On the architecture of spacetime geometry

We propose entanglement entropy as a probe of the architecture of spacetime in quantum gravity. We argue that the leading contribution to this entropy satisfies an area law for any sufficiently large region in a smooth spacetime, which, in fact, is given by the Bekenstein-Hawking formula. This conjecture is supported by various lines of evidence from perturbative quantum gravity, simplified models of induced gravity, the AdS/CFT correspondence and loop quantum gravity, as well as Jacobson's 'thermodynamic' perspective of gravity.