<p>We investigate the low energy regime of BFSS quantum mechanics using its holographic dual. We identify three distinct thermodynamic phases (black holes) and analyze their thermodynamic properties extensively, including phase transitions amongst the several phases. While the properties of the canonical ensemble aligns with existing conjectures on BFSS thermodynamics, we uncover intriguing and unexpected behavior in the microcanonical ensemble. Specifically, for sufficiently low energies, we observe the dominance of the localized phase. Surprisingly, we also identify an energy range where the non-uniform phase becomes dominant. The transition between these phases is mediated by a Kol-type topology-changing phenomenon.</p>

United Kingdom

Óscar J.C. Dias

Jorge E. Santos

Low Energy Limit of Banks-Fischler-Shenker-Susskind Quantum Mechanics

In AdS/CFT partition functions of decoupled copies of the CFT factorize. In bulk computations of such quantities contributions from spacetime wormholes which link separate asymptotic boundaries threaten to spoil this property, leading to a “factorization puzzle.” Certain simple models like JT gravity have wormholes, but bulk computations in them correspond to averages over an ensemble of boundary systems. These averages need not factorize. We can formulate a toy version of the factorization puzzle in such models by focusing on a specific member of the ensemble where partition functions will again factorize.

United States

Phil Saad

Stephen Shenker

Shunyu Yao

Comments on wormholes and factorization

After averaging over fermion couplings, SYK has a collective field description that sometimes has “wormhole” solutions. We study the fate of these wormholes when the couplings are fixed. Working mainly in a simple model, we find that the wormhole saddles persist, but that new saddles also appear elsewhere in the integration space — “half-wormholes.” The wormhole contributions depend only weakly on the specific choice of couplings, while the half-wormhole contributions are strongly sensitive. The half-wormholes are crucial for factorization of decoupled systems with fixed couplings, but they vanish after averaging, leaving the non-factorizing wormhole behind.

Douglas Stanford

Wormholes without averaging

Henry Tye

Remembering Stephen Weinberg

Recent work has shown how to obtain the Page curve of an evaporating black hole from holographic computations of entanglement entropy. We show how these computations can be justified using the replica trick, from geometries with a spacetime wormhole connecting the different replicas. In a simple model, we study the Page transition in detail by summing replica geometries with different topologies. We compute related quantities in less detail in more complicated models, including JT gravity coupled to conformal matter and the SYK model. Separately, we give a direct gravitational argument for entanglement wedge reconstruction using an explicit formula known as the Petz map; again, a spacetime wormhole plays an important role. We discuss an interpretation of the wormhole geometries as part of some ensemble average implicit in the gravity description.

Geoff Penington

Zhenbin Yang

Replica wormholes and the black hole interior

We have found an error in section 6 of this paper. In that section we gave a heuristic argument estimating the ramp time of Hamiltonian systems by assuming that the slowest decay in eq. (105) was that of simple operators.

Hrant Gharibyan

Japan

Masanori Hanada

Masaki Tezuka

Erratum to: Onset of random matrix behavior in scrambling systems

We study numerically the onset of chaos and thermalization in the Banks-Fischler-Shenker-Susskind (BFSS) matrix model with and without fermions, considering Lyapunov exponents, entanglement generation, and quasinormal ringing. We approximate the real-time dynamics in terms of the most general Gaussian density matrices with parameters which obey self-consistent equations of motion, thus extending the applicability of real-time simulations beyond the classical limit. Initial values of these Gaussian density matrices are optimized to be as close as possible to the thermal equilibrium state of the system. Thus attempting to bridge between the low-energy regime with a calculable holographic description and the classical regime at high energies, we find that quantum corrections to classical dynamics tend to decrease the Lyapunov exponents, which is essential for consistency with the Maldacena-Shenker-Stanford bound at low temperatures. The entanglement entropy is found to exhibit an expected “scrambling” behavior—rapid initial growth followed by saturation. At least at high temperatures the entanglement saturation time appears to be governed by classical Lyapunov exponents. Decay of quasinormal modes is found to be characterized by the shortest timescale of all. We also find that while the bosonic matrix model becomes nonchaotic in the low-temperature regime, for the full BFSS model with fermions the leading Lyapunov exponent, entanglement saturation time, and decay rate of quasinormal modes all remain finite and nonzero down to the lowest temperatures.

Germany

P. V. Buividovich

M. Hanada

A. Schäfer

Quantum chaos, thermalization, and entanglement generation in real-time simulations of the Banks-Fischler-Shenker-Susskind matrix model

We have found a minor normalization error in some of the plots in this paper. This error has no effect on the qualitative or quantitative conclusions of the paper.

Jordan Cotler

Guy Gur-Ari

Joseph Polchinski

Alexandre Streicher

Erratum to: Black holes and random matrices

The fine grained energy spectrum of quantum chaotic systems is widely believed to be described by random matrix statistics. A basic scale in such a system is the energy range over which this behavior persists. We define the corresponding time scale by the time at which the linearly growing ramp region in the spectral form factor begins. We call this time t ramp. The purpose of this paper is to study this scale in many-body quantum systems that display strong chaos, sometimes called scrambling systems. We focus on randomly coupled qubit systems, both local and k-local (all-to-all interactions) and the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model. Using numerical results, analytic estimates for random quantum circuits, and a heuristic analysis of Hamiltonian systems we find the following results. For geometrically local systems with a conservation law we find t ramp is determined by the diffusion time across the system, order N 2 for a 1D chain of N qubits. This is analogous to the behavior found for local one-body chaotic systems. For a k-local system like SYK the time is order log N but with a different prefactor and a different mechanism than the scrambling time. In the absence of any conservation laws, as in a generic random quantum circuit, we find t ramp ∼ log N, independent of connectivity.

Onset of random matrix behavior in scrambling systems

We argue that the late time behavior of horizon fluctuations in large anti-de Sitter (AdS) black holes is governed by the random matrix dynamics characteristic of quantum chaotic systems. Our main tool is the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, which we use as a simple model of a black hole. We use an analytically continued partition function |Z(β + it)|2 as well as correlation functions as diagnostics. Using numerical techniques we establish random matrix behavior at late times. We determine the early time behavior exactly in a double scaling limit, giving us a plausible estimate for the crossover time to random matrix behavior. We use these ideas to formulate a conjecture about general large AdS black holes, like those dual to 4D super-Yang-Mills theory, giving a provisional estimate of the crossover time. We make some preliminary comments about challenges to understanding the late time dynamics from a bulk point of view.