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At least 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

QuGrav: Bringing gravitational waves to light with qumodes

We propose using qumodes, quantum bosonic modes, for detecting high-frequency gravitational waves via the inverse Gertsenshtein effect, where a gravitational wave resonantly converts into a single photon in a magnetized cavity. For an occupation number n of the photon field in a qumode, the conversion probability is enhanced by a factor of n + 1 due to Bose-Einstein statistics. Unlocking this increased sensitivity entails the ability to continuously prepare the qumode and perform nondemolition measurement on the qumode-qubit system within the qumode coherence time. Our results indicate that, at microwave frequencies and with existing technology, the proposed setup can attain sensitivities within 1.7 orders of magnitude of the cosmological bound. With anticipated near-future improvements, it has the potential to surpass this limit and pave the way for the first exploration of high-frequency cosmological gravitational wave backgrounds. At optical frequencies, it can enhance the sensitivity of current detectors by one order of magnitude. That further enhances their potential in reaching the single-graviton level.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Size and momentum of an infalling particle in the black hole interior

The future interior of black holes in AdS/CFT can be described in terms of a quantum circuit. We investigate boundary quantities detecting properties of this quantum circuit. We discuss relations between operator size, quantum complexity, and the momentum of an infalling particle in the black hole interior. We argue that the trajectory of the infalling particle in the interior close to the horizon is related to the growth of operator size. The notion of size here differs slightly from the size which has previously been related to momentum of exterior particles and provides an interesting generalization. The fact that both exterior and interior momentum are related to operator size growth is a manifestation of complementarity.

2D Gravity↗
DOE OSTI2021

Partial deconfinement at strong coupling on the lattice

We provide evidence for partial deconfinement — the deconfinement of a SU(M) subgroup of the SU(N) gauge group — by using lattice Monte Carlo simulations. We take matrix models as concrete examples. By appropriately fixing the gauge, we observe that the M × M submatrices deconfine. This gives direct evidence for partial deconfinement at strong coupling. We discuss the applications to QCD and holography.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Replica wormholes and the black hole interior

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.

2D gravity↗
DOE OSTI2022

Confinement/deconfinement transition in the D0-brane matrix model — A signature of M-theory?

We study the confinement/deconfinement transition in the D0-brane matrix model (often called the BFSS matrix model) and its one-parameter deformation (the BMN matrix model) numerically by lattice Monte Carlo simulations. Our results confirm general expectations from the dual string/M-theory picture for strong coupling. In particular, we observe the confined phase in the BFSS matrix model, which is a nontrivial consequence of the M-theory picture. We suggest that these models provide us with an ideal framework to study the Schwarzschild black hole, M-theory, and furthermore, the parameter region of the phase transition between type IIA superstring theory and M-theory. A detailed study of M-theory via lattice Monte Carlo simulations of the D0-brane matrix model might be doable with much smaller computational resources than previously expected.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

AdS 3 Einstein gravity and boundary description: pedagogical review

We review the various aspects of the 3D Einstein gravity theory with a negative cosmological constant and its boundary description. We also explore its connections to conformal field theories (CFTs), modular symmetry, and holography. It is worth noting that this particular theory is topological in nature, which means that all the physical degrees of freedom are located on the boundary. Additionally, we can derive the boundary description on a torus, which takes the form of a 2D Schwarzian theory. This observation suggests that the relevant degrees of freedom for the theory can be described using this 2D theory. Because of the renormalizability of the 3D gravity theory, one can probe the quantum regime. This suggests that it is possible to investigate quantum phenomena. Unlike the conventional CFTs, when considering the AdS 3 background, the boundary theory loses modular symmetry. This represents a departure from the usual behavior of CFT and is quite intriguing. The Weyl transformation induces anomaly in CFTs, and we indicate that applying this transformation to the 2D Schwarzian theory leads to similar results. Summing over all geometries with the asymptotic AdS 3 boundary condition is equivalent to summing over a modular group. The partition function is one-loop exact and therefore an analytical expression from the summation. This theory holds potential applications in Quantum Information and is a recurring theme in the study of holography, where gravitational theories are connected with CFTs.

2D Schwarzian theory↗
NASA NTRS1972

The last Balmer line and H gamma in model B stars

Profiles of the last few Balmer lines (H12-H27) and the full profiles of the H gamma line were computed for a grid of hydrogen line blanketed model atmospheres. The use of the last hydrogen line and the equivalent width of H gamma provide a quick means of estimating the effective temperature and surface gravity of B stars. Regression curves relating the quantum number of the last hydrogen line to the electron density in the model atmosphere are given. Futhermore, it is shown that the difference in the gravity determination deduced from H gamma equivalent widths using the Edmonds-Schuter-Wells formalism and the Griem wing formulae is, at worst, 0.18 in the common logarithm.

Fischel, D.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Quantum fields, geometric fluctuations, and the structure of spacetime

Quantum fluctuations of the vacuum stress-energy tensor are highly non-Gaussian, and can have unexpectedly large effects on spacetime geometry. In this paper, we study a two-dimensional dilaton gravity model coupled to a conformal field, in which the distribution of vacuum fluctuations is well understood. In this model, the fluctuations of the matter field are responsible for the fluctuations of the geometry itself. Here, by analyzing the geodesic deviation in this model, we show that a pencil of massive particles propagating on this fuzzy spacetime eventually converges and collapses. This is consistent with our earlier analysis of null geodesics in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 021303 (2011)].

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Estimating time in quantum chaotic systems and black holes

We characterize new universal features of the dynamics of chaotic quantum many-body systems, by considering a hypothetical task of "time estimation". Most macroscopic observables in a chaotic system equilibrate to nearly constant late-time values. Intuitively, it should become increasingly difficult to estimate the precise value of time by making measurements on the state. We use a quantity called the Fisher information from quantum metrology to quantify the minimum uncertainty in estimating time. Due to unitarity, the uncertainty in the time estimate does not grow with time if we have access to optimal measurements on the full system. Restricting the measurements to act on a small subsystem or to have low computational complexity leads to results expected from equilibration, where the time uncertainty becomes large at late times. With optimal measurements on a subsystem larger than half of the system, we regain the ability to estimate the time very precisely, even at late times. Hawking's calculation for the reduced density matrix of the black hole radiation in semiclassical gravity contradicts our general predictions for unitary quantum chaotic systems. Hawking's state always has a large uncertainty for attempts to estimate the time using the radiation, whereas our general results imply that the uncertainty should become small after the Page time. This gives a new version of the black hole information loss paradox in terms of the time estimation task. By restricting to simple measurements on the radiation, the time uncertainty becomes large. This indicates from a new perspective that the observations of computationally bounded agents are consistent with the semiclassical effective description of gravity.

Black holes↗
DOE OSTI2020

Holography and unitarity

If holography is an equivalence between quantum theories, one might expect it to be described by a map that is a bijective isometry between bulk and boundary Hilbert spaces, preserving the hamiltonian and symmetries. Holography has been believed to be a property of gravitational (or string) theories, but not of non-gravitational theories; specifically Marolf has argued that it originates from the gauge symmetries and constraints of gravity. These observations suggest study of the assumed holographic map as a function of the gravitational coupling G . The zero coupling limit gives ordinary quantum field theory, and is therefore not necessarily expected to be holographic. This, and the structure of gravity at non-zero G , raises important questions about the full map. In particular, construction of a holographic map appears to require as input a solution of the nonperturbative analog of the bulk gravitational constraints, that is, the unitary bulk evolution. Moreover, examination of the candidate boundary algebra, including the boundary hamiltonian, reveals commutators that don’t close in the usual fashion expected for a boundary theory.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Metric isometries, holography, and continuous symmetry operators

In the AdS/CFT correspondence, a topological symmetry operator of the boundary conformal field theory (CFT) is dual to a dynamical brane in the gravitational bulk. Said differently, this predicts a dynamical brane for every global symmetry of the boundary CFT. We analyze this correspondence for continuous symmetries which arise from a consistent truncation of isometries on the “internal” factor 𝑋 of AdS × 𝑋. In the extra-dimensional geometry, these branes are associated with various metric singularities and do not arise from wrapped D-branes. Boosts relate configurations interpreted as topological symmetry operators and heavy defects in the CFT. From the perspective of the AdS factor, with gravity and bulk gauge fields, these are codimension-2 Gukov-Witten-like vortex configurations which are the gravity duals of 0-form symmetry operators. These effective branes come with an asymptotic tension and size which is also fully fixed by bulk dynamics. We use this higher-dimensional perspective to determine properties of the worldvolume theory for these branes. We also discuss how these considerations generalize to more general quantum field theories engineered via string theory which need not possess a semiclassical gravity dual.

anomalies↗
DOE OSTI2024

Null states and time evolution in a toy model of black hole dynamics

Abstract Spacetime wormholes can provide non-perturbative contributions to the gravitational path integral that make the actual number of statese S in a gravitational system much smaller than the number of states$$ {e}^{S_{\textrm{p}}} $$ e S p predicted by perturbative semiclassical effective field theory. The effects on the physics of the system are naturally profound in contexts in which the perturbative description actively involvesN=O(e S ) of the possible$$ {e}^{S_{\textrm{p}}} $$ e S p perturbative states; e.g., in late stages of black hole evaporation. Such contexts are typically associated with the existence of non-trivial quantum extremal surfaces. However, by forcing a simple topological gravity model to evolve in time, we find that such effects can also have large impact forN≪e S (in which case no quantum extremal surfaces can arise). In particular, even for smallN, the insertion of generic operators into the path integral can cause the non-perturbative time evolution to differ dramatically from perturbative expectations. On the other hand, this discrepancy is small for the special case where the inserted operators are non-trivial only in a subspace of dimensionD≪e S . We thus study this latter case in detail. We also discuss potential implications for more realistic gravitational systems.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2021

Entanglement and confinement in coupled quantum systems

We study some general properties of coupled quantum systems. We consider simple interactions between two copies of identical Hamiltonians such as the SYK model, Pauli spin chains with random magnetic field and harmonic oscillators. Such couplings make the ground states close to the thermofield double states of the uncoupled Hamiltonians. For the coupled SYK model, we push the numerical computation further towards the thermodynamic limit so that an extrapolation in the size of the system is possible. We find good agreement between the extrapolated numerical result and the analytic result in the large-q limit. We also consider the coupled gauged matrix model and vector model, and argue that the deconfinement is associated with the loss of the entanglement, similarly to the previous observation for the coupled SYK model. The understanding of the microscopic mechanism of the confinement/deconfinement transition enables us to estimate the quantum entanglement precisely, and backs up the dual gravity interpretation which relates the deconfinement to the disappearance of the wormhole. Our results demonstrate the importance of the entanglement between the color degrees of freedom in the emergence of the bulk geometry from quantum field theory via holography.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Mind the crosscap: $τ$-scaling in non-orientable gravity and time-reversal-invariant systems

Spectral statistics of quantum chaotic systems are governed by random matrix universality. In many cases of interest, time-reversal symmetry selects the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) as the relevant universality class. In holographic CFTs, this is mirrored by the presence of non-orientable geometries in the dual gravitational path integral. In this work, we analyze general properties of these matrix models and their gravitational counterparts. First, we develop a formalism to express the universal level statistics in the canonical ensemble for arbitrary spectral curves, leading to a topological expansion with finite radius of convergence in the late-time $τ$-scaling limit. Then, we focus on topological gravity and study topological recursion on the moduli space of non-orientable surfaces. We find that the Weil-Petersson volumes display non-analytic behaviour multiplying polynomials in the boundary lengths. The volumes give rise to wormholes with late-time divergences, in contrast with the orientable case, which is finite. We identify systematic cancellations among WP volumes implied by the consistency and finiteness of the $τ$-scaling limit. In particular, the cancellation of late-time divergences requires a nontrivial genus resummation. Working in the gravitational microcanonical ensemble, we derive and resum all orders of the topological expansion matching the GOE matrix model in the high-energy regime.

Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD)↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantum error correction in the black hole interior

We study the quantum error correction properties of the black hole interior in a toy model for an evaporating black hole: Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity entangled with a non-gravitational bath. After the Page time, the black hole interior degrees of freedom in this system are encoded in the bath Hilbert space. We use the gravitational path integral to show that the interior density matrix is correctable against the action of quantum operations on the bath which (i) do not have prior access to details of the black hole microstates, and (ii) do not have a large, negative coherent information with respect to the maximally mixed state on the bath, with the lower bound controlled by the black hole entropy and code subspace dimension. Thus, the encoding of the black hole interior in the radiation is robust against generic, low-rank quantum operations. For erasure errors, gravity comes within an O (1) distance of saturating the Singleton bound on the tolerance of error correcting codes. For typical errors in the bath to corrupt the interior, they must have a rank that is a large multiple of the bath Hilbert space dimension, with the precise coefficient set by the black hole entropy and code subspace dimension.

2D gravity↗
DOE OSTI2025

Supersymmetry breaking in SYK and the black hole spectrum

The spectrum and dynamics of near-extremal black holes is strongly modified by quantum effects at low temperatures. When the extremal limit does not preserve any supersymmetry, the density of states goes to zero at extremality and no extremal black holes remain. However, when the extremal limit is supersymmetric, a large microscopic degeneracy survives and there is a gap to the first excited black hole visible from gravity. In this article we study large N quantum mechanical models where supersymmetry is explicitly broken, allowing us to interpolate between these two qualitatively different pictures. We propose and analyze deformations of N = 2 SYK models with such a pattern of (super) symmetry breaking which violate the U(1) R-symmetry. These models feature a lifting of the BPS degeneracy and a closing of the spectral gap, and we further show that the large N soft effective action is given by a modification of the N = 2 Schwarzian theory in which the U(1) R mode becomes massive.

1/N Expansion↗
DOE OSTI2021

Universal Tripartite Entanglement in One-Dimensional Many-Body Systems

Motivated by conjectures in holography relating the entanglement of purification and reflected entropy to the entanglement wedge cross section, we introduce two related non-negative measures of tripartite entanglement g and h. We prove structure theorems which show that states with nonzero g or h have nontrivial tripartite entanglement. We then establish that in one dimension these tripartite entanglement measures are universal quantities that depend only on the emergent low-energy theory. For a gapped system, we argue that either g≠0 and h=0 or g=h=0, depending on whether the ground state has long-range order. For a critical system, we develop a numerical algorithm for computing g and h from a lattice model. We compute g and h for various CFTs and show that h depends only on the central charge whereas g depends on the whole operator content.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗