We calculate the time dependence of the reflected entropy of two disconnected regions after a global quench in (1 + 1)-dimensional conformal field theories and in large temperature limit. For rational conformal field theories, we find that the time evolution of the reflected entropy is the same as that of the mutual information. We get the same result for holographic theories in the limit where the separation between disconnected regions is much smaller than their respective sizes. We discuss how this result is consistent with the quasi-particle picture of Calabrese and Cardy.
A bstract We calculate the time dependence of the reflected entropy of two disconnected regions after a global quench in (1 + 1)-dimensional conformal field theories and the large temperature limit. For rational conformal field theories, we find that the time evolution of the reflected entropy is the same as that of the mutual information. We get the same result for holographic theories in the limit where the separation between disconnected regions is much smaller than their respective sizes. We discuss how this result is consistent with the quasi-particle picture of Calabrese and Cardy [1].
We compute the entanglement entropy and mutual information for two disjoint intervals in two-dimensional conformal field theories as a function of time after a local quench, using the replica trick and boundary conformal field theory. We obtain explicit formulas for the universal contributions, which are leading in the regimes of, for example, close or well-separated intervals of fixed length. The results are largely consistent with the quasiparticle picture, in which entanglement above that present in the ground state is carried by pairs of entangled freely propagating excitations. We also calculate the mutual information for two disjoint intervals in a proposed holographic local quench, whose holographic energy-momentum tensor matches the conformal field theory one. We find that the holographic mutual information shows qualitative differences from the conformal field theory results and we discuss possible interpretations of this.
Abstract We consider the time evolution of mixed state correlation measures in two-dimensional conformal field theories, such as logarithmic negativity, odd entropy, and reflected entropy, after quantum quenches of various kinds. These correlation measures, in the holographic context, are all associated to the entanglement wedge cross section. We contrast various classes of conformal field theories, both rational and irrational (pure) conformal field theories. First, for rational conformal field theories, whose dynamics can be well described by the quasi-particle picture, we find all four quantities for disjoint intervals to be proportional, regardless of the specific quench protocol. Second, using the light cone boot- strap, we generalize our results to irrational conformal field theories where we find sharp distinctions from the quasi-particle results and striking differences between mutual information and the other measures. The large surplus of logarithmic negativity relative to mutual information forces us to reconsider what mutual information and logarithmic negativity really measure. We interpret these results as a signature of information scrambling and chaos in irrational theories. These CFT results perfectly agree with our gravitational (holographic) calculations. Furthermore, using holography, we are able to generalize the results to outside of the light cone limit. Finally, due to the breakdown of the quasi-particle picture for irrational theories, we appeal to the “line-tension picture,” motivated by random unitary circuits, as a phenomenological description. We observe that random unitary circuits, with local Hilbert space dimension determined by the Cardy formula, have precisely the same entanglement dynamics as irrational (including holographic) conformal field theories.
Time-dependent entanglement entropy (EE) is computed for a single interval in two-dimensional conformal theories from a quenched initial state in the presence of spatial boundaries. The EE is found to be periodic in time with periodicity equal to the system size
L. For large enough
L, the EE shows a rise to a thermal value (characterized by a temperature
1/β determined by the initial state), followed by periodic returns to the original value. This works irrespective of whether the conformal field theory (CFT) is rational or irrational. For conformal field theories with a holographic dual, the large
c limit plays an essential role in ensuring that the EE computed from the CFT is universal (independent of the details of the CFT and of boundary conditions) and is exactly matched by the holographic EE. The dual geometry is computed and it interpolates between a BTZ black hole at large
L and global AdS at large
β.
We study the time evolution of the entanglement structure of holographic conformal field theories after a local quench. Using the mutual information between two spatial intervals as a probe, we find that
1+1-dimensional conformal field theories exhibit a rich pattern of dynamical phase transitions. In the large-central-charge limit, mutual information develops sharp non-analyticities at critical times, providing a concrete entanglement-based realization of dynamical quantum phase transitions. We find that the dynamics organize into six distinct phases of mutual information, each controlled by the dominance of a different conformal block, or equivalently, a different holographic geodesic configuration. This phase structure goes beyond the standard quasi-particle picture, explaining non-analytic features that are not captured by simple light-cone propagation from the quench points. We further identify a dynamical
D4 symmetry acting on the interval endpoints that controls the presence or absence of mutual information. The onset of mutual information is governed by the breaking of this symmetry to a
Z2×Z2 subgroup, suggesting a symmetry-based characterization of non-equilibrium entanglement dynamics analogous to the role of symmetry in equilibrium critical phenomena. Finally, numerical studies of critical spin chains indicate that finite-
c effects smooth out the sharp large-
c transitions between different mutual-information phases, while the transitions between phases with and without mutual information appear to remain non-analytic. These results offer a unifying perspective on real-time entanglement dynamics and their critical features in conformal many-body systems.