In this article, we explore the connection between the heating phase of periodically driven CFTs and the Modular Hamiltonian of a subregion in the vacuum state. We show that the heating phase Hamiltonian corresponds to the Modular Hamiltonian, with the fixed points mapping to the endpoints of the subregion. In the bulk dual, we find that these fixed points correspond to the Ryu-Takayanagi surface of the AdS-Rindler wedge. Consequently, the entanglement entropy associated to the boundary interval within two fixed points exactly matches with the Rindler entropy of AdS-Rindler. We observe the emergent Virasoro algebra in the boundary quantization of the Modular Hamiltonian has a striking similarity with the emergent near Horizon Virasoro algebra. This is a consequence of the fact that while obtaining the boundary Virasoro algebra, a cut-off with conformal boundary condition around the fixed point is introduced, which in the bulk is related to a stretched horizon, with an emergent two-dimensional conformal symmetry. We also argue that as one tunes the parameter space of Floquet Hamiltonians to transition from the non-heating to the heating phase the operator algebra type changes from Von Neumann type $I$ to $III_1$ factor, providing a non-equilibrium analogue of the Hawking-Page transition.
In this article, we explore the connection between the heating phase of periodically driven CFTs and the Modular Hamiltonian of a subregion in the vacuum state. We show that the heating phase Hamiltonian corresponds to the Modular Hamiltonian, with the fixed points mapping to the endpoints of the subregion. In the bulk dual, we find that these fixed points correspond to the Ryu-Takayanagi surface of the AdS-Rindler wedge. Consequently, the entanglement entropy associated to the boundary interval within two fixed points exactly matches with the Rindler entropy of AdS-Rindler. We observe the emergent Virasoro algebra in the boundary quantization of the Modular Hamiltonian has a striking similarity with the emergent near Horizon Virasoro algebra. This is a consequence of the fact that while obtaining the boundary Virasoro algebra, a cut-off with conformal boundary condition around the fixed point is introduced, which in the bulk is related to a stretched horizon, with an emergent two-dimensional conformal symmetry. We also argue that as one tunes the parameter space of Floquet Hamiltonians to transition from the non-heating to the heating phase the operator algebra type changes from Von Neumann type I to III1 factor, providing a non-equilibrium analogue of the Hawking-Page transition.
A bstract Recently, it has been observed that the Hartle-Hawking correlators, a signature of smooth horizon, can emerge from certain heavy excited state correlators in the (manifestly non-smooth) BTZ stretched horizon background, in the limit when the stretched horizon approaches the real horizon. In this note, we develop a framework of quantizing the CFT modular Hamiltonian, that explains the necessity of introducing a stretched horizon and the emergence of thermal features in the AdS-Rindler and (planar) BTZ backgrounds. In more detail, we quantize vacuum modular Hamiltonian on a spatial segment of S 1 , which can be written as a particular linear combination of sl(2,ℝ) generators. Unlike radial quantization, (Euclidean) time circles emerge naturally here which can be contracted smoothly to the ‘fixed points’(end points of the interval) of this quantization thus providing a direct link to thermal physics. To define a Hilbert space with discrete normalizable states and to construct a Virasoro algebra with finite central extension, a natural regulator ( ϵ ) is needed around the fixed points. Eventually, in the dual description the fixed points correspond to the horizons of AdS-Rindler patch or (planar) BTZ and the cut-off being the stretched horizon. We construct a (Lorentzian) highest weight representation of that Virasoro algebra where vacuum can be identified with certain boundary states on the cut-off surface. We further demonstrate that two point function in a (vacuum) descendant state of the regulated Hilbert space will reproduce thermal answer in ϵ → 0 limit which is analogous to the recent observation of emergent thermality in (planar) BTZ stretched horizon background. We also argue the thermal entropy of this quantization coincides with entanglement entropy of the subregion. Conversely, the microcanonical entropy corresponding to high energy density of states exactly reproduce the BTZ entropy. Quite remarkably, all these dominant high lying microstates are defined only at finite ϵ in the regulated Hilbert space. We expect that all our observations can be generalized to BTZ in stretched horizon background where the boundary spatial coordinate is compactified.
In this work, we study non-equilibrium dynamics in Floquet conformal field theories (CFTs) in 1+1D, in which the driving Hamiltonian involves the energy-momentum density spatially modulated by an arbitrary smooth function. This generalizes earlier work which was restricted to the sine-square deformed type of Floquet Hamiltonians, operating within a \mathfrak{sl}_2 𝔰 𝔩 2 sub-algebra. Here we show remarkably that the problem remains soluble in this generalized case which involves the full Virasoro algebra, based on a geometrical approach. It is found that the phase diagram is determined by the stroboscopic trajectories of operator evolution. The presence/absence of spatial fixed points in the operator evolution indicates that the driven CFT is in a heating/non-heating phase, in which the entanglement entropy grows/oscillates in time. Additionally, the heating regime is further subdivided into a multitude of phases, with different entanglement patterns and spatial distribution of energy-momentum density, which are characterized by the number of spatial fixed points. Phase transitions between these different heating phases can be achieved simply by changing the duration of application of the driving Hamiltonian. %In general, there are rich internal structures in the heating phase characterized by different numbers of spatial fixed points, which result in different entanglement patterns and distribution of energy-momentum density in space. %Interestingly, after each driving cycle, these spatial fixed points will shuffle to each other in the array, and come back to the original locations after p p ( p\ge 1 p ≥ 1 ) driving cycles. We demonstrate the general features with concrete CFT examples and compare the results to lattice calculations and find remarkable agreement.
This paper investigates the dynamical phases of Floquet Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) in space-time dimensions greater than two. Building upon our previous work which introduced quaternionic representations for studying Floquet dynamics in higher-dimensional CFTs, we now explore more general square pulse drive protocols that go beyond a single SU(1,1) S U ( 1 , 1 ) subgroup. We demonstrate that, for multi-step drive protocols, the system exhibits distinct dynamical phases characterized by the nature of the eigenvalues of the quaternionic matrix representing time evolution in a single cycle, leading to different stroboscopic responses. Our analysis establishes a fundamental geometric interpretation where these dynamical phases directly correspond to the presence or absence of Killing horizons in the base space of the CFT and in a higher dimensional AdS space on which a putative dual lives. The heating phase is associated with a non-extremal horizon, the critical phase with an extremal horizon which disappears in the non-heating phase. We develop perturbative approaches to compute the Floquet Hamiltonians in different regimes and show, how tuning drive parameters can lead to horizons, providing a geometric framework for understanding heating phenomena in driven conformal systems.
This paper investigates the dynamical phases of Floquet Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) in space-time dimensions greater than two. Building upon our previous work [1] which introduced quaternionic representations for studying Floquet dynamics in higher dimensional CFTs, we now explore more general square pulse drive protocols that go beyond a single SU(1,1) subgroup. We demonstrate that, for multi-step drive protocols, the system exhibits distinct dynamical phases characterized by the nature of the eigenvalues of the quaternionic matrix representing time evolution in a single cycle, leading to different stroboscopic responses. Our analysis establishes a fundamental geometric interpretation where these dynamical phases directly correspond to the presence or absence of Killing horizons in the base space of the CFT and in a higher dimensional AdS space on which a putative dual lives. The heating phase is associated with a non-extremal horizon, the critical phase with an extremal horizon which disappears in the non-heating phase. We develop perturbative approaches to compute the Floquet Hamiltonians in different regimes and show, how tuning drive parameters can lead to horizons, providing a geometric framework for understanding heating phenomena in driven conformal systems.
We explore the fine structure of the holographic entanglement entropy proposal (the Ryu-Takayanagi formula) in AdS3/CFT2. With the guidance from the boundary and bulk modular flows we find a natural slicing of the entanglement wedge with the modular planes, which are co-dimension one bulk surfaces tangent to the modular flow everywhere. This gives an one-to-one correspondence between the points on the boundary interval A and the points on the Ryu-Takayanagi (RT) surface EA. In the same sense an arbitrary subinterval A2 of A will correspond to a subinterval E2 of EA. We propose that the length of E2 captures the contribution from A2 to the entanglement entropy SA, and compare it with the mutual information between A2 and the complement Ac.
We further develop perturbative methods used to calculate entanglement entropy (EE) away from an interacting CFT fixed point. At second order we find certain universal terms in the renormalized EE which were predicted previously from holography and which we find hold universally for relevant deformations of any CFT in any dimension. We use both replica methods and direct methods to calculate the EE and in both cases find a non-local integral expression involving the CFT two point function. We show that this integral expression can be written as a local integral over a higher dimensional bulk modular hamiltonian in an emergent AdS space-time. This bulk modular hamiltonian is associated to an emergent scalar field dual to the deforming operator. We generalize to arbitrary spatially dependent couplings where a linearized metric emerges naturally as a way of efficiently encoding the field theory entanglement: by demanding that Einstein’s equations coupled to the bulk scalar field are satisfied, we show that EE can be calculated as the area of this metric. Not only does this show a direct emergence of a higher dimensional gravitational theory from any CFT, it allows for effective evaluation of the the integrals required to calculate EE perturbativly. Our results can also be interpreted as relating the non-locality of the modular hamiltonian for a spherical region in non-CFTs and the non-locality of the holographic bulk to boundary map.