Title: Regenesis and quantum traversable wormholes

Abstract

Recent gravity discussions of a traversable wormhole indicate that in holographic systems signals generated by a source could reappear long after they have dissipated, with the need of only performing some simple operations. In this paper we argue the phenomenon, to which we refer as “regenesis”, is universal in general quantum chaotic many-body systems, and elucidate its underlying physics. The essential elements behind the phenomenon are: (i) scrambling which in a chaotic system makes out-of-time-ordered correlation functions (OTOCs) vanish at large times, (ii) the entanglement structure of the state of the system. The latter aspect also implies that the regenesis phenomenon requires fine tuning of the initial state. Compared to other manifestations of quantum chaos such as the initial growth of OTOCs which deals with early times, and a random matrix-type energy spectrum which reflects very large time behavior, regenesis concerns with intermediate times, of order the scrambling time of a system. We also study the phenomenon in detail in general two-dimensional conformal field theories in the large central charge limit, and highlight some interesting features including a resonant enhancement of regenesis signals near the scrambling time and their oscillations in coupling. Finally, we discuss gravity implications of the phenomenonmore » for systems with a gravity dual, arguing that there exist regimes for which traversability of a wormhole is quantum in nature, i.e. cannot be associated with a semi-classical spacetime causal structure.« less

Authors:

Gao, Ping  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Gao, Ping"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-5028-7615"

Liu, Hong ^[2]

---

+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Publication Date:

Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 EDT 2019

Research Org.:

Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); Simons Foundation

OSTI Identifier:

1619197

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0012567

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics (Online); Journal Volume: 2019; Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 1029-8479

Publisher:

Springer Berlin

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; AdS-CFT Correspondence; Conformal Field Theory; Holography and condensed matter physics (AdS/CMT)