A bstract In this work, we investigate local quench dynamics in two-dimensional conformal field theories using Krylov space methods. We derive Lanczos coefficients, spread complexity, and Krylov entropies for local joining and splitting quenches in theories on an infinite line, a circle, a finite interval, and at finite temperature. We examine how these quantities depend on the central charge of the underlying conformal field theory and find that both spread complexity and Krylov entropy are proportional to it. Interestingly, Krylov entropies evolve logarithmically with time, mirroring standard entanglement entropies, making them useful for extracting the central charge. In the large central charge limit, using holography, we establish a connection between the rate of spread complexity and the proper momentum of the tip of the end-of-the world brane, which probes the bulk analogously to a point particle. Our results further demonstrate that spread complexity and Krylov entropies are powerful tools for probing non-equilibrium dynamics of interacting quantum systems.
A bstract In this work, we investigate local quench dynamics in two-dimensional conformal field theories using Krylov space methods. We derive Lanczos coefficients, spread complexity, and Krylov entropies for local joining and splitting quenches in theories on an infinite line, a circle, a finite interval, and at finite temperature. We examine how these quantities depend on the central charge of the underlying conformal field theory and find that both spread complexity and Krylov entropy are proportional to it. Interestingly, Krylov entropies evolve logarithmically with time, mirroring standard entanglement entropies, making them useful for extracting the central charge. In the large central charge limit, using holography, we establish a connection between the rate of spread complexity and the proper momentum of the tip of the end-of-the world brane, which probes the bulk analogously to a point particle. Our results further demonstrate that spread complexity and Krylov entropies are powerful tools for probing non-equilibrium dynamics of interacting quantum systems.
We investigate the complexity of states and operators evolved with the modular Hamiltonian by using the Krylov basis. In the first part, we formulate the problem for states and analyze different examples, including quantum mechanics, two-dimensional conformal field theories and random modular Hamiltonians, focusing on relations with the entanglement spectrum. We find that the modular Lanczos spectrum provides a different approach to quantum entanglement, opening new avenues in many-body systems and holography. In the second part, we focus on the modular evolution of operators and states excited by local operators in two-dimensional conformal field theories. We find that, at late modular time, the spread complexity is universally governed by the modular Lyapunov exponent λLmod=2π and is proportional to the local temperature of the modular Hamiltonian. Our analysis provides explicit examples where entanglement entropy is indeed not enough; however the entanglement spectrum is, and encodes the same information as complexity. Published by the American Physical Society 2024
We study a family of locally excited states in two-dimensional conformal field theories in different setups, defined on the plane, on the cylinder, or at finite temperature. These states are constructed by assigning independent chiral and anti-chiral regulators to a local primary operator, leading to excitations carrying net momentum. We analytically calculate the first few Lanczos coefficients and the early time behaviour of the spread complexity associated with these states. Then, using numerical methods, we obtain the coefficients reaching larger Krylov indices and find the associated spread complexity for a longer range of time evolution. We also compare the rate of change of the resulting spread complexity with the proposed holographic dual quantity, related to the proper momentum of an infalling particle in the dual bulk, but we observe a mismatch.
This thesis investigates quantum complexity in the AdS/CFT duality. We study a recently proposed measure of quantum complexity, the spread complexity. This is a measure of the number of orthonormal basis vectors needed to describe a given quantum state (its “spread” in the Hilbert space), naturally selecting a preferred basis adapted to the dynamics of the state which minimises this quantity. This thesis demonstrates that the spread complexity provides a quantum information- theoretic quantity which directly connects to bulk dynamics in holography. Quantum complexity has long been studied in the context of holography. One result of these investigations is a conjecture relating the rate of change of the complexity of certain states in the CFT to the radial momentum of a dual massive particle falling along a time-like geodesic in the bulk spacetime. We demonstrate that there is an exact match between the rate of change of the spread complexity of an excited 2D CFT state and the dual particle’s radial momentum, measured in appropriate coordinates. As a toy model of the localised bulk particle state, we show that a similar relationship exists between the spread complexity and momentum of coherent states of the quantum harmonic oscillator. The spread complexity of these CFT states can be expressed analytically by relating them to a discrete series representation of SL(2,R). Additionally, we find analytical results for the spread complexity when the excited CFT state is evolved by the modular Hamiltonian of an interval region in the CFT, and by the half-sided modular Hamiltonian associated with a further sub-interval region. Next, we study the spread complexity of CFT states which describe a particle on the BTZ black hole background. We also study the spread complexity of local states in the semi-classical bulk theory. This provides a direct bulk interpretation of the spread complexity to complement our CFT calculations. Finally, we explore the extensivity of the spread complexity of states and of the Krylov complexity of density matrix operators in non-interacting bipartite systems.
A bstract We consider a perturbative expansion of the Lanczos coefficients and the Krylov complexity for two-dimensional conformal field theories under integrable deformations. Specifically, we explore the consequences of TT T T ¯ , JT J T ¯ , and JJ J J ¯ deformations, focusing on first-order corrections in the deformation parameter. Under TT T T ¯ deformation, we demonstrate that the Lanczos coefficients b n exhibit unexpected behavior, deviating from linear growth within the valid perturbative regime. Notably, the Krylov exponent characterizing the rate of exponential growth of complexity surpasses that of the undeformed theory for positive value of deformation parameter, suggesting a potential violation of the conjectured operator growth bound within the realm of perturbative analysis. One may attribute this to the existence of logarithmic branch points along with higher order poles in the autocorrelation function compared to the undeformed case. In contrast to this, both JJ J J ¯ and JT J T ¯ deformations induce no first order correction to either the linear growth of Lanczos coefficients at large- n or the Krylov exponent and hence the results for these two deformations align with those of the undeformed theory.
Fast scrambling and exponential growth of complexity are two distinctive features of quantum gravity, offering a unique window into the mechanisms that govern the semiclassical limit of the holographic duality. In this thesis, we explore these information-theoretic phenomena through two key diagnostics --- out-of-time ordered correlation functions (OTOCs) and spread complexity --- computed in the setting of two-dimensional holographic conformal field theories (CFTs). First, we focus on the large-c limit of Liouville theory, where the computation of OTOCs reveals distinctive insights into both the chaotic nature and the structural features of the theory. Remarkably, we find it exhibits a maximal Lyapunov exponent, despite lacking the identity operator in its spectrum, and a scrambling time logarithmic in the central charge. Using path integral techniques, we calculate heavy-light four-point functions, and uncover a conformal block expansion dominated by the exchange of an infinite tower of spinless double-trace operators. We attribute the chaotic behaviour of the OTOC to this exchange of operators, which can be thought of as dressed scramblons. Additionally, we observe that at the onset of scrambling, the dominance of conformal blocks shifts from heavy primaries at early times to light primaries at late times. Second, we turn to the diagnostic of spread complexity in locally excited holographic CFTs and argue that its time derivative is dual to the proper radial momentum of a massive point particle propagating in Anti-de Sitter spacetime (AdS). Exploiting the conformal symmetry and the emergence of an ``effective'' SL(2,R) group, we employ representation-theoretic techniques to compute return amplitudes, Lanczos coefficients, and spread complexities. We then verify our conjectured duality for three settings: the CFT on the line, dual to Poincaré AdS; the CFT on the circle, dual to global AdS; and the CFT at finite temperature, dual to a BTZ black hole. In the gravitational theory, the same SL(2,R) structure emerges as the isometry group of the infalling plane of the bulk particle. Third, we generalise the analysis of spread complexity to modular Hamiltonian evolution. Exploiting the rich algebraic structure of modular theory, we construct the modular Hamiltonians Kₘ and the half-sided modular translations G for the three example states above. Leveraging conformal symmetry, we once again compute modular return amplitudes, Lanczos coefficients, and modular spread complexities. In particular, we emphasise the role of ``conformal regularisation'' --- i.e. regulating with the operator that generates modular evolution - in preserving the effective SL(2,R) structure of the amplitudes. We find that evolution under Kₘ exhibits thermal spread complexity for β = 1 across all examples, while G-evolution universally leads to quadratic growth. Finally, we provide a formal explanation of these results, identifying the role of the Killing norm D of the evolution operator as the key factor governing the behaviour of complexity.
In this thesis we study the time dependence of correlators such as Green function, entanglement (Renyi) entropy and mutual information following quantum quench in Conformal Field Theories (CFTs) and their holographic duals (AdS).
We develop a new recursive method to analytically study the thermalization of retarded Green function in CFTs holographically dual to thin shell AdS Vaidya space times. Using this method, analytic results for short time thermalization of the Green function are obtained; its long time behaviour is obtained by implementing this method numerically. This method is also used to study the late time behaviour of the minimally coupled scalar in AdS3 Vaidya and the shear vector mode in AdS5 Vaidya. Studying the latter, we obtain the universal ratio of the shear viscosity to entropy density from a time dependent process.
We study the time evolution of single interval Renyi and entanglement entropies following local quantum quenches in CFTs at finite temperature for which the locally excited states have a finite temporal width. We show that the time dependence of Renyi and entanglement entropies, at second order in width, is universal and is determined by the expectation value of the stress tensor in the replica geometry.
We study local quenches in two dimensional CFT at large central charge by operators carrying higher spin charge. The holographic description is used to obtain the single interval entanglement entropy, mutual information and scrambling time following the quench. We find that the change in entanglement entropy is finite (and real) only if the spin-three charge, q, is bounded by the energy of the perturbation, E, as |q|/c < E^2/c^2. For larger values of the spin-three charge, the scrambling time is shorter than for pure gravity and controlled by the spin-three Lyapunov exponent.