Title: Scattering strings off quantum extremal surfaces

Abstract

We consider a Hayden & Preskill like setup for both maximally chaotic and sub-maximally chaotic quantum field theories. We act on the vacuum with an operator in a Rindler like wedge R and transfer a small subregion I of R to the other wedge. The chaotic scrambling dynamics of the QFT Rindler time evolution reveals the information in the other wedge. The holographic dual of this process involves a particle excitation falling into the bulk and crossing into the entanglement wedge of the complement to r = R\I. With the goal of studying the locality of the emergent holographic theory we compute various quantum information measures on the boundary that tell us when the particle has entered this entanglement wedge. In a maximally chaotic theory, these measures indicate a sharp transition where the particle enters the wedge exactly when the insertion is null separated from the quantum extremal surface for r. For sub-maximally chaotic theories, we find a smoothed crossover at a delayed time given in terms of the smaller Lyapunov exponent and dependent on the time-smearing scale of the probe excitation. The information quantities that we consider include the full vacuum modular energy R\I as well as the fidelitymore » between the state with the particle and the state without. Along the way, we find a new explicit formula for the modular Hamiltonian of two intervals in an arbitrary 1+1 dimensional CFT to leading order in the small cross ratio limit. We also give an explicit calculation of the Regge limit of the modular flowed chaos correlator and find examples which do not saturate the modular chaos bound. Finally, we discuss the extent to which our results reveal properties of the target of the probe excitation as a “stringy quantum extremal surface” or simply quantify the probe itself thus giving a new approach to studying the notion of longitudinal string spreading.« less

Authors:

Chandrasekaran, Venkatesa ^[1]; Faulkner, Thomas ^[2]; Levine, Adam ^[3]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
3. Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States)

Publication Date:

Tue Aug 16 00:00:00 EDT 2022

Research Org.:

Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States); Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Science Foundation (NSF)

OSTI Identifier:

1976516

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0019183; SC0019380; AC02-05CH11231; PHY-1911298; PHY1820912

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: 2022; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 1029-8479

Publisher:

Springer Nature

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; AdS-CFT correspondence; black holes in string theory; holography and condensed matter physics; AdS/CMT