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arXiv:2409.17235 · Quantum

Critical spin models from holographic disorder

Dimitris Saraidaris, A. Jahn

Published Jul 22, 2025• 0 citations
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Abstract

Discrete models of holographic dualities, typically modeled by tensor networks on hyperbolic tilings, produce quantum states with a characteristic quasiperiodic disorder not present in continuum holography. In this work, we study the behavior of XXZ spin chains with such symmetries, showing that lessons learned from previous non-interacting (matchgate) tensor networks generalize to more generic Hamiltonians under holographic disorder: While the disorder breaks translation invariance, site-averaged correlations and entanglement of the disorder-free critical phase are preserved at a plateau of nonzero disorder even at large system sizes. In particular, we show numerically that the entanglement entropy curves in this disordered phase follow the expected scaling of a conformal field theory (CFT) in the continuum limit. This property is shown to be non-generic for other types of quasiperiodic disorder, only appearing when our boundary disorder ansatz is described by a "dual" bulk hyperbolic tiling. Our results therefore suggest the existence of a whole class of critical phases whose symmetries are derived from models of discrete holography.

DOI
10.22331/q-2025-07-22-1808

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Discrete models of holographic dualities, typically modeled by tensor networks on hyperbolic tilings, produce quantum states with a characteristic quasiperiodic disorder not present in continuum holography. In this work, we study the behavior of XXZ spin chains with such symmetries, showing that lessons learned from previous non-interacting (matchgate) tensor networks generalize to more generic Hamiltonians under holographic disorder: While the disorder breaks translation invariance, site-averaged correlations and entanglement of the disorder-free critical phase are preserved at a plateau of nonzero disorder even at large system sizes. In particular, we show numerically that the entanglement entropy curves in this disordered phase follow the expected scaling of a conformal field theory (CFT) in the continuum limit. This property is shown to be non-generic for other types of quasiperiodic disorder, only appearing when our boundary disorder ansatz is described by a "dual" bulk hyperbolic tiling. Our results therefore suggest the existence of a whole class of critical phases whose symmetries are derived from models of discrete holography.
The AdS/CFT correspondence conjectures a holographic duality between gravity in a bulk space and a critical quantum field theory on its boundary. Tensor networks have come to provide toy models to understand these bulk-boundary correspondences, shedding light on connections between geometry and entanglement. We introduce a versatile and efficient framework for studying tensor networks, extending previous tools for Gaussian matchgate tensors in 1 + 1 dimensions. Using regular bulk tilings, we show that the critical Ising theory can be realized on the boundary of both flat and hyperbolic bulk lattices, obtaining highly accurate critical data. Within our framework, we also produce translation-invariant critical states by an efficiently contractible tensor network with the geometry of the multiscale entanglement renormalization ansatz. Furthermore, we establish a link between holographic quantum error-correcting codes and tensor networks. This work is expected to stimulate a more comprehensive study of tensor network models capturing bulk-boundary correspondences.
We propose a new example of discrete holography that provides a new step towards establishing the AdS/CFT duality for discrete spaces. A class of boundary Hamiltonians is obtained in a natural way from regular tilings of the hyperbolic Poincaré disk, via an inflation rule that allows to construct the tiling using concentric layers of tiles. The models in this class are aperiodic spin chains, whose sequences of couplings are obtained from the bulk inflation rule. We explicitly choose the aperiodic XXZ spin chain with spin 1/2 degrees of freedom as an example. The properties of this model are studied by using strong disorder renormalization group techniques, which provide a tensor network construction for the ground state of this spin chain. This can be regarded as discrete bulk reconstruction. Moreover we compute the entanglement entropy in this setup in two different ways: a discretization of the Ryu-Takayanagi formula and a generalization of the standard computation for the boundary aperiodic Hamiltonian. For both approaches, a logarithmic growth of the entanglement entropy in the subsystem size is identified. The coefficients, i.e. the effective central charges, depend on the bulk discretization parameters in both cases, albeit in a different way.
The study of critical quantum many-body systems through conformal field theory (CFT) is one of the pillars of modern quantum physics. Certain CFTs are also understood to be dual to higher-dimensional theories of gravity via the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence. To reproduce various features of AdS/CFT, a large number of discrete models based on tensor networks have been proposed. Some recent models, most notably including toy models of holographic quantum error correction, are constructed on regular time-slice discretizations of AdS. In this work, we show that the symmetries of these models are well suited for approximating CFT states, as their geometry enforces a discrete subgroup of conformal symmetries. Based on these symmetries, we introduce the notion of a quasiperiodic conformal field theory (qCFT), a critical theory less restrictive than a full CFT and with characteristic multi-scale quasiperiodicity. We discuss holographic code states and their renormalization group flow as specific implementations of a qCFT with fractional central charges and argue that their behavior generalizes to a large class of existing and future models. Beyond approximating CFT properties, we show that these can be best understood as belonging to a paradigm of discrete holography.
Abstract Key aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence can be captured in terms of tensor network models on hyperbolic lattices. For tensors fulfilling the matchgate constraint, these have previously been shown to produce disordered boundary states whose site-averaged ground state properties match the translation-invariant critical Ising model. In this work, we substantially sharpen this relationship by deriving disordered local Hamiltonians generalizing the critical Ising model whose ground and low-energy excited states are accurately represented by the matchgate ansatz without any averaging. We show that these Hamiltonians exhibit multi-scale quasiperiodic symmetries captured by an analytical toy model based on layers of the hyperbolic lattice, breaking the conformal symmetries of the critical Ising model in a controlled manner. We provide a direct identification of correlation functions of ground and low-energy excited states between the disordered and translation-invariant models and give numerical evidence that the former approaches the latter in the large bond dimension limit. This establishes tensor networks on regular hyperbolic tilings as an effective tool for the study of conformal field theories. Furthermore, our numerical probes of the bulk parameters corresponding to boundary excited states constitute a first step towards a tensor network bulk-boundary dictionary between regular hyperbolic geometries and critical boundary states.
Holographic quantum-error correcting codes are models of bulk/boundary dualities such as the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, where a higher-dimensional bulk geometry is associated with the code's logical degrees of freedom. Previous discrete holographic codes based on tensor networks have reproduced the general code properties expected from continuum AdS/CFT, such as complementary recovery. However, the boundary states of such tensor networks typically do not exhibit the expected correlation functions of CFT boundary states. In this work, we show that a new class of exact holographic codes, extending the previously proposed hyperinvariant tensor networks into quantum codes, produce the correct boundary correlation functions. This approach yields a dictionary between logical states in the bulk and the critical renormalization group flow of boundary states. Furthermore, these codes exhibit a state-dependent breakdown of complementary recovery as expected from AdS/CFT under small quantum gravity corrections.
Holographic quantum-error correcting codes are models of bulk/boundary dualities such as the anti-de Sitter/conformal field theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, where a higher-dimensional bulk geometry is associated with the code's logical degrees of freedom. Previous discrete holographic codes based on tensor networks have reproduced the general code properties expected from continuum AdS/CFT, such as complementary recovery. However, the boundary states of such tensor networks typically do not exhibit the expected correlation functions of CFT boundary states. In this work, we show that a new class of exact holographic codes, extending the previously proposed hyperinvariant tensor networks into quantum codes, produce the correct boundary correlation functions. This approach yields a dictionary between logical states in the bulk and the critical renormalization group flow of boundary states. Furthermore, these codes exhibit a state-dependent breakdown of complementary recovery as expected from AdS/CFT under small quantum gravity corrections.