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arXiv:1902.10157

Holographic Tensor Networks in Full AdS/CFT

Ning Bao, Geoff Penington, Jonathan Sorce, Aron C. Wall

Published Feb 26, 2019• 25 citations
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Abstract

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-$N$ 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.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1902.10157

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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.
We present a general procedure for constructing tensor networks that accurately reproduce holographic states in conformal field theories (CFTs). Given a state in a large-N CFT with a static, semiclassical gravitational dual, we build a tensor network by an iterative series of approximations that eliminate redundant degrees of freedom and minimize the bond dimensions of the resulting network. We argue that the bond dimensions of the tensor network will match the areas of the corresponding bulk surfaces. For “tree” tensor networks (i.e., those that are constructed by discretizing spacetime with nonintersecting Ryu-Takayanagi surfaces), our arguments can be made rigorous using a version of one-shot entanglement distillation in the CFT. Using the known quantum error correcting properties of AdS/CFT, we show that bulk legs can be added to the tensor networks to create holographic quantum error correcting codes. These codes behave similarly to previous holographic tensor network toy models, but describe actual bulk excitations in continuum AdS/CFT. By assuming some natural generalizations of the “holographic entanglement of purification” conjecture, we are able to construct tensor networks for more general bulk discretizations, leading to finer-grained networks that partition the information content of a Ryu-Takayanagi surface into tensor-factorized subregions. While the granularity of such a tensor network must be set larger than the string/Planck scales, we expect that it can be chosen to lie well below the AdS scale. However, we also prove a no-go theorem which shows that the bulk-to-boundary maps cannot all be isometries in a tensor network with intersecting Ryu-Takayanagi surfaces.
A bstract We present a general procedure for constructing tensor networks that accurately reproduce holographic states in conformal field theories (CFTs). Given a state in a large- N CFT with a static, semiclassical gravitational dual, we build a tensor network by an iterative series of approximations that eliminate redundant degrees of freedom and minimize the bond dimensions of the resulting network. We argue that the bond dimensions of the tensor network will match the areas of the corresponding bulk surfaces. For “tree” tensor networks (i.e., those that are constructed by discretizing spacetime with non­ intersecting Ryu-Takayanagi surfaces), our arguments can be made rigorous using a version of one-shot entanglement distillation in the CFT. Using the known quantum error correcting properties of AdS/CFT, we show that bulk legs can be added to the tensor networks to create holographic quantum error correcting codes. These codes behave similarly to previous holographic tensor network toy models, but describe actual bulk excitations in continuum AdS/CFT. By assuming some natural generalizations of the “holographic entanglement of purification” conjecture, we are able to construct tensor networks for more general bulk discretizations, leading to finer-grained networks that partition the information content of a Ryu-Takayanagi surface into tensor-factorized subregions. While the granularity of such a tensor network must be set larger than the string/Planck scales, we expect that it can be chosen to lie well below the AdS scale. However, we also prove a no-go theorem which shows that the bulk-to-boundary maps cannot all be isometries in a tensor network with intersecting Ryu-Takayanagi surfaces.
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.
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.
Holographic tensor networks serve as toy models for the Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, capturing many of its essential features in a concrete manner. However, existing holographic tensor network models remain far from a complete theory of quantum gravity. A key obstacle is their discrete structure, which only approximates the semi-classical geometry of gravity in a qualitative sense. In \cite{Lin:2024dho}, it was shown that a network of partial-entanglement-entropy (PEE) threads, which are bulk geodesics with a specific density distribution, generates a perfect tessellation of AdS space. Moreover, such PEE-network tessellations can be constructed for more highly symmetric geometries using the Crofton formula. In this paper, we assign a quantum state to each vertex in the PEE network and develop several holographic tensor network models: (1) the factorized PEE tensor network, which takes the form of a tensor product of EPR pairs; (2) the HaPPY-like PEE tensor network constructed from perfect tensors; and (3) the random PEE tensor network. In all these models, we reproduce the exact Ryu-Takayanagi formula by showing that the minimal number of cuts along a homologous surface in the network exactly equals the area of that surface.
We argue that the entanglement of purification for 2D holographic conformal field theories (CFT) can be obtained from conformal blocks with internal twist operators. First, we explain our formula from the viewpoint of a tensor network model of holography. Then, we apply it to bipartite mixed states dual to a subregion of AdS|3{}_33​| and the static Bañados–Teitelboim–Zanelli black hole geometries. The formula in CFT agrees with the entanglement wedge cross section in the bulk, which has been recently conjectured to be equivalent to the entanglement of purification.