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arXiv:1609.04645 · Physical review. D/Physical review. D.

From path integrals to tensor networks for the AdS/CFT correspondence

Masamichi Miyaji, Tadashi Takayanagi, Kento Watanabe

Published Mar 6, 2017• 67 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this paper, we discuss tensor network descriptions of $\mathrm{AdS}/\mathrm{CFT}$ from two different viewpoints. First, we start with a Euclidean path-integral computation of ground state wave functions with a UV cutoff. We consider its efficient optimization by making its UV cutoff position dependent and define a quantum state at each length scale. We conjecture that this path integral corresponds to a time slice of anti--de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. Next, we derive a flow of quantum states by rewriting the action of Killing vectors of ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{3}$ in terms of the dual two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT). Both approaches support a correspondence between the hyperbolic time slice ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ in ${\mathrm{AdS}}_{3}$ and a version of continuous multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz. We also give a heuristic argument about why we can expect a sub-AdS scale bulk locality for holographic CFTs.

DOI
10.1103/physrevd.95.066004

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In this paper, we discuss tensor network descriptions of AdS/CFT\mathrm{AdS}/\mathrm{CFT}AdS/CFT from two different viewpoints. First, we start with a Euclidean path-integral computation of ground state wave functions with a UV cutoff. We consider its efficient optimization by making its UV cutoff position dependent and define a quantum state at each length scale. We conjecture that this path integral corresponds to a time slice of anti--de Sitter (AdS) spacetime. Next, we derive a flow of quantum states by rewriting the action of Killing vectors of AdS3{\mathrm{AdS}}_{3}AdS3​ in terms of the dual two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT). Both approaches support a correspondence between the hyperbolic time slice H2{\mathrm{H}}_{2}H2​ in AdS3{\mathrm{AdS}}_{3}AdS3​ and a version of continuous multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz. We also give a heuristic argument about why we can expect a sub-AdS scale bulk locality for holographic CFTs.
We introduce a new optimization procedure for Euclidean path integrals, which compute wave functionals in conformal field theories (CFTs). We optimize the background metric in the space on which the path integration is performed. Equivalently, this is interpreted as a position-dependent UV cutoff. For two-dimensional CFT vacua, we find the optimized metric is given by that of a hyperbolic space, and we interpret this as a continuous limit of the conjectured relation between tensor networks and Anti-de Sitter (AdS)/conformal field theory (CFT) correspondence. We confirm our procedure for excited states, the thermofield double state, the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, and discuss its extension to higher-dimensional CFTs. We also show that when applied to reduced density matrices, it reproduces entanglement wedges and holographic entanglement entropy. We suggest that our optimization prescription is analogous to the estimation of computational complexity.
Abstract We propose an optimization procedure for Euclidean path-integrals that evaluate CFT wave functionals in arbitrary dimensions. The optimization is performed by minimizing certain functional, which can be interpreted as a measure of computational complexity, with respect to background metrics for the path-integrals. In two dimensional CFTs, this functional is given by the Liouville action. We also formulate the optimization for higher dimensional CFTs and, in various examples, find that the optimized hyperbolic metrics coincide with the time slices of expected gravity duals. Moreover, if we optimize a reduced density matrix, the geometry becomes two copies of the entanglement wedge and reproduces the holographic entanglement entropy. Our approach resembles a continuous tensor network renormalization and provides a concrete realization of the proposed interpretation of AdS/CFT as tensor networks. The present paper is an extended version of our earlier report arXiv:1703.00456 and includes many new results such as evaluations of complexity functionals, energy stress tensor, higher dimensional extensions and time evolutions of thermofield double states.
The AdS/CFT correspondence, a remarkable duality between certain gravitational theories in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime and quantum field theories with conformal symmetry (CFT), has had a profound effect on the development of theoretical physics in the past two decades. Recently, many connections of AdS/CFT to quantum information theory have been found, in particular by providing gravitationally dual descriptions of various entanglement measures. Understanding these manifestions of AdS/CFT --- or more generally, the conjectured holographic principle encompassing it --- requires the combination of tools from both high-energy theory and quantum information physics. In this cumulative thesis, the convergence between these two fields is approached from two fronts: First, by calculations within the dual gravitational theory, and second, using a tensor network ansatz to describe the quantum states suspected to possess such a gravitational description. In the first approach, using the gravitational side of AdS/CFT, entanglement entropies of complicated 2+1-dimensional excited CFTs are computed, thus showing how the holographic approach provides access to systems previously out of reach of practical methods, while introducing new numerical methods that this approach necessitates. The second approach is given by tensor networks, a highly successful ansatz for computing properties of one- and two-dimensional quantum systems. Efficiently computable classes of tensor networks are tested in their ability to represent simple holographic systems, successfully reproducing both hyperbolic geometrical features as well as critical boundary states. In addition, the general properties of tensor networks on regular hyperbolic tesselations are considered, leading to new connections to models not previously considered in the context of holography. This interplay of different approaches to quantum information holography showcases the richness of this new field and suggests that a wide range of physical phenomena is accessible via the new tools now at our disposal.
We present a general procedure for constructing tensor networks for geometric states in the Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence. Given a state in a large-NNN CFT with a static, semiclassical gravitational dual, our procedure produces a tensor network for the boundary state whose internal geometry matches (a discretization of) the bulk spacetime geometry. By invoking the "holographic entanglement of purification" conjecture, our construction can be made to capture the structure of the bulk spacetime at sub-AdS scales.
A bstract We discuss a one-parameter family of states in two-dimensional holographic conformal field theories which are constructed via the Euclidean path integral of an effective theory on a family of hyperbolic slices in the dual bulk geometry. The effective theory in question is the CFT flowed under a TT‾ T\overline{T} TT T T ¯ deformation, which “folds” the boundary CFT towards the bulk time-reflection symmetric slice. We propose that these novel Euclidean path integral states in the CFT can be interpreted as continuous tensor network (CTN) states. We argue that these CTN states satisfy a Ryu-Takayanagi-like minimal area upper bound on the entanglement entropies of boundary intervals, with the coefficient being equal to 14GN \frac{1}{4{G}_N} 4GN​1​ 1 4 G N ; the CTN corresponding to the bulk time-reflection symmetric slice saturates this bound. We also argue that the original state of the CFT can be written as a superposition of such CTN states, with the corresponding wavefunction being the bulk Hartle-Hawking wavefunction.
The study of critical quantum many-body systems through conformal field theory (CFT) is one of the pillars of modern quantum physics. Certain CFTs are also understood to be dual to higher-dimensional theories of gravity via the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence. To reproduce various features of AdS/CFT, a large number of discrete models based on tensor networks have been proposed. Some recent models, most notably including toy models of holographic quantum error correction, are constructed on regular time-slice discretizations of AdS. In this work, we show that the symmetries of these models are well suited for approximating CFT states, as their geometry enforces a discrete subgroup of conformal symmetries. Based on these symmetries, we introduce the notion of a quasiperiodic conformal field theory (qCFT), a critical theory less restrictive than a full CFT and with characteristic multi-scale quasiperiodicity. We discuss holographic code states and their renormalization group flow as specific implementations of a qCFT with fractional central charges and argue that their behavior generalizes to a large class of existing and future models. Beyond approximating CFT properties, we show that these can be best understood as belonging to a paradigm of discrete holography.