Magic three-qubit Veldkamp line: A finite geometric underpinning for form theories of gravity and black hole entropy

Abstract

We investigate the structure of the three-qubit magic Veldkamp line (MVL). This mathematical notion has recently shown up as a tool for understanding the structures of the set of Mermin pentagrams, objects that are used to rule out certain classes of hidden variable theories. Here we show that this object also provides a unifying finite geometric underpinning for understanding the structure of functionals used in form theories of gravity and black hole entropy. We clarify the representation theoretic, finite geometric and physical meaning of the different parts of our MVL. The upshot of our considerations is that the basic finite geometric objects enabling such a diversity of physical applications of the MVL are the unique generalized quadrangles with lines of size three, their one point extensions as well as their other extensions isomorphic to affine polar spaces of rank three and order two. In a previous work we have already connected generalized quadrangles to the structure of cubic Jordan algebras related to entropy fomulas of black holes and strings in five dimensions. In some respect the present paper can be regarded as a generalization of that analysis for also providing a finite geometric understanding of four-dimensional black hole entropy formulas. However, we find many more structures whose physical meaning is yet to be explored. As a familiar special case our work provides a finite geometric representation of the algebraic extension from cubic Jordan algebras to Freudenthal systems based on such algebras.