Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1505.04225 · Physical review. D. Particles, fields, gravitation, and cosmology/Physical review. D. Particles and fields

Entanglement tsunami in ( 1 + 1 )-dimensions

Stefan Leichenauer, Mudassir Moosa

Published Dec 8, 2015• 57 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We study the time dependence of the entanglement entropy of disjoint intervals following a global quantum quench in ($1+1$)-dimensional CFTs at large $c$ with a sparse spectrum. The result agrees with a holographic calculation but differs from the free field theory answer. In particular, a simple model of free quasiparticle propagation is not adequate for CFTs with a holographic dual. We elaborate on the entanglement tsunami proposal of Liu and Suh and show how it can be used to reproduce the holographic answer.

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.92.126004

Related papers

Spread of entanglement for small subsystems in holographic CFTs

Sandipan Kundu, Juan F. Pedraza

We develop an analytic perturbative expansion to study the propagation of entanglement entropy for small subsystems after a global quench, in the context of the $\mathrm{AdS}/\mathrm{CFT}$ correspondence. Opposite to the large interval limit, in this case the evolution of the system takes place at time scales that are shorter in comparison to the local equilibration scale and, thus, different physical mechanisms govern the dynamics and subsequent thermalization. In particular, we show that the heuristic picture in terms of an ``entanglement tsunami'' does not apply in this regime. We find two crucial differences: First, that the instantaneous rate of growth of the entanglement is not constrained by causality, but rather its time average and, second, that the approach to saturation is always continuous, regardless of the shape of the entangling surface. Our analytic expansion also enables us to verify some previous numerical results, namely, that the saturation time is nonmonotonic with respect to the chemical potential. All of our results are pertinent to CFTs with a classical gravity dual formulation.

arXiv:1602.05934•Physical review. D/Physical review. D.•Apr 10, 2017•40 citations

Spread of entanglement and causality

Horacio Casini, Hong Liu, Márk Mezei

We investigate causality constraints on the time evolution of entanglement entropy after a global quench in relativistic theories. We first provide a general proof that the so-called tsunami velocity is bounded by the speed of light. We then generalize the free particle streaming model of [1] to general dimensions and to an arbitrary entanglement pattern of the initial state. In more than two spacetime dimensions the spread of entanglement in these models is highly sensitive to the initial entanglement pattern, but we are able to prove an upper bound on the normalized rate of growth of entanglement entropy, and hence the tsunami velocity. The bound is smaller than what one gets for quenches in holographic theories, which highlights the importance of interactions in the spread of entanglement in many-body systems. We propose an interacting model which we believe provides an upper bound on the spread of entanglement for interacting relativistic theories. In two spacetime dimensions with multiple intervals, this model and its variations are able to reproduce intricate results exhibited by holographic theories for a significant part of the parameter space. For higher dimensions, the model bounds the tsunami velocity at the speed of light. Finally, we construct a geometric model for entanglement propagation based on a tensor network construction for global quenches.

arXiv:1509.05044•Journal of High Energy Physics•Jul 1, 2016•110 citations

Dynamics of holographic entanglement entropy following a local quench

Mukund Rangamani, Moshe Rozali, Alexandre Vincart-Emard

We discuss the behaviour of holographic entanglement entropy following a local quench in 2+1 dimensional strongly coupled CFTs. The entanglement generated by the quench propagates along an emergent light-cone, reminiscent of the Lieb-Robinson light-cone propagation of correlations in non-relativistic systems. We find the speed of propagation is bounded from below by the entanglement tsunami velocity obtained earlier for global quenches in holographic systems, and from above by the speed of light. The former is realized for sufficiently broad quenches, while the latter pertains for well localized quenches. The non-universal behavior in the intermediate regime appears to stem from finite-size effects. We also note that the entanglement entropy of subsystems reverts to the equilibrium value exponentially fast, in contrast to a much slower equilibration seen in certain spin models.

arXiv:1512.03478•Journal of High Energy Physics•Apr 1, 2016•11 citations

Holographic entanglement contour, bit threads, and the entanglement tsunami

Jonah Kudler-Flam, Ian MacCormack, Shinsei Ryu

Abstract We study the entanglement contour, a quasi-local measure of entanglement, and propose a generic formula for the contour in 1 + 1d quantum systems. We use this formalism to investigate the real space entanglement structure of various static CFTs as well as local and global quantum quenches. The global quench elucidates the spatial distribution of entanglement entropy in strongly interacting CFTs and clarifies the interpretation of the entanglement tsunami picture. The entanglement tsunami effectively characterizes the non-local growth of entanglement entropy while the contour characterizes the local propagation of entanglement. We generalize the formula for the entanglement contour to arbitrary dimensions and entangling surface geometries using bit threads, and are able to realize a holographic contour for logarithmic negativity and the entanglement of purification by restricting the bulk spacetime to the entanglement wedge. Furthermore, we explore the connections between the entanglement contour, bit threads, and entanglement density in kinematic space.

arXiv:1902.04654•Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Jun 28, 2019•83 citations

Dynamics of holographic entanglement entropy following a local quench

Rangamani, M, Rozali, M, Vincart-Emard, A

Abstract: We discuss the behaviour of holographic entanglement entropy following a local quench in 2+1 dimensional strongly coupled CFTs. The entanglement generated by the quench propagates along an emergent light-cone, reminiscent of the Lieb-Robinson light-cone propagation of correlations in non-relativistic systems. We find the speed of propagation is bounded from below by the entanglement tsunami velocity obtained earlier for global quenches in holographic systems, and from above by the speed of light. The former is realized for sufficiently broad quenches, while the latter pertains for well localized quenches. The non-universal behavior in the intermediate regime appears to stem from finite-size effects. We also note that the entanglement entropy of subsystems reverts to the equilibrium value exponentially fast, in contrast to a much slower equilibration seen in certain spin models.

•Apr 1, 2016•21 citations

Holographic entanglement entropy of local quenches in AdS4/CFT3: a finite-element approach

Alexander Jahn, Tadashi Takayanagi

Abstract Understanding quantum entanglement in interacting higher-dimensional conformal field theories is a challenging task, as direct analytical calculations are often impossible to perform. With holographic entanglement entropy, calculations of entanglement entropy turn into a problem of finding extremal surfaces in a curved spacetime, which we tackle with a numerical finite-element approach. In this paper, we compute the entanglement entropy between two half-spaces resulting from a local quench, triggered by a local operator insertion in a CFT 3 . We find that the growth of entanglement entropy at early time agrees with the prediction from the first law, as long as the conformal dimension Δ of the local operator is small. Within the limited time region that we can probe numerically, we observe deviations from the first law and a transition to sub-linear growth at later time. In particular, the time dependence at large Δ shows qualitative differences to the simple logarithmic time dependence familiar from the CFT 2 case. We hope that our work will motivate further studies, both numerical and analytical, on entanglement entropy in higher dimensions.

arXiv:1705.04705•Journal of Physics A Mathematical and Theoretical•Sep 7, 2017•13 citations
We study the time dependence of the entanglement entropy of disjoint intervals following a global quantum quench in (1+11+11+1)-dimensional CFTs at large ccc with a sparse spectrum. The result agrees with a holographic calculation but differs from the free field theory answer. In particular, a simple model of free quasiparticle propagation is not adequate for CFTs with a holographic dual. We elaborate on the entanglement tsunami proposal of Liu and Suh and show how it can be used to reproduce the holographic answer.
We develop an analytic perturbative expansion to study the propagation of entanglement entropy for small subsystems after a global quench, in the context of the AdS/CFT\mathrm{AdS}/\mathrm{CFT}AdS/CFT correspondence. Opposite to the large interval limit, in this case the evolution of the system takes place at time scales that are shorter in comparison to the local equilibration scale and, thus, different physical mechanisms govern the dynamics and subsequent thermalization. In particular, we show that the heuristic picture in terms of an ``entanglement tsunami'' does not apply in this regime. We find two crucial differences: First, that the instantaneous rate of growth of the entanglement is not constrained by causality, but rather its time average and, second, that the approach to saturation is always continuous, regardless of the shape of the entangling surface. Our analytic expansion also enables us to verify some previous numerical results, namely, that the saturation time is nonmonotonic with respect to the chemical potential. All of our results are pertinent to CFTs with a classical gravity dual formulation.
We investigate causality constraints on the time evolution of entanglement entropy after a global quench in relativistic theories. We first provide a general proof that the so-called tsunami velocity is bounded by the speed of light. We then generalize the free particle streaming model of [1] to general dimensions and to an arbitrary entanglement pattern of the initial state. In more than two spacetime dimensions the spread of entanglement in these models is highly sensitive to the initial entanglement pattern, but we are able to prove an upper bound on the normalized rate of growth of entanglement entropy, and hence the tsunami velocity. The bound is smaller than what one gets for quenches in holographic theories, which highlights the importance of interactions in the spread of entanglement in many-body systems. We propose an interacting model which we believe provides an upper bound on the spread of entanglement for interacting relativistic theories. In two spacetime dimensions with multiple intervals, this model and its variations are able to reproduce intricate results exhibited by holographic theories for a significant part of the parameter space. For higher dimensions, the model bounds the tsunami velocity at the speed of light. Finally, we construct a geometric model for entanglement propagation based on a tensor network construction for global quenches.
We discuss the behaviour of holographic entanglement entropy following a local quench in 2+1 dimensional strongly coupled CFTs. The entanglement generated by the quench propagates along an emergent light-cone, reminiscent of the Lieb-Robinson light-cone propagation of correlations in non-relativistic systems. We find the speed of propagation is bounded from below by the entanglement tsunami velocity obtained earlier for global quenches in holographic systems, and from above by the speed of light. The former is realized for sufficiently broad quenches, while the latter pertains for well localized quenches. The non-universal behavior in the intermediate regime appears to stem from finite-size effects. We also note that the entanglement entropy of subsystems reverts to the equilibrium value exponentially fast, in contrast to a much slower equilibration seen in certain spin models.
Abstract We study the entanglement contour, a quasi-local measure of entanglement, and propose a generic formula for the contour in 1 + 1d quantum systems. We use this formalism to investigate the real space entanglement structure of various static CFTs as well as local and global quantum quenches. The global quench elucidates the spatial distribution of entanglement entropy in strongly interacting CFTs and clarifies the interpretation of the entanglement tsunami picture. The entanglement tsunami effectively characterizes the non-local growth of entanglement entropy while the contour characterizes the local propagation of entanglement. We generalize the formula for the entanglement contour to arbitrary dimensions and entangling surface geometries using bit threads, and are able to realize a holographic contour for logarithmic negativity and the entanglement of purification by restricting the bulk spacetime to the entanglement wedge. Furthermore, we explore the connections between the entanglement contour, bit threads, and entanglement density in kinematic space.
Abstract: We discuss the behaviour of holographic entanglement entropy following a local quench in 2+1 dimensional strongly coupled CFTs. The entanglement generated by the quench propagates along an emergent light-cone, reminiscent of the Lieb-Robinson light-cone propagation of correlations in non-relativistic systems. We find the speed of propagation is bounded from below by the entanglement tsunami velocity obtained earlier for global quenches in holographic systems, and from above by the speed of light. The former is realized for sufficiently broad quenches, while the latter pertains for well localized quenches. The non-universal behavior in the intermediate regime appears to stem from finite-size effects. We also note that the entanglement entropy of subsystems reverts to the equilibrium value exponentially fast, in contrast to a much slower equilibration seen in certain spin models.
Abstract Understanding quantum entanglement in interacting higher-dimensional conformal field theories is a challenging task, as direct analytical calculations are often impossible to perform. With holographic entanglement entropy, calculations of entanglement entropy turn into a problem of finding extremal surfaces in a curved spacetime, which we tackle with a numerical finite-element approach. In this paper, we compute the entanglement entropy between two half-spaces resulting from a local quench, triggered by a local operator insertion in a CFT 3 . We find that the growth of entanglement entropy at early time agrees with the prediction from the first law, as long as the conformal dimension Δ of the local operator is small. Within the limited time region that we can probe numerically, we observe deviations from the first law and a transition to sub-linear growth at later time. In particular, the time dependence at large Δ shows qualitative differences to the simple logarithmic time dependence familiar from the CFT 2 case. We hope that our work will motivate further studies, both numerical and analytical, on entanglement entropy in higher dimensions.