The concept of the generalized entanglement wedge was recently proposed by Bousso and Penington, which states that any bulk gravitational region $a$ possesses an associated generalized entanglement wedge $E(a)\supset a$ on a static Cauchy surface $M$ in general gravitational spacetimes, where $E(a)$ may contain an entanglement island $I(a)$. It suggests that the fine-grained entropy for bulk region $a$ is given by the generalized entropy $S_{\text{gen}}(E(a))$. Motivated by this proposal, we extend the quantum bit thread description to general gravitational spacetimes, no longer limited to the AdS spacetime. By utilizing the convex optimization techniques, a dual flow description for the generalized entropy $S_{\text{gen}}(E(a))$ of a bulk gravitational region $a$ is established on the static Cauchy surface $M$, such that $S_{\text{gen}}(E(a))$ is equal to the maximum flux of any flow that starts from the boundary $\partial M$ and ends at bulk region $a$, or equivalently, the maximum number of bit threads that connect the boundary $\partial M$ to the bulk region $a$. In addition, the nesting property of flows is also proved. Thus the basic properties of the entropy for bulk regions, i.e. the monotonicity, subadditivity, Araki-Lieb inequality and strong subadditivity, can be verified from flow perspectives by using properties of flows, such as the nesting property. Moreover, in max thread configurations, we find that there exists some lower bounds on the bulk entanglement entropy of matter fields in the region $E(a)\setminus a$, particularly on an entanglement island region $I(a) \subset (E(a)\setminus a)$, as required by the existence of a nontrivial generalized entanglement wedge. Our quantum bit thread formulation may provide a way to investigate more fine-grained entanglement structures in general spacetimes.
Starting from an interesting coincidence between the bit threads and SS (surface/state) correspondence, both of which are closely related to the holographic RT formula, we introduce a property of bit threads that has not been explicitly proposed before, which can be referred to as thread/state correspondence (see~\cite{Lin:2022agc} for a brief pre-release version). Using this thread/state correspondence, we can construct the explicit expressions for the SS states corresponding to a set of bulk extremal surfaces in the SS correspondence, and nicely characterize their entanglement structure. Bas…
In the context of holography, entanglement entropy can be studied either by i) extremal surfaces or ii) bit threads, i.e., divergenceless vector fields with a norm bound set by the Planck length. In this paper we develop a new method for metric reconstruction based on the latter approach and show the advantages over existing ones. We start by studying general linear perturbations around the vacuum state. Generic thread configurations turn out to encode the information about the metric in a highly nonlocal way, however, we show that for boundary regions with a local modular Hamiltonian there is…
In the holographic framework, we argue that the partial entanglement entropy (PEE) can be explicitly interpreted as the component flow flux in a locking bit thread configuration. By applying the locking theorem of bit threads, and constructing a concrete locking scheme, we obtain a set of uniquely determined component flow fluxes from this viewpoint, and successfully derive the PEE proposal and its generalized version in the multipartite cases. Moreover, from this perspective of bit threads, we also present a coherent explanation for the coincidence between the BPE (balanced partial entangleme…
Recent work has characterized the various inequalities that entanglement entropies represented by min-cuts on hypergraphs will satisfy. This collection, the hypergraph entropy cone, can be seen as a generalization of the holographic entropy cone which describes the entropies given by both min-cuts on 2-graphs and those of holographic states in AdS/CFT. In this article we describe a generalization of bit threads which allows us to describe max multiflows on hypergraphs. We further comment on its properties and interpretation in holography.
We investigate the relations between bit thread, entanglement distillation and entanglement of purification in the holographic framework. Specifically, we give a bit thread interpretation for the one-shot entanglement distillation (OSED) tensor network, which can be understood as reconstructing the geometric structure of the bulk spacetime from the entanglement information of the boundary quantum system through the "surface growth scheme". Moreover, by showing that the holographic entanglement of purification (EoP) process can be regarded as a special case of our "surface growth scheme", we na…
We construct a new toy model of the holographic principle, named as holographic qubit threads model, which is an enlightening step towards the issue of spacetime emergence ("it from qubit"). More specifically, we propose for the first time that each bit thread in a locking bit thread configuration is in a "qubit" state, i.e., the quantum superposition state of two orthogonal states. Using this thread/state correspondence, we can construct the explicit expressions for the SS states corresponding to a set of bulk extremal surfaces in the surface/state correspondence, and nicely characterize thei…
Holographic entanglement entropy was recently recast in terms of Riemannian flows or 'bit threads'. We consider the Lorentzian analog to reformulate the 'complexity=volume' conjecture using Lorentzian flows -- timelike vector fields whose minimum flux through a boundary subregion is equal to the volume of the homologous maximal bulk Cauchy slice. By the nesting of Lorentzian flows, holographic complexity is shown to obey a number of properties. Particularly, the rate of complexity is bounded below by conditional complexity, describing a multi-step optimization with intermediate and final targe…
We study the partial entanglement entropy (PEE) aspects of the holographic BCFT setup with an entanglement island, inspired by the holographic triality of the AdS/BCFT setup developed in the recent study on the black hole information problem, and the "PEE=CFF (component flow flux)" prescription, which is proposed recently to investigate the holographic PEE in the framework of bit thread formulation. Our study provides a bit thread description of the AdS/BCFT setup, which characterizes the specific entanglement details between the different parts of the system with an entanglement island, and m…
There are increasing evidences that quantum information theory has come to play a fundamental role in quantum gravity especially the holography. In this paper, we show some new potential connections between holography and quantum information theory. Particularly, by utilizing the multiflow description of the holographic entanglement of purification (HEoP) defined in relative homology, we obtain several new inequalities of HEoP under a max multiflow configuration. Each inequality derived for HEoP has a corresponding inequality of the holographic entanglement entropy (HEE). This is further confi…
Brandeis University（布兰迪斯大学）；Weizmann Institute of Science（魏茨曼科学研究所）；Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)（布鲁塞尔自由大学）；The International Solvay Institutes（国际索尔维研究所）
Recently, an effective {\it membrane theory} was proposed that describes the ``hydrodynamic'' regime of the entanglement dynamics for general chaotic systems. Motivated by the new {\it bit threads} formulation of holographic entanglement entropy, given in terms of a convex optimization problem based on flow maximization, or equivalently tight packing of bit threads, we reformulate the membrane theory as a max flow problem by proving a max flow-min cut theorem. In the context of holography, we explain the relation between the max flow program dual to the membrane theory and the max flow program…
Holographic Bit Threads from String-Diagrammatic Quantum Information Flow
Fudan University（复旦大学）；Shanghai Institute for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences (SIMIS)（上海数学与交叉学科研究院）；Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications (BIMSA)（北京国际数学研究中心）
Brandeis University（布兰迪斯大学）；Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques（高等科学研究所）；Weizmann Institute of Science（魏茨曼科学研究所）；Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)（布鲁塞尔自由大学）；The International Solvay Institutes（国际索尔维研究所）
Quantum corrections to holographic entanglement entropy require knowledge of the bulk quantum state. In this paper, we derive a novel dual prescription for the generalized entropy that allows us to interpret the leading quantum corrections in a geometric way with minimal input from the bulk state. The equivalence is proven using tools borrowed from convex optimization. The new prescription does not involve bulk surfaces but instead uses a generalized notion of a flow, which allows for possible sources or sinks in the bulk geometry. In its discrete version, our prescription can alternatively be…
We generalize bit threads to hyperthreads in the context of holographic spacetimes. We define a "$k$-thread" to be a hyperthread which connects $k$ different boundary regions and posit that it may be considered as a unit of $k$-party entanglement. Using this new object, we show that the contribution of hyperthreads to calculations of holographic entanglement entropy are generically finite. This is accomplished by constructing a surface whose area determines their maximum allowed contribution. We also identify surfaces whose area is proportional to the maximum number of $k$-threads, motivating …
The continuous min flow-max cut principle is used to reformulate the 'complexity=volume' conjecture using Lorentzian flows -- divergenceless norm-bounded timelike vector fields whose minimum flux through a boundary subregion is equal to the volume of the homologous maximal bulk Cauchy slice. The nesting property is used to show the rate of complexity is bounded below by "conditional complexity", describing a multi-step optimization with intermediate and final target states. Conceptually, discretized Lorentzian flows are interpreted in terms of threads or gatelines such that complexity is equal…
Bit threads, a dual description of the Ryu-Takyanagi formula for holographic entanglement entropy (EE), can be interpreted as a distillation of the quantum information to a collection of Bell pairs between different boundary regions. In this article we discuss a generalization to hyperthreads which can connect more than two boundary regions leading to a rich and diverse class of convex programs. By modeling the contributions of different species of hyperthreads to the EEs of perfect tensors we argue that this framework may be useful for helping us to begin to probe the multipartite entanglemen…
