State-dressed local operators in the AdS/CFT correspondence

We examine aspects of locality in perturbative quantum gravity and how information can be localized in subregions. In the framework of AdS/CFT, we consider the algebra of single-trace operators defined in a short time band. We conjecture that, if the state has large energy variance, then this algebra will have a commutant in the 1/N expansion. We provide evidence for this by identifying operators that commute with the conformal field theory Hamiltonian to all orders in 1/N, thus resolving an apparent tension with the gravitational Gauss law. The bulk interpretation is that these operators are gravitationally dressed with respect to features of the state rather than the boundary. We comment on observables in certain black hole microstates and the gravitational dressing in the island proposal.