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arXiv:2205.01140 · Journal of High Energy Physics

Perfect tensor hyperthreads

Jonathan Harper

Published Sep 28, 2022• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Abstract Bit threads, a dual description of the Ryu-Takyanagi formula for holographic entanglement entropy (EE), can be interpreted as a distillation of the quantum information to a collection of Bell pairs between different boundary regions. In this article we discuss a generalization to hyperthreads which can connect more than two boundary regions leading to a rich and diverse class of convex programs. By modeling the contributions of different species of hyperthreads to the EEs of perfect tensors we argue that this framework may be useful for helping us to begin to probe the multipartite entanglement of holographic systems. Furthermore, we demonstrate how this technology can potentially be used to understand holographic entropy cone inequalities and may provide an avenue to address issues of locking.

DOI
10.1007/jhep09(2022)239

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Abstract Bit threads, a dual description of the Ryu-Takyanagi formula for holographic entanglement entropy (EE), can be interpreted as a distillation of the quantum information to a collection of Bell pairs between different boundary regions. In this article we discuss a generalization to hyperthreads which can connect more than two boundary regions leading to a rich and diverse class of convex programs. By modeling the contributions of different species of hyperthreads to the EEs of perfect tensors we argue that this framework may be useful for helping us to begin to probe the multipartite entanglement of holographic systems. Furthermore, we demonstrate how this technology can potentially be used to understand holographic entropy cone inequalities and may provide an avenue to address issues of locking.
Abstract We generalize bit threads to hyperthreads in the context of holographic spacetimes. We define a “k-thread” to be a hyperthread which connects k different boundary regions and posit that it may be considered as a unit of k-party entanglement. Using this new object, we show that the contribution of hyperthreads to calculations of holographic entanglement entropy are generically finite. This is accomplished by constructing a surface whose area determines their maximum allowed contribution. We also identify surfaces whose area is proportional to the maximum number of k-threads, motivating a possible measure of multipartite entanglement. We use this to make connections to the current understanding of multipartite entanglement in holographic spacetimes.
Bit threads, arising as the convex dual of the minimal-surface formula for holographic entanglement entropy, are line-like structures with nontrivial bulk trajectories. Their physical picture has long been associated with Bell-pair interpretations, yet the meaning of their detailed trajectories, particularly their nonuniqueness, remains unclear. We propose to apply Coecke's notion of quantum information flow (QIF) in protocol-network geometry, developed within categorical quantum mechanics, to a holographic setup, and show that its trajectories within the discrete holographic bulk---the tensor network---obey the divergence-free and density-bound conditions of bit threads. From this process-centered perspective, bit-thread nonuniqueness becomes natural: for a given resource state, different protocols realizing the same distillation task can give rise to different QIF trajectories. We further analyze stabilizer-type holographic tensor networks using ZX string diagrams and show that QIF trajectories can probe finer entanglement structure beyond the level captured by entanglement entropy.
Abstract Generalizing the bit thread formalism, we use convex duality to derive dual flow programs to the bipartite and multipartite holographic entanglement of purification proposals and then prove several inequalities using these constructions. In the multipartite case we find the flows exhibit novel behavior which allows for a constrained flux on the boundary of the homology region. We show this flux can be made distinct from bi-partite terms and reflects the truly multipartite portion of the holographic entanglement of purification.
Generalizing the bit thread formalism, we use convex duality to derive dual flow programs to the bipartite and multipartite holographic entanglement of purification proposals and then prove several inequalities using these constructions. In the multipartite case we find the flows exhibit novel behavior which allows for a constrained flux on the boundary of the homology region. We show this flux can be made distinct from bi-partite terms and reflects the truly multipartite portion of the holographic entanglement of purification.
Recent work has characterized the various inequalities that entanglement entropies represented by min-cuts on hypergraphs will satisfy. This collection, the hypergraph entropy cone, can be seen as a generalization of the holographic entropy cone which describes the entropies given by both min-cuts on 2-graphs and those of holographic states in AdS/CFT. In this article we describe a generalization of bit threads which allows us to describe max multiflows on hypergraphs. We further comment on its properties and interpretation in holography.
A bstract We revisit the recent reformulation of the holographic prescription to compute entanglement entropy in terms of a convex optimization problem, introduced by Freedman and Headrick. According to it, the holographic entanglement entropy associated to a boundary region is given by the maximum flux of a bounded, divergenceless vector field, through the corresponding region. Our work leads to two main results: (i) We present a general algorithm that allows the construction of explicit thread configurations in cases where the minimal surface is known. We illustrate the method with simple examples: spheres and strips in vacuum AdS, and strips in a black brane geometry. Studying more generic bulk metrics, we uncover a sufficient set of conditions on the geometry and matter fields that must hold to be able to use our prescription. (ii) Based on the nesting property of holographic entanglement entropy, we develop a method to construct bit threads that maximize the flux through a given bulk region. As a byproduct, we are able to construct more general thread configurations by combining (i) and (ii) in multiple patches. We apply our methods to study bit threads which simultaneously compute the entanglement entropy and the entanglement of purification of mixed states and comment on their interpretation in terms of entanglement distillation. We also consider the case of disjoint regions for which we can explicitly construct the so-called multi-commodity flows and show that the monogamy property of mutual information can be easily illustrated from our constructions.