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arXiv:2206.06352

Null states from large superpositions of two-sided black holes

Gardiner, John G.

Published Jun 13, 2022• 0 citations
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Abstract

A standard insight of the AdS/CFT correspondence is that some aspects of the geometry of a bulk state are encoded in the entanglement structure of its dual boundary state. As entanglement is not a linear quantum observable, this means that geometry in a quantum theory of gravity should likewise not be a linear observable. This allows for linear dependencies between states with distinct geometries. We explore linear dependencies between certain states with simple geometric duals: states made up of $n$ copies of a thermofield double state and the states obtained from this one by permuting the $n$ right hand sides. There are $n!$ such states, all dual to distinct geometries. We derive expressions for the maximum fidelity between one such state and a linear combination of the others, and see that this fidelity approaches 1 as the number $n$ of black holes increases. We also consider the possibility of obtaining a single thermofield double state as the partial trace of a superposition of states whose topology does not connect the two untraced sides. We derive lower bounds for the fidelity between the thermofield double state and such partial traces and comment on the conceptual implications of the existence of such states.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2206.06352

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A standard insight of the AdS/CFT correspondence is that some aspects of the geometry of a bulk state are encoded in the entanglement structure of its dual boundary state. As entanglement is not a linear quantum observable, this means that geometry in a quantum theory of gravity should likewise not be a linear observable. This allows for linear dependencies between states with distinct geometries. We explore linear dependencies between certain states with simple geometric duals: states made up of nnn copies of a thermofield double state and the states obtained from this one by permuting the nnn right hand sides. There are n!n!n! such states, all dual to distinct geometries. We derive expressions for the maximum fidelity between one such state and a linear combination of the others, and see that this fidelity approaches 1 as the number nnn of black holes increases. We also consider the possibility of obtaining a single thermofield double state as the partial trace of a superposition of states whose topology does not connect the two untraced sides. We derive lower bounds for the fidelity between the thermofield double state and such partial traces and comment on the conceptual implications of the existence of such states.
We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to study models of entanglement and correlations between two d = 4 CFTs in thermofield double states at finite chemical potential. Our bulk spacetimes are planar Reissner-Nordström AdS black holes. We compute both thermo-mutual information and the two-point correlators of large-dimension scalar operators, focussing on the small-temperature behavior — an infrared limit with behavior similar to that seen at large times. The interesting feature of this model is of course that the entropy density remains finite as T → 0 while the bulk geometry develops an infinite throat. This leads to a logarithmic divergence in the scale required for non-zero mutual information between equal-sized strips in the two CFTs, though the mutual information between one entire CFT and a finite-sized strip in the other can remain non-zero even at T =0. Furthermore,despitetheinfinitethroat,therecanbeextremallychargedoperators for which the two-point correlations remain finite as T → 0. This suggests an interestingly mixed picture in which some aspects of the entanglement remain localized on scales set by the chemical potential, while others shift to larger and larger scales. We also comment on implications for the localized-quasiparticle picture of entanglement.
Abstract In this paper, we consider the evolution of the thermofield-double state under the double-traced operator that connects its both sides. We will compute the entanglement entropy of the resulting state using the replica trick for the large N field theory. To leading order, it can be computed from the two-point function of the theory, where, in CFTs, it is fixed by the symmetries. Due to the exponential decay of the interaction, the entanglement entropy saturates about the thermal time after the interaction is on. Next, we restrict ourselves to one dimension and assume that the theory at strong coupling is effectively described by the Schwarzian action. We then compute the coarse-grained entropy of the resulting state using the four-point function. The equality of the two entropies implies that the double-traced operators in our theory act coherently. In AdS/CFT correspondence where the thermofield-double state corresponds to a two-sided black hole, the action of a double-traced operator corresponds to shrinking or expanding the black hole in the bulk.
Abstract We extend the results of arXiv:2209.12903 by studying local projective measurements performed on subregions of two copies of a CFT2 in the thermofield double state and investigating their consequences on the bulk double-sided black hole holographic dual. We focus on CFTs defined on an infinite line and consider measurements of both finite and semi-infinite subregions. In the former case, the connectivity of the bulk spacetime is preserved after the measurement. In the latter case, the measurement of two semi-infinite intervals in one CFT or of one semi-infinite interval in each CFT can destroy the Einstein-Rosen bridge and disconnect the bulk dual spacetime. In particular, we find that a transition between a connected and disconnected phase occurs depending on the relative size of the measured and unmeasured subregions and on the specific Cardy state the measured subregions are projected on. We identify this phase transition as an entangled/disentangled phase transition of the dual CFT system by computing the post-measurement holographic entanglement entropy between the two CFTs. We also find that bulk information encoded in one CFT in the absence of measurement can sometimes be reconstructed from the other CFT when a measurement is performed, or can be erased by the measurement. Finally, we show that a purely CFT calculation of the Renyi entropy using the replica trick yields results compatible with those obtained in our bulk analysis.
Abstract When the bulk geometry in AdS/CFT contains a black hole, boundary subregions may be sufficient to reconstruct certain bulk operators if and only if the black hole microstate is known, an example of state dependence. Reconstructions exist for any microstate, but no reconstruction works for all microstates. We refine this dichotomy, demonstrating that the same boundary operator can often be used for large subspaces of black hole microstates, corresponding to a constant fraction α of the black hole entropy. In the Schrödinger picture, the boundary subregion encodes the α-bits (a concept from quantum information) of a bulk region containing the black hole and bounded by extremal surfaces. These results have important consequences for the structure of AdS/CFT and for quantum information. Firstly, they imply that the bulk reconstruction is necessarily only approximate and allow us to place non-perturbative lower bounds on the error when doing so. Second, they provide a simple and tractable limit in which the entanglement wedge is state dependent, but in a highly controlled way. Although the state dependence of operators comes from ordinary quantum error correction, there are clear connections to the Papadodimas-Raju proposal for understanding operators behind black hole horizons. In tensor network toy models of AdS/CFT, we see how state dependence arises from the bulk operator being ‘pushed’ through the black hole itself. Finally, we show that black holes provide the first ‘explicit’ examples of capacity-achieving α-bit codes. Unintuitively, Hawking radiation always reveals the α-bits of a black hole as soon as possible. In an appendix, we apply a result from the quantum information literature to prove that entanglement wedge reconstruction can be made exact to all orders in 1/N.
Using gauge/gravity duality, we explore a class of states of two CFTs with a large degree of entanglement, but with very weak local two-sided correlation. These states are constructed by perturbing the thermofield double state with thermal-scale operators that are local at different times. Acting on the dual black hole geometry, these perturbations create an intersecting network of shock waves, supporting a very long wormhole. Chaotic CFT dynamics and the associated fast scrambling time play an essential role in determining the qualitative features of the resulting geometries.
Abstract We define a generalized entanglement measure in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. Compared to the ordinary entanglement entropy for a spatial subregion dual to the area of the Ryu-Takayanagi surface, we take into account both entanglement between spatial degrees of freedom as well as between different fields of the boundary theory. Moreover, we resolve the contribution to the entanglement entropy of strings with different winding numbers in the bulk geometry. We then calculate this generalized entanglement measure in a thermal state dual to the BTZ black hole in the setting of the D1/D5 system at and close to the orbifold point. We find that the entanglement entropy defined in this way is dual to the length of a geodesic with non-zero winding number. Such geodesics probe the entire bulk geometry, including the entanglement shadow up to the horizon in the one-sided black hole as well as the wormhole growth in the case of a two-sided black hole for an arbitrarily long time. Therefore, we propose that the entanglement structure of the boundary state is enough to reconstruct asymptotically AdS3 geometries up to extremal surface barriers.