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arXiv:1806.06840

A semiclassical ramp in SYK and in gravity

Phil Saad, Stephen H. Shenker, Douglas Stanford

Published Jun 18, 2018• 206 citations
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Abstract

In finite entropy systems, real-time partition functions do not decay to zero at late time. Instead, assuming random matrix universality, suitable averages exhibit a growing "ramp" and "plateau" structure. Deriving this non-decaying behavior in a large $N$ collective field description is a challenge related to one version of the black hole information problem. We describe a candidate semiclassical explanation of the ramp for the SYK model and for black holes. In SYK, this is a two-replica nonperturbative saddle point for the large $N$ collective fields, with zero action and a compact zero mode that leads to a linearly growing ramp. In the black hole context, the solution is a two-sided black hole that is periodically identified under a Killing time translation. We discuss but do not resolve some puzzles that arise.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1806.06840

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In finite entropy systems, real-time partition functions do not decay to zero at late time. Instead, assuming random matrix universality, suitable averages exhibit a growing "ramp" and "plateau" structure. Deriving this non-decaying behavior in a large NNN collective field description is a challenge related to one version of the black hole information problem. We describe a candidate semiclassical explanation of the ramp for the SYK model and for black holes. In SYK, this is a two-replica nonperturbative saddle point for the large NNN collective fields, with zero action and a compact zero mode that leads to a linearly growing ramp. In the black hole context, the solution is a two-sided black hole that is periodically identified under a Killing time translation. We discuss but do not resolve some puzzles that arise.
The SYK model spectral form factor exhibits absence of information loss in the form of a ramp and a plateau that are typical of random matrix theory. In a large N collective fields description, the ramp was reproduced by Saad, Shenker and Stanford by a connected component of the analytically continued thermal partition function two point correlator. The existence of an \emph{off shell} connected component for the real time partition function is a consequence of disorder averaging over a statistical ensemble of two replica systems. In particular, the ramp arises from a family of vanishing action replica-non-diagonal conformal saddles. We provide a derivation of the soft modes effective action for fluctuations around the ramp conformal saddles, by adapting to the two replica system a method used by Kitaev and Suh in regular SYK.
The strongly coupled D1-D5 conformal field theory is a microscopic model of black holes which is expected to have chaotic dynamics. Here, we study the weak coupling limit of the theory where it is integrable rather than chaotic. In this limit, the operators creating microstates of the lowest mass black hole are known exactly. We consider the time-ordered two-point function of light probes in these microstates, normalized by the same two-point function in vacuum. These correlators display a universal early-time decay followed by late-time sporadic behavior. To find a prescription for temporal coarse-graining of these late fluctuations we appeal to random matrix theory, where we show that a progressive time-average smooths the spectral form factor (a proxy for the 2-point function) in a typical draw of a random matrix. This coarse-grained quantity reproduces the matrix ensemble average to a good approximation. Employing this coarse-graining in the D1-D5 system, we find that the early-time decay is followed by a dip, a ramp and a plateau, in remarkable qualitative agreement with recent studies of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. We study the timescales involved, comment on similarities and differences between our integrable model and the chaotic SYK model, and suggest ways to extend our results away from the integrable limit.
We derive the late-time ramp of the finite-temperature spectral form factor in the double-scaled SYK model directly from cactus diagrams, which is introduced as a multi-trace generalization of chord diagram in Ref \cite{Berkooz:2020fvm}. Although single-trace observables admit an exact chord-diagram description, multi-trace sums are obstructed by the chord-intersection weights qIJq_{IJ}qIJ​, which cannot be averaged independently to qqq. Our key idea is that the non-analytic contribution responsible for the ramp is controlled by the large-order tail of the Cactus-diagram expansion and is insensitive to finite changes in its low-order analytic terms. Decomposing the contribution with nnn-cross-trace-pairings Cactus diagram into two buds BnB_nBn​ and a kernel Kn\mathcal K_nKn​, we determine their large-nnn asymptotics with fixed 0≤q<10\leq q<10≤q<1 and resum the resulting tail. For βL=β+itβ_L=β+itβL​=β+it and βR=β−itβ_R=β-itβR​=β−it, we obtain \begin{equation*} Z_s^{\mathrm{sing}}(β+it,β-it) =s_p c_N \frac{|t|}{2π} \int_{E_{min}}^{E_{max}} e^{-2βE} dE+O(1), \qquad s_p=\begin{cases}2,&4\mid p,\\1,&4\nmid p.\end{cases} \end{equation*} This result reproduces the linear ramp predicted by random matrix theory, including its temperature dependence and symmetry factor, and agrees with the semiclassical predictions. It provides a direct microscopic origin of the ramp within the general qqq-deformed quantum algebra. While the plateau lies beyond the scope of the present analysis and calculation.
Abstract In this note we study the spectral form factor in the SYK model in large q limit at infinite temperature. We construct analytic solutions for the saddle point equations that describe the slope and the ramp regions of the spectral form factor time dependence. These saddle points are obtained by taking different approaches to the large q limit: the slope region is described by a replica-diagonal solution and the ramp region is described by a replica-nondiagonal solution. We find that the onset of the ramp behavior happens at the Thouless time of order q log q. We also evaluate the one-loop corrections to the slope and ramp solutions for late times, and study the transition from the slope to the ramp. We show this transition is accompanied by the breakdown of the perturbative 1/q expansion, and that the Thouless time is defined by the consistency of extrapolation of this expansion to late times.
We investigate the bulk-boundary correspondence in the SYK model from a quantum information perspective. The SYK model describes a system of Majorana fermions with random all-to-all interactions, whose disorder average-typically taken over a Gaussian ensemble-admits a dual description in terms of JT gravity in the large-NNN, low-energy limit. This framework provides a minimal setting for exploring holography and emergent spacetime in nearly AdS2_22​. We probe the holographic principle through diagnostics of quantum chaos and entanglement. In the early-time regime, the SYK model saturates the universal bound on the Lyapunov exponent, signaling maximal chaos consistent with semiclassical black hole dynamics. In the late-time regime, its spectral statistics are governed by random matrix theory, reflecting universal features of strongly chaotic quantum systems. These dynamical properties establish a concrete link between boundary quantum chaos and bulk semiclassical gravity. In parallel, we analyze quantum entanglement and the structure of operator algebras to investigate transitions in the associated von Neumann algebras and their implications for emergent geometry. To explore the robustness of these phenomena, we consider deformations of the SYK model through modified matter couplings and alternative random distributions. Our results clarify how quantum information-theoretic structures encode bulk gravitational dynamics and provide insight into the mechanism of spacetime emergence.
A bstract We investigate the evolution of entanglement within an open, strongly coupled system interacting with a heat bath as its environment, in the frameworks of both the doubly holographic model and the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. Generally, the entanglement within the system initially increases as due to internal interactions; however, it eventually dissipates into the environment. In the doubly holographic setup, we consider an end-of-the-world brane in the bulk to represent an eternal black hole coupled with its radiation and the evolution of the global thermofield double (TFD) state. For small black holes, the reflected entropy between the bipartition exhibits a ramp-plateau-slump behavior, where the plateau arises due to the phase transition of the entanglement wedge cross-section before the Page time. Similarly, the mutual information between the bipartition displays a ramp-slop-stabilizing behavior. In quantum mechanics, we consider a double copy of the SYK-plus-bath system in a global TFD state, resembling an eternal black hole interacting with an environment. The Rényi mutual information within the double-copied SYK clusters exhibits a ramp-plateau-slope-stabilizing behavior. The dynamic behaviors of the entanglement quantities observed in these two models are attributable to the competition between the internal interaction of the system and the external interaction with the baths. Our study provides a fine-grained picture of the entanglement dynamics inside black holes before their Page time.