Wormholes and out-of-time ordered correlators in gauge/gravity duality
Mihailo Čubrović
备注：
36 pages, 5 figures; this version: major revision of the paper (clarified discussion on the metric, propagators and OTOC definition; corrected error in computing the scattering amplitude in Section 3, updated references)
We calculate the four-wave scattering amplitude in the background of an AdS traversable wormhole in 2+1 dimensions created by a nonlocal coupling of AdS boundaries in the BTZ black hole background. The holographic dual of this setup is a pair of CFTs coupled via a double-trace deformation, the scattering amplitude giving the out-of-time ordered correlator (OTOC) in CFT. Short-living wormholes always exhibit a regime of fast scrambling, saturating the MSS bound for the Lyapunov exponent but in the early-time regime the scrambling can be slower, with a Lyapunov exponent linear in $T$ but below the MSS bound. For long-living (near-eternal) wormholes however the numerics suggests the existence of another regime, with a drastic (exponential) slowdown of scrambling and an exponentially small Lyapunov exponent. Our findings have parallels in the SYK model, and may indicate certain limitations of wormhole teleportation protocols previously studied in the literature.
We study probe scalar correlation functions in a Solodukhin wormhole corresponding to the non-rotating BTZ black hole, as a toy model for microstate geometries thereof. Using real-time holography, we obtain the retarded scalar correlator in the wormhole geometry and quantitatively compare it to the result of the hybrid WKB method for the same correlator. We also calculate an off-diagonal correlator $\sim\langle H L L H' \rangle$ involving two different (heavy) wormhole states.
Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University（清华大学高等研究院）；Peng Huanwu Center for Fundamental Theory（彭桓武基础研究中心）；Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Davis（加州大学戴维斯分校物理与天文系）
The replica wormholes are a key to the existence of the islands that play a central role in a recent proposal for the resolution of the black hole information paradox. In this paper, we study the replica wormholes in the JT gravity, a model of two-dimensional quantum gravity coupled to a non-dynamical dilaton, by making use of the 2$d$ conformal field theory (CFT) description, namely, the Liouville theory coupled to the $(2,p)$ minimal matter in the $p\to\infty$ limit. In the Liouville CFT description, the replica wormholes are created by the twist operators and the gravitational part of the b…
We study various aspects of wormholes that are made traversable by an interaction beween the two asymptotic boundaries. We concentrate on the case of nearly-$AdS_2$ gravity and discuss a very simple mechanical picture for the gravitational dynamics. We derive a formula for the two sided correlators that includes the effect of gravitational backreaction, which limits the amount of information we can send through the wormhole. We emphasize that the process can be viewed as a teleportation protocol where the teleportee feels nothing special as he/she goes through the wormhole. We discuss some app…
We consider multi-energy level distributions in the SYK model, and in particular, the role of global fluctuations in the density of states of the SYK model. The connected contributions to the moments of the density of states go to zero as $N \to \infty$, however, they are much larger than the standard RMT correlations. We provide a diagrammatic description of the leading behavior of these connected moments, showing that the dominant diagrams are given by 1PI cactus graphs, and derive a vector model of the couplings which reproduces these results. We generalize these results to the first sublea…
In this note we continue analysing the non-equilibrium dynamics in the $(T^2)^n/\mathbb{Z}_n$ orbifold conformal field theory. We compute the out-of-time-ordered four-point correlators with twist operators. For rational $η\ (=p/q)$ which is the square of the compactification radius, we find that the correlators approach non-trivial constants at late time. For $n=2$ they are expressed in terms of the modular matrices and for higher $n$ orbifolds are functions of $pq$ and $n$. For irrational $η$, we find a new polynomial decay of the correlators that is a signature of an intermediate regime betw…
We compute a variety of two and three-point real-time correlation functions for a strongly-coupled non-relativistic field theory. We focus on the theory conjectured to be dual to the Schrödinger-invariant gravitational spacetime introduced by Balasubramanian, McGreevy, and Son, but our methods apply to a large class of non-relativistic theories. At zero temperature, we obtain time-ordered, retarded, and Wightman non-relativistic correlators for scalar operators of arbitrary conformal dimension directly in field theory by applying a certain lightlike Fourier transform to relativistic conformal …
We investigate out of time ordered correlators in the bulk of dS JT gravity, using Schwarzian perturbation theory, and propose that these out of time ordered correlators are encoded on the second sheet of the gravitational path integral, different sheets corresponding to different gravitational operator orderings. Implementing this in practice, we establish maximal chaos, in agreement with shockwave intuition.
We calculate bulk and boundary correlators in JT gravity by summing over geometries. The answers are reproduced by computing suitable ensemble averages of correlators of chaotic quantum systems. We then consider bulk correlators at large spatial separations and find that semiclassical decay eventually makes way for erratic oscillations around some nonzero answer. There is no cluster decomposition because of wormholes connecting distant regions. We construct more microscopic versions of JT gravity which are dual to a single quantum system by including a set of branes in the gravitational theory…
Chaotic dynamics in quantum many-body systems scrambles local information so that at late times it can no longer be accessed locally. This is reflected quantitatively in the out-of-time-ordered correlator of local operators, which is expected to decay to zero with time. However, for systems of finite size, out-of-time-ordered correlators do not decay exactly to zero and in this paper we show that the residual value can provide useful insights into the chaotic dynamics. When energy is conserved, the late-time saturation value of the out-of-time-ordered correlator of generic traceless local oper…
We establish that there are properties of quantum many-body dynamics which are efficiently learnable if we are given access to out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs), but which require exponentially many operations in the system size if we can only measure time-ordered correlators. This implies that any experimental protocol which reconstructs OTOCs solely from time-ordered correlators must be, in certain cases, exponentially inefficient. Our proofs leverage and generalize recent techniques in quantum learning theory. Along the way, we elucidate a general definition of time-ordered versus out-o…
It has been conjectured by Maldacena, Shenker, and Stanford [J. High Energy Phys.~08 (2016) 106] that the exponential growth rate of the out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) $F(t)$ has a universal upper bound $2πk_B T/\hbar$. Here we introduce a one-parameter family of out-of-time-ordered correlators $F_γ(t)$ ($0\leqγ\leq 1$), which has as good properties as $F(t)$ as a regularization of the out-of-time-ordered part of the squared commutator $\langle [A(t), B(0)]^2\rangle$ that diagnoses quantum many-body chaos, and coincides with $F(t)$ at $γ=1/2$. We rigorously prove that if $F_γ(t)$ shows …
Codimension-Zero Holographic Complexity and Spectral Three-Point Correlators
RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS), RIKEN（理化学研究所交叉理论数学科学中心（iTHEMS））；School of Physics, Peking University（北京大学物理学院）；Center for High Energy Physics, Peking University（北京大学高能物理中心）；Department of Physics, Nagoya University（名古屋大学物理学系）
Out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) have been suggested as a means to study quantum chaotic behavior in various systems. In this work, I calculate OTOCs for the quantum mechanical anharmonic oscillator with quartic potential, which is classically integrable and has a Poisson-like energy-level distribution. For low temperature, OTOCs are periodic in time, similar to results for the harmonic oscillator and the particle in a box. For high temperature, OTOCs exhibit a rapid (but power-like) rise at early times, followed by saturation consistent with $2\langle x^2\rangle_T \langle p^2\rangle_T$…
Out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs) have received considerable recent attention as qualitative witnesses of information scrambling in many-body quantum systems. Theoretical discussions of OTOCs typically focus on closed systems, raising the question of their suitability as scrambling witnesses in realistic open systems. We demonstrate empirically that the nonclassical negativity of the quasiprobability distribution (QPD) behind the OTOC is a more sensitive witness for scrambling than the OTOC itself. Nonclassical features of the QPD evolve with timescales that are robust with respect to de…
In the semiclassical approximation to JT gravity, we find two-point and four-point correlators of heavy operators. To do so, we introduce a massive particle in the bulk and compute its action with gravitational backreaction. In Euclidean signature, the two-point function has a finite limit at large distances. In real time, we find that the thermal two-point function approaches an exponentially small value $\sim \exp(-N)$ at long time. We also find that after a period of exponential decay, the out of time ordered four-point function approaches an exponentially small value as well.
The machinery of computing vacuum expectation values of a time-ordered sequence of position operators of the simple harmonic oscillator is already well established. It rests on a Wick theorem, which enables one to decompose such a quantity in terms of products of \emph{pairwise contractions}, which are vacuum expectation values of a time-ordered sequence of position operators taken two at a time. This result naturally leads to a diagrammatic approach of computing such correlators, and is already well known in the form of Feynman diagrams. We generalise this setup to encompass expectation value…
The out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) diagnoses quantum chaos and the scrambling of quantum information via the spread of entanglement. The OTOC encodes forward and reverse evolutions and has deep connections with the flow of time. So do fluctuation relations such as Jarzynski's Equality, derived in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. I unite these two powerful, seemingly disparate tools by deriving a Jarzynski-like equality for the OTOC. The equality's left-hand side equals the OTOC. The right-hand side suggests a protocol for measuring the OTOC indirectly. The protocol is platform-nons…
Recently introduced reparametrization mode operators in CFTs have been shown to govern stress tensor interactions $via$ the shadow operator formalism and seem to govern the effective dynamics of chaotic systems. We initiate a study of Ward identities of reparametrization mode operators $i.e.$ how two dimensional CFT Ward identities govern the behaviour of insertions of reparametrization modes $ε$ in correlation functions: $\langleεεϕϕ\rangle$. We find that in the semi-classical limit of large $c$ they dictate the leading $\mathcal{O}(c^{-1})$ behaviour. While for the $4$pt function this reprod…
We characterize a quantum neural network's error in terms of the network's scrambling properties via the out-of-time-ordered correlator. A network can be trained by optimizing either a loss function or a cost function. We show that, with some probability, both functions can be bounded by out-of-time-ordered correlators. The gradients of these functions can be bounded by the gradient of the out-of-time-ordered correlator, demonstrating that the network's scrambling ability governs its trainability. Our results pave the way for the exploration of quantum chaos in quantum neural networks.
We probe the contraction from $2d$ relativistic CFTs to theories with Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) symmetries, or equivalently Conformal Carroll symmetries, using diagnostics of quantum chaos. Starting from an Ultrarelativistic limit on a relativistic scalar field theory and following through at the quantum level using an oscillator representation of states, one can show the CFT$_2$ vacuum evolves smoothly into a BMS$_3$ vacuum in the form of a squeezed state. Computing circuit complexity of this transmutation using the covariance matrix approach shows clear divergences when the BMS point is hit …
Out-of-time-ordered Correlators in de Sitter Revisited
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky（肯塔基大学物理与天文学系）；Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem（耶路撒冷希伯来大学拉卡物理研究所）；ORFE Department, Princeton University（普林斯顿大学运筹工程金融系）；Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara（加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校物理系）
We study the correlators of the fields that couple to the quark and anti-quark EPR pair in the super Yang-Mills theory using the holographic description, which is a string in AdS space with its two ends anchoring on the boundaries. We consider the cases that the endpoints of the string are static and that the endpoints are uniformly accelerated in opposite directions where the exact solutions for the string's profiles are available. In both cases, the two-point correlators of the boundary field, described by the linearized perturbations in the worldsheet, can also be derived exactly where we o…
Two topics, evolving rapidly in separate fields, were combined recently: The out-of-time-ordered correlator (OTOC) signals quantum-information scrambling in many-body systems. The Kirkwood-Dirac (KD) quasiprobability represents operators in quantum optics. The OTOC has been shown to equal a moment of a summed quasiprobability. That quasiprobability, we argue, is an extension of the KD distribution. We explore the quasiprobability's structure from experimental, numerical, and theoretical perspectives. First, we simplify and analyze the weak-measurement and interference protocols for measuring t…
We study numerically and analytically the time dependence and saturation of out-of-time ordered correlators (OTOC) in chaotic few-body quantum-mechanical systems: quantum Henon-Heiles system (weakly chaotic), BMN matrix quantum mechanics (strongly chaotic) and Gaussian random matrix ensembles. The growth pattern of quantum-mechanical OTOC is complex and nonuniversal, with no clear exponential regime at relevant timescales in any of the examples studied (which is not in contradiction to the exponential growth found in the literature for many-body systems, i.e. fields). On the other hand, the pl…
We study the spectral representation of finite temperature, out of time ordered (OTO) correlators on the multi-time-fold generalised Schwinger-Keldysh contour. We write the contour-ordered correlators as a sum over time-order permutations acting on a funda- mental array of Wightman correlators. We decompose this Wightman array in a basis of column vectors, which provide a natural generalisation of the familiar retarded-advanced basis in the finite temperature Schwinger-Keldysh formalism. The coefficients of this de- composition take the form of generalised spectral functions, which are Fourier…
In this paper we investigate measures of chaos and entanglement in rational conformal field theories in 1+1 dimensions. First, we derive a universal formula for the late time value of the out-of-time-ordered correlators for this class of theories. Our universal result can be expressed as a particular combination of the modular S-matrix elements known as the anyon monodromy scalar. Next, in the explicit setup of a $SU(N)_k$ Wess-Zumino-Witten model, we compare the late time behavior of the out-of-time-ordered correlators and the purity. Interestingly, in the large-c limit, the purity grows loga…
We consider conformal N=2 super Yang-Mills theories with gauge group SU(N) and Nf=2N fundamental hypermultiplets in presence of a circular 1/2-BPS Wilson loop. It is natural to conjecture that the matrix model which describes the expectation value of this system also encodes the one-point functions of chiral scalar operators in presence of the Wilson loop. We obtain evidence of this conjecture by successfully comparing, at finite N and at the two-loop order, the one-point functions computed in field theory with the vacuum expectation values of the corresponding normal-ordered operators in the …
We further elaborate on the general construction proposed in arXiv:1812.03369, which connects, via tree-level double copy, massless string amplitudes with color-ordered QFT amplitudes that are given by Cachazo-He-Yuan formulas. The current paper serves as a detailed study of the integration-by-parts procedure for any tree-level massless string correlator outlined in the previous letter. We present two new results in the context of heterotic and (compactified) bosonic string theories. First, we find a new recursive expansion of any multitrace mixed correlator in these theories into a logarithmi…
In this article, we demonstrate how a 3-point correlation function can capture the out-of-time-ordered features of a higher point correlation function, in the context of a conformal field theory (CFT) with a boundary, in two dimensions. Our general analyses of the analytic structures are independent of the details of the CFT and the operators, however, to demonstrate a Lyapunov growth we focus on the Virasoro identity block in large-c CFT's. Motivated by this, we also show that the phenomenon of pole-skipping is present in a 2-point correlation function in a two-dimensional CFT with a boundary…
We find models of two-dimensional gravity that resolve the factorization puzzle and have a discrete spectrum, whilst retaining a semiclassical description. A novelty of these models is that they contain non-trivially correlated spacetime branes or, equivalently, nonlocal interactions in their action. Such nonlocal correlations are motivated in the low-energy gravity theory by integrating out UV degrees of freedom. Demanding factorization fixes almost all brane correlators, and the exact geometric expansion of the partition function collapses to only two terms: the black hole saddle and a suble…
The scrambling of quantum information in closed many-body systems, as measured by out-of-time-ordered correlation functions (OTOCs), has lately received considerable attention. Recently, a hydrodynamical description of OTOCs has emerged from considering random local circuits, aspects of which are conjectured to be universal to ergodic many-body systems, even without randomness. Here we extend this approach to systems with locally conserved quantities (e.g., energy). We do this by considering local random unitary circuits with a conserved U$(1)$ charge and argue, with numerical and analytical e…
The onset of quantum chaos in quantum field theory may be studied using out-of-time-order correlators at finite temperature. Recent work argued that a timescale logarithmic in the central charge emerged in the context of two-dimensional conformal field theories, provided the intermediate channel was dominated by the Virasoro identity block. This suggests a wide class of conformal field theories exhibit a version of fast scrambling. In the present work we study this idea in more detail. We begin by clarifying to what extent correlators of wavepackets built out of superpositions of primary opera…
The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model describes a strange metal that shows peculiar non-Fermi liquid properties without quasiparticles. It exhibits a maximally chaotic behavior characterized by out-of-time-ordered correlators (OTOCs), and is expected to be a holographic dual to black holes. Recently, a striking similarity between the SYK model and the Hund-coupling induced spin-freezing crossover in multi-orbital Hubbard models has been pointed out. To further explore this connection, we study OTOCs for fermionic Hubbard models, which are prototypical models for strongly correlated electrons in so…
In this paper we study the chaos exponent, the exponential growth rate of the out-of-time-ordered four point functions, in a two coupled SYK models which exhibits a first order phase transition between the high temperature black hole phase and the low temperature gapped phase interpreted as a traversable wormhole. We see that as the temperature decreases the chaos exponent exhibits a discontinuous fall-off from the value of order the universal bound $2π/β$ at the critical temperature of the phase transition, which is consistent with the expected relation between black holes and strong chaos. I…
Probing quantum chaos near a wormhole throat with a circular string
School of Science, Guangxi University of Science and Technology（广西科技大学理学院）；Department of Physics, Institute of Fundamental Physics and Quantum Technology, Ningbo University（宁波大学物理系基础物理与量子技术研究所）；Department of Applied Physics, College of Science, China Agricultural University（中国农业大学理学院应用物理系）
Out-of-time ordered (OTO) correlation functions describe scrambling of information in correlated quantum matter. They are of particular interest in incoherent quantum systems lacking well defined quasi-particles. Thus far, it is largely elusive how OTO correlators spread in incoherent systems with diffusive transport governed by a few globally conserved quantities. Here, we study the dynamical response of such a system using high-performance matrix-product-operator techniques. Specifically, we consider the non-integrable, one-dimensional Bose-Hubbard model in the incoherent high-temperature re…
