole Interiors from the Crossed Product

Abstract: Opinion is divided about the nature of state dependence in the black hole interior. Some argue that it is a necessary feature, while others argue it is a bug. In this paper, we consider the extended half-sided modular translation $U(s_0)$ (with $s_0 > 0$) of Leutheusser and Liu that takes us inside the horizon. We note that we can use this operator to construct a modular Hamiltonian $H$ and a conjugation $J$ on the infalling time-evolved wedges. The original thermofield double translates to a new cyclic and separating vector in the shifted algebra. We use these objects and the Connes cocycle to repeat Witten's crossed product construction in this new setting, and to obtain a Type II$\infty$ algebra that is independent of the various choices, in particular that of the cyclic separating vector. Our emergent times are implicitly boundary-dressed. But if one admits an ``extra'' observer in the interior, we argue that the (state-independent) algebra can be Type I or Type II$_1$ instead of Type II$\infty$, depending on whether the observer's light cone contains an entire Cauchy slice or not. Along with these general considerations, we present some specific calculations in the setting of the Poincare BTZ black hole. We identify a generalization of modular translations in BTZ-Kruskal coordinates that is pointwise (as opposed to non-local) and is analytically tractable, exploiting a connection with the covering AdS-space. These evolutions can reach the singularity.