We argue that the problem of calculating retention time scales in young black holes is a problem of relative state complexity. In particular, we suggest that Alice’s ability to estimate the time scale for a perturbed black hole to release the extra n qubits comes down to her decoding the Hilbert space of the Hawking radiation. We then demonstrate the decoding task Alice faces is very difficult, and in order to calculate the relative state complexity she would either need to act with an exponentially complex unitary operator or apply an extremely fine-tuned future precursor operator to the perturbed state in S U ( 2 K ) .
We argue that the problem of calculating retention time scales in young black holes is a problem of relative state complexity. In particular, we suggest that Alice’s ability to estimate the time scale for a perturbed black hole to release the extra n qubits comes down to her decoding the Hilbert space of the Hawking radiation. We then demonstrate the decoding task Alice faces is very difficult, and in order to calculate the relative state complexity she would either need to act with an exponentially complex unitary operator or apply an extremely fine-tuned future precursor operator to the perturbed state in S U ( 2 K ) .
We characterize new universal features of the dynamics of chaotic quantum many-body systems, by considering a hypothetical task of “time estimation”. Most macroscopic observables in a chaotic system equilibrate to nearly constant late-time values. Intuitively, it should become increasingly difficult to estimate the precise value of time by making measurements on the state. We use a quantity called the Fisher information from quantum metrology to quantify the minimum uncertainty in estimating time. Due to unitarity, the uncertainty in the time estimate does not grow with time if we have access to optimal measurements on the full system. Restricting the measurements to act on a small subsystem or to have low computational complexity leads to results expected from equilibration, where the time uncertainty becomes large at late times. With optimal measurements on a subsystem larger than half of the system, we regain the ability to estimate the time very precisely, even at late times. Hawking’s calculation for the reduced density matrix of the black hole radiation in semiclassical gravity contradicts our general predictions for unitary quantum chaotic systems. Hawking’s state always has a large uncertainty for attempts to estimate the time using the radiation, whereas our general results imply that the uncertainty should become small after the Page time. This gives a new version of the black hole information loss paradox in terms of the time estimation task. By restricting to simple measurements on the radiation, the time uncertainty becomes large. This indicates from a new perspective that the observations of computationally bounded agents are consistent with the semiclassical effective description of gravity.
We study the complexity of Hawking radiation for an evaporating black hole from the perspective of the stabilizer theory of quantum computation. Specifically, we calculate Wigner negativity—a magic monotone that can be interpreted as a measure of the stabilizer complexity, or equivalently, the complexity of classical simulation—in various toy models for evaporating black holes. We first calculate the Wigner negativity of Hawking radiation in the Penington-Shenker-Stanford-Yang (PSSY) model directly using the gravitational path integral, and show that the negativity is O ( 1 ) before the Page transition, but becomes exponentially large past the Page transition. We also derive a universal, information theoretic formula for the negativity that interpolates between the two extremes. We then study the Wigner negativity of radiation in a dynamical model of black hole evaporation. In this case, the negativity shows a sharp spike at early times resulting from the coupling between the black hole and the radiation system, but at late times when the system settles down, we find that the negativity satisfies the same universal formula as in the PSSY model. Finally, we also propose a geometric formula for Wigner negativity in general holographic states using intuition from fixed area states and random tensor networks, and argue that a python’s lunch in the entanglement wedge implies a stabilizer complexity that is exponentially large in 1 8 G N times the difference between the areas corresponding to the outermost and minimal extremal surfaces.
A central problem in formulating a theory of quantum gravity is to determine the size and structure of the Hilbert space of black holes. Here we use a quantum dynamical Krylov complexity approach to calculate the Hilbert space dimension of a black hole in 2+1-dimensional Anti-de Sitter space. We achieve this by obtaining the spread of an initial thermofield double state over the Krylov basis. The associated Lanczos coefficients match those for chaotic motion on the SL(2,R) group. By including non-perturbative effects in the path integral, which computes coarse-grained ensemble averages, we find that the complexity saturates at late times. The saturation value is given by the exponential of the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. Our results introduce a new way to compute the Hilbert space dimension of complex interacting systems from the saturating value of spread complexity.
Abstract Quantum computational complexity estimates the difficulty of constructing quantum states from elementary operations, a problem of prime importance for quantum computation. Surprisingly, this quantity can also serve to study a completely different physical problem – that of information processing inside black holes. Quantum computational complexity was suggested as a new entry in the holographic dictionary, which extends the connection between geometry and information and resolves the puzzle of why black hole interiors keep growing for a very long time. In this pedagogical review, we present the geometric approach to complexity advocated by Nielsen and show how it can be used to define complexity for generic quantum systems; in particular, we focus on Gaussian states in QFT, both pure and mixed, and on certain classes of CFT states. We then present the conjectured relation to gravitational quantities within the holographic correspondence and discuss several examples in which different versions of the conjectures have been tested. We highlight the relation between complexity, chaos and scrambling in chaotic systems. We conclude with a discussion of open problems and future directions. This article was written for the special issue of EPJ-C Frontiers in Holographic Duality.
Computational complexity is essential to understanding the properties of black hole horizons. The problem of Alice creating a firewall behind the horizon of Bob's black hole is a problem of computational complexity. In general we find that while creating firewalls is possible, it is extremely difficult and probably impossible for black holes that form in sudden collapse, and then evaporate. On the other hand if the radiation is bottled up then after an exponentially long period of time firewalls may be common. It is possible that gravity will provide tools to study problems of complexity; especially the range of complexity between scrambling and exponential complexity.
By analyzing the key properties of black holes from the point of view of quantum information, we derive a model‐independent picture of black hole quantum computing. It has been noticed that this picture exhibits striking similarities with quantum critical condensates, allowing the use of a common language to describe quantum computing in both systems. We analyze such quantum computing by allowing coupling to external modes, under the condition that the external influence must be soft‐enough in order not to offset the basic properties of the system. We derive model‐independent bounds on some crucial time‐scales, such as the times of gate operation, decoherence, maximal entanglement and total scrambling. We show that for black hole type quantum computers all these time‐scales are of the order of the black hole half‐life time. Furthermore, we construct explicitly a set of Hamiltonians that generates a universal set of quantum gates for the black hole type computer. We find that the gates work at maximal energy efficiency. Furthermore, we establish a fundamental bound on the complexity of quantum circuits encoded on these systems, and characterize the unitary operations that are implementable. It becomes apparent that the computational power is very limited due to the fact that the black hole life‐time is of the same order of the gate operation time. As a consequence, it is impossible to retrieve its information, within the life‐time of a black hole, by externally coupling to the black hole qubits. However, we show that, in principle, coupling to some of the internal degrees of freedom allows acquiring knowledge about the micro‐state. Still, due to the trivial complexity of operations that can be performed, there is no time advantage over the collection of Hawking radiation and subsequent decoding.