We consider the generalization of a matrix integral with arbitrary spectral curve ρ 0 (E) to a 0+1D theory of matrix quantum mechanics (MQM). Using recent techniques for 1D quantum systems at large-N , we formulate a hydrodynamical effective theory for the eigenvalues. The result is a simple 2D free boson BCFT on a curved background, describing the quantum fluctuations of the eigenvalues around ρ 0 (E), which is now the large-N limit of the quantum expectation value of the eigenvalue density operator ρ(E). The average over the ensemble of random matrices becomes a quantum expectation value. Equal-time density correlations reproduce the results (including non-perturbative corrections) of random matrix theory. This suggests an interpretation of JT gravity as dual to a one-time-point reduction of MQM. As an application, we compute the Rényi entropy associated to a bipartition of the eigenvalues. We match a previous result by Hartnoll and Mazenc for the c = 1 matrix model dual to two-dimensional string theory and extend it to arbitrary ρ 0 (E). The hydrodynamical theory provides a clear picture of the emergence of spacetime in two dimensional string theory. The entropy is naturally finite and displays a large amount of short range entanglement, proportional to the microcanonical entropy. We also compute the reduced density matrix for a subset of n < N eigenvalues.

We consider the generalization of a matrix integral with arbitrary spectral curve ρ0(E) to a 0+1D theory of matrix quantum mechanics (MQM). Using recent techniques for 1D quantum systems at large-N, we formulate a hydrodynamical effective theory for the eigenvalues. The result is a simple 2D free boson BCFT on a curved background, describing the quantum fluctuations of the eigenvalues around ρ0(E), which is now the large-N limit of the quantum expectation value of the eigenvalue density operator $$ \hat{\rho}(E) $$ ρ ̂ E .The average over the ensemble of random matrices becomes a quantum expectation value. Equal-time density correlations reproduce the results (including non-perturbative corrections) of random matrix theory. This suggests an interpretation of JT gravity as dual to a one-time-point reduction of MQM.As an application, we compute the Rényi entropy associated to a bipartition of the eigenvalues. We match a previous result by Hartnoll and Mazenc for the c = 1 matrix model dual to two-dimensional string theory and extend it to arbitrary ρ0(E). The hydrodynamical theory provides a clear picture of the emergence of spacetime in two dimensional string theory. The entropy is naturally finite and displays a large amount of short range entanglement, proportional to the microcanonical entropy. We also compute the reduced density matrix for a subset of n < N eigenvalues.