<!--HTML-->I will show that (1+1)d QFTs typically thermalize more slowly than the expected "Planckian" equilibration time 1/T. This arises due to causality, which imposes strong constraints on the emergence of hydrodynamic sound in low dimensions. Subluminality of sound further allows one to define a thermodynamic analogue of Zamolodchikov's C-function, and constrain the sign of the TT-bar term in the low energy limit of any 2d QFT.
We consider 2d QFTs as relevant deformations of CFTs in the thermodynamic limit. Using causality and KPZ universality, we place a lower bound on the timescale characterizing the onset of hydrodynamics. The bound is determined parametrically in terms of the temperature and the scale associated with the relevant deformation. This bound is typically much stronger than \frac{1}{T} 1 T , the expected quantum equilibration time. Subluminality of sound further allows us to define a thermodynamic C C -function, and constrain the sign of the T\bar T T T ‾ term in EFTs.
We consider 2d QFTs as relevant deformations of CFTs in the thermodynamic limit. Using causality and KPZ universality, we place a lower bound on the timescale characterizing the onset of hydrodynamics. The bound is determined parametrically in terms of the temperature and the scale associated with the relevant deformation. This bound is typically much stronger than T1, the expected quantum equilibration time. Subluminality of sound further allows us to define a thermodynamic C-function, and constrain the sign of the TTˉ term in EFTs.
<!--HTML-->Nonintegrable QFTs are expected to thermalize and exhibit emergence of hydrodynamics and chaos. In weakly coupled QFTs, kinetic theory captures local thermalization; such a versatile tool is absent away from the perturbative regime. I will present analytical and numerical results using nonperturbative methods to study thermalization at strong coupling. I will show how requiring causality in the thermal state leads to strong analytic constraints on the thermodynamics and out of equilibrium properties of any relativistic 1+1d QFT. I will then discuss Lightcone Conformal Truncation (LCT) as a powerful numerical tool to study thermalization of QFTs. Applied to ϕ4 theory in 1+1d, LCT reveals eigenstate thermalization and onset of random matrix universality at any nonzero coupling. Finally, I will discuss prospects for observing the emergence of hydrodynamics in QFTs using Hamiltonian truncation.
We identify the universal mechanism behind the thermalization of (1+1)d QFTs at high and low temperatures. Viewing these theories as CFTs perturbed by relevant or irrelevant deformations, we show that conformal perturbation theory in the thermal state breaks down at late times allowing for the emergence of hydrodynamics. This breakdown occurs universally due to the unsuppressed exchange of stress tensors near the lightcone. Furthermore, for theories with central charge c→∞ c → ∞ we solve for the emergent hydrodynamic theory to all orders in the gradient expansion by arguing that all transport parameters appearing in two-point functions have universal expressions in terms of the scaling dimension \Delta Δ of the perturbation. The radius of convergence of the hydrodynamic dispersion relations provides an early time cutoff for hydrodynamics, which agrees with the time scale at which conformal perturbation theory breaks down.
Using the holographic mapping to a gravity dual, we calculate 2-point functions, Wilson loops, and entanglement entropy in strongly coupled field theories in d=2, 3, and 4 to probe the scale dependence of thermalization following a sudden injection of energy. For homogeneous initial conditions, the entanglement entropy thermalizes slowest and sets a time scale for equilibration that saturates a causality bound. The growth rate of entanglement entropy density is nearly volume-independent for small volumes but slows for larger volumes. In this setting, the UV thermalizes first.
In this paper, based on the fundamental principles of gauge/gravity duality and considering a global quench, we probe the physics of thermalization for certain special classes of strongly coupled nonrelativistic quantum field theories that are dual to an asymptotically Schr\"odinger Dp brane space time. In our analysis, we note that during the prelocal stages of the thermal equilibrium the entanglement entropy has a faster growth in time compared to its relativistic cousin. However, it shows a linear growth during the postlocal stages of thermal equilibrium where the so-called tsunami velocity associated with the linear growth of the entanglement entropy saturates to that of its value corresponding to the relativistic scenario. Finally, we explore the saturation region and it turns out that one must constraint certain parameters of the theory in a specific way in order to have discontinuous transitions at the point of saturation.