Does Complexity Equal Anything?

Phys Rev Lett. 2022 Feb 25;128(8):081602. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.081602.

Abstract

We present a new infinite class of gravitational observables in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space living on codimension-one slices of the geometry, the most famous of which is the volume of the maximal slice. We show that these observables display universal features for the thermofield-double state: they grow linearly in time at late times and reproduce the switchback effect in shock wave geometries. We argue that any member of this class of observables is an equally viable candidate as the extremal volume for a gravitational dual of complexity.