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arXiv:2203.05058 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Quantum error correction in SYK and bulk emergence

Venkatesa Chandrasekaran, Adam Levine

Published Jun 8, 2022• 11 citations
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Abstract

Abstract We analyze the error correcting properties of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, with errors that correspond to erasures of subsets of fermions. We study the limit where the number of fermions erased is large but small compared to the total number of fermions. We compute the price of the quantum error correcting code, defined as the number of physical qubits needed to reconstruct whether a given operator has been acted upon the thermal state or not. By thinking about reconstruction via quantum teleportation, we argue for a bound that relates the price to the ordinary operator size in systems that display so-called detailed size winding [1]. We then find that in SYK the price roughly saturates this bound. Computing the price requires computing modular flowed correlators with respect to the density matrix associated to a subset of fermions. We offer an interpretation of these correlators as probing a quantum extremal surface in the AdS dual of SYK. In the large N limit, the operator algebras associated to subsets of fermions in SYK satisfy half-sided modular inclusion, which is indicative of an emergent Type III1 von Neumann algebra. We discuss the relationship between the emergent algebra of half-sided modular inclusions and bulk symmetry generators.

DOI
10.1007/jhep06(2022)039

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Abstract We analyze the error correcting properties of the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model, with errors that correspond to erasures of subsets of fermions. We study the limit where the number of fermions erased is large but small compared to the total number of fermions. We compute the price of the quantum error correcting code, defined as the number of physical qubits needed to reconstruct whether a given operator has been acted upon the thermal state or not. By thinking about reconstruction via quantum teleportation, we argue for a bound that relates the price to the ordinary operator size in systems that display so-called detailed size winding [1]. We then find that in SYK the price roughly saturates this bound. Computing the price requires computing modular flowed correlators with respect to the density matrix associated to a subset of fermions. We offer an interpretation of these correlators as probing a quantum extremal surface in the AdS dual of SYK. In the large N limit, the operator algebras associated to subsets of fermions in SYK satisfy half-sided modular inclusion, which is indicative of an emergent Type III1 von Neumann algebra. We discuss the relationship between the emergent algebra of half-sided modular inclusions and bulk symmetry generators.
A bstract We study the effect of modular flow on correlation functions of fermions in the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model coupled weakly to a bath, which we take to be another SYK model. The system and bath, together are prepared in the thermofield double (TFD) state, and we focus on the effect of modular flow generated by the reduced density matrix for the SYK system, obtained by tracing out the bath. We show, in the late time limit, that modular flowed correlators of two Majorana fermions, single-sided and two-sided, exhibit non-trivial singularities. Beyond a critical value of the modular parameter, the “modular scrambling time”, the singularity structure shows correlations being transferred from one boundary to the other. The calculations are performed by employing the replica trick in Euclidean time and appropriately analytically continuing to real time. Exploiting the connection between modular flow generators and SL(2, ℝ ) boosts we use the microscopic picture to reconstruct the dual bulk modular flow in two-sided AdS 2 black hole spacetime. Fixed points of the flow allow to identify quantum extremal surfaces (QES) demarcating the entanglement wedge of the boundary system and the island. We show that bulk modular flow can move fermion insertions near the right boundary past the horizon leading to lightcone singularities in appropriately smeared boundary correlators, probing physics beyond the horizon.
Gauge/gravity duality is often described as a quantum error correcting code. However, as seen in the Jafferis-Lewkowycz-Maldacena-Suh (JLMS) formula, exact quantum error correction with complementary recovery (and thus entanglement wedge reconstruction) emerges only in the limit G→0G \to 0G→0. As a result, precise arguments controlling error terms have focused on what we call `small' codes which, as G→0G \to 0G→0, describe only perturbative excitations near a given classical solution. Such settings are quite restrictive and, in particular, they prohibit discussion of any modular flow that would change the classical background. As a result, they forbid consideration of modular flows generated by semiclassical bulk states at order-one modular parameters. In contrast, we present a single `large' code for the bulk theory that can accommodate such flows and, in particular, in the G→0G \to 0G→0 limit includes superpositions of states associated with distinct classical backgrounds. This large code is assembled from small codes that each satisfy an approximate Faulkner-Lewkowycz-Maldacena formula. In this extended setting we clarify the meaning of the (approximate) JLMS relation between bulk and boundary modular Hamiltonians and quantify its validity in an appropriate class of states.
Abstract The study of quantum gravity in the form of the holographic duality has uncovered and motivated the detailed investigation of various diagnostics of quantum chaos. One such measure is the operator size distribution, which characterizes the size of the support region of an operator and its evolution under Heisenberg evolution. In this work, we examine the role of the operator size distribution in holographic duality for the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. Using an explicit construction of AdS2 bulk fermion operators in a putative dual of the low temperature SYK model, we study the operator size distribution of the boundary and bulk fermions. Our result provides a direct derivation of the relationship between (effective) operator size of both the boundary and bulk fermions and bulk SL(2; ℝ) generators.
The Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model is a quantum mechanical many body system with random all-to-all interactions on fermionic N sites (N>>1). This model is shown to saturate the known maximal chaos bound of many body system and then based on this observation it is conjectured to be dual to a quantum black hole in the sense of the AdS/CFT correspondence. In this dissertation, we show that the large N physics of the SYK model is systematically described by a single bi-local field. In particular, we emphasize the appearance of the emergent conformal reparametrization symmetry at the critical IR fixed point and the corresponding divergent contribution of the symmetry modes in the propagator of the bi-local field. We discuss non-linear-level derivation of the zero modes effective action, which is given by the Schwarzian derivative for finite reparametrization symmetry. Besides the symmetry modes, which correspond to the dilaton-gravity sector in the dual AdS theory, the SYK model also predicts an infinite tower of matter fields in AdS_2. We demonstrate that this infinite spectrum can be nicely packaged into a single field in 3-dimensional space-time. Finally, we consider the question of identifying the dual space-time of the SYK model. Focusing on the signature of emergent space-time of the (Euclidean) model, we explain the need for non-local (Radon-type) transformations on external legs of n-point Green's functions. This results in a dual theory with Euclidean AdS signature with additional leg-factors. We speculate that these factors incorporate the coupling of additional bulk states similar to the discrete states of 2D string theory.
Abstract We first show that a class of operators acting on a given bipartite pure state on ℋ A ⊗ ℋ B can shrink its supports on ℋ A ⊗ ℋ B to only ℋ A or ℋ B while keeping its mappings. Using this result, we show how to systematically construct the decoders of the quantum error-correcting codes against erasure errors. The implications of the results for the operator dictionary in the AdS/CFT correspondence are also discussed. The “sub- algebra code with complementary recovery” introduced in the recent work of Harlow is a quantum error-correcting code that shares many common features with the AdS/CFT correspondence. We consider it under the restriction of the bulk (logical) Hilbert space to a subspace that generally has no tensor factorization into subsystems. In this code, the central operators of the reconstructed algebra on the boundary subregion can emerge as a consequence of the restriction of the bulk Hilbert space. Finally, we show a theorem in this code which implies the validity of not only the entanglement wedge reconstruction but also its converse statement with the central operators.
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.