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arXiv:1812.08120 · Nuclear Physics A

Entanglement and thermalization

Jürgen Berges, Stefan Floerchinger, Raju Venugopalan B

Published Jan 22, 2019• 15 citations
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Abstract

In a quantum field theory, apparent thermalization can be a consequence of entanglement as opposed to scatterings. We discuss here how this can help to explain open puzzles such as the success of thermal models in electron-positron collisions. It turns out that an expanding relativistic string described by the Schwinger model (which also underlies the Lund model) has at early times an entanglement entropy that is extensive in rapidity. At these early times, the reduced density operator is of thermal form, with an entanglement temperature Tτ=ħ/(2πkBτ), even in the absence of any scatterings.

DOI
10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2018.12.008

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In a quantum field theory, apparent thermalization can be a consequence of entanglement as opposed to scatterings. We discuss here how this can help to explain open puzzles such as the success of thermal models in electron-positron collisions. It turns out that an expanding relativistic string described by the Schwinger model (which also underlies the Lund model) has at early times an entanglement entropy that is extensive in rapidity. At these early times, the reduced density operator is of thermal form, with an entanglement temperature Tτ=ħ/(2πkBτ), even in the absence of any scatterings.
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Here, we develop a novel real-time approach to computing the entanglement between spatial regions for Gaussian states in quantum field theory. The entanglement entropy is characterized in terms of local correlation functions on space-like Cauchy hypersurfaces. The framework is applied to explore an expanding light cone geometry in the particular case of the Schwinger model for quantum electrodynamics in 1+1 space-time dimensions. We observe that the entanglement entropy becomes extensive in rapidity at early times and that the corresponding local reduced density matrix is a thermal density matrix for excitations around a coherent field with a time dependent temperature. Since the Schwinger model successfully describes many features of multiparticle production in e+e- collisions, our results provide an attractive explanation in this framework for the apparent thermal nature of multiparticle production even in the absence of significant final state scattering.
Abstract We develop a functional real-time approach to computing the entanglement between spatial regions for Gaussian states in quantum field theory. The entanglement entropy is characterized in terms of local correlation functions on space-like Cauchy hypersurfaces. The framework is applied to explore an expanding light cone geometry in the particular case of the Schwinger model for quantum electrodynamics in 1+1 space-time dimensions. We observe that the entanglement entropy becomes extensive in rapidity at early times and that the corresponding local reduced density matrix is a thermal density matrix for excitations around a coherent field with a time dependent temperature. Since the Schwinger model successfully describes many features of multiparticle production in e + e − collisions, our results provide an attractive explanation in this framework for the apparent thermal nature of multiparticle production even in the absence of significant final state scattering.
These lectures advocate the idea that quantum entanglement provides a unifying foundation for both statistical physics and high-energy interactions. I argue that, at sufficiently long times or high energies, most quantum systems approach a Maximal Entanglement Limit (MEL) in which phases of quantum states become unobservable, reduced density matrices acquire a thermal form, and probabilistic descriptions emerge without invoking ergodicity or classical randomness. Within this framework, the emergence of probabilistic parton model, thermalization in the break-up of confining strings and in high-energy collisions, and the universal small xxx behavior of structure functions arise as direct consequences of entanglement and geometry of high-dimensional Hilbert space.
We investigate the emergence of thermalization in a quantum-field-theoretic model mimicking the production of jets in QCD: the massive lattice Schwinger model coupled to external sources. Specifically, we compute the expectation values of local operators as functions of time and compare them to their thermal counterparts, quantify the overlap between the evolving density matrix and the thermal one, and compare the dynamics of the energy-momentum tensor to predictions from relativistic hydrodynamics. Through these studies, we find that the system approaches thermalization at late times and elucidate the mechanisms by which quantum entanglement drives thermalization in closed field-theoretic systems. Our results show how thermodynamic behavior emerges in real time from unitary quantum dynamics.
The possible link between entanglement and thermalization, and the dynamics of hadronization are addressed by studying the real-time response of the massive Schwinger model coupled to external sources. This setup mimics the production and fragmentation of quark jets, as the Schwinger model and quantum chromodynamics (QCD) share the properties of confinement and chiral symmetry breaking. By using simulations of quantum dynamics on classical hardware, we study the entanglement between the produced jets, and observe the growth of the corresponding entanglement entropy in time. This growth arises from the increased number of contributing eigenstates of the reduced density matrix with sufficiently large and close eigenvalues. We also investigate the physical nature of these eigenstates, and find that at early times they correspond to fermionic Fock states. We then observe the transition from these fermionic Fock states to mesonlike bound states as a function of time. In other words, we observe how hadronization develops in real time. At late times, the local observables at midrapidity (such as the fermion density and the electric field) approach approximately constant values, suggesting the onset of equilibrium and approach to thermalization. Published by the American Physical Society 2024