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At least 649 records · Page 36
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DOE OSTI2021

The EFT-hedron

We re-examine the constraints imposed by causality and unitarity on the low-energy effective field theory expansion of four-particle scattering amplitudes, exposing a hidden “totally positive” structure strikingly similar to the positive geometries associated with grassmannians and amplituhedra. This forces the infinite tower of higher-dimension operators to lie inside a new geometry we call the “EFT-hedron”. We initiate a systematic investigation of the boundary structure of the EFT-hedron, giving infinitely many linear and non-linear inequalities that must be satisfied by the EFT expansion in any theory. We illustrate the EFT-hedron geometry and constraints in a wide variety of examples, including new consistency conditions on the scattering amplitudes of photons and gravitons in the real world.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Rindler fluids from gravitational shockwaves

We study a correspondence between gravitational shockwave geometry and its fluid description near a Rindler horizon in Minkowski spacetime. Utilizing the Petrov classification that describes algebraic symmetries for Lorentzian spaces, we establish an explicit mapping between a potential fluid and the shockwave metric perturbation, where the Einstein equation for the shockwave geometry is equivalent to the incompressibility condition of the fluid, augmented by a shockwave source. Then we consider an Ansatz of a stochastic quantum source for the potential fluid, which has the physical interpretation of shockwaves created by vacuum energy fluctuations. Under such circumstance, the Einstein equation, or equivalently, the incompressibility condition for the fluid, becomes a stochastic differential equation. By smearing the quantum source on a stretched horizon in a Lorentz invariant manner with a Planckian width (similarly to the membrane paradigm), we integrate fluctuations near the Rindler horizon to find an accumulated effect of the variance in the round-trip time of a photon traversing the horizon of a causal diamond.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Can we observe fuzzballs or firewalls?

In the fuzzball paradigm the information paradox is resolved because the black hole is replaced by an object with no horizon. One may therefore ask if observations can distinguish a traditional hole from a fuzzball. We give arguments for why the fuzzball structure should lie close to the horizon; i.e., it should be a ‘tight’ fuzzball. We find: (a) It is very difficult to reflect quanta off the surface of such a fuzzball, mainly because geodesics starting near the horizon radius cannot escape to infinity unless their starting direction is very close to radial. (b) If infalling particles interact with the emerging radiation before they are engulfed by the horizon, then we say that we have a ‘firewall behavior’. Here, we consider several types of interactions, but find no evidence for firewall behavior in any theory that obeys causality. (c) Photons with wavelengths larger than the black hole radius can be scattered off the emerging radiation, but a very small fraction of the backscattered photons will be able to escape back to infinity.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Holography abhors visible trapped surfaces

We prove that consistency of the holographic dictionary implies a hallmark prediction of the weak cosmic censorship conjecture: that in classical gravity, trapped surfaces lie behind event horizons. In particular, the existence of a trapped surface implies the existence of an event horizon, and that furthermore this event horizon must be outside of the trapped surface. More precisely, we show that the formation of event horizons outside of a strong gravity region is a direct consequence of causal wedge inclusion, which is required by entanglement wedge reconstruction. We make few assumptions beyond the absence of evaporating singularities in strictly classical gravity. We comment on the implication that spacetimes with naked trapped surfaces do not admit a holographic dual, note a possible application to holographic complexity, and speculate on the dual CFT interpretation of a trapped surface.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Covariant bit threads

We derive several new reformulations of the Hubeny-Rangamani-Takayanagi covariant holographic entanglement entropy formula. These include: (1) a minimax formula, which involves finding a maximal-area achronal surface on a timelike hypersurface homologous to D(A) (the boundary causal domain of the region A whose entropy we are calculating) and minimizing over the hypersurface; (2) a max V-flow formula, in which we maximize the flux through D(A) of a divergenceless bulk 1-form V subject to an upper bound on its norm that is non-local in time; and (3) a min U-flow formula, in which we minimize the flux over a bulk Cauchy slice of a divergenceless timelike 1-form U subject to a lower bound on its norm that is non-local in space. The two flow formulas define convex programs and are related to each other by Lagrange duality. For each program, the optimal configurations dynamically find the HRT surface and the entanglement wedges of A and its complement. The V-flow formula is the covariant version of the Freedman-Headrick bit thread reformulation of the Ryu-Takayanagi formula. We also introduce a measure-theoretic concept of a “thread distribution”, and explain how Riemannian flows, V-flows, and U-flows can be expressed in terms of thread distributions.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

The structure of quantum singularities on a Cauchy horizon

Spacetime singularities pose a long-standing puzzle in quantum gravity. Unlike Schwarzschild, a generic family of black holes gives rise to a Cauchy horizon on which, even in the Hartle-Hawking state, quantum observables such as ⟨T μν ⟩ — the expectation value of the stress-energy tensor — can diverge, causing a breakdown of semiclassical gravity. Because they are diagnosed within quantum field theory (QFT) on a smooth background, these singularities may provide a better-controlled version of the spacetime singularity problem, and merit further study. Here, I highlight a mildness puzzle of Cauchy horizon singularities: the ⟨T μν ⟩ singularity is significantly milder than expected from symmetry and dimensional analysis. I address the puzzle in a simple spacetime ${\mathcal{W}}_P$, which arises universally near all black hole Cauchy horizons: the past of a codimension-two spacelike plane in flat spacetime. Specifically, I propose an extremely broad QFT construction in which, roughly speaking, Cauchy horizon singularities originate from operator insertions in the causal complement of the spacetime. The construction reproduces well-known outer horizon singularities (e.g., in the Boulware state), and remarkably, when applied to ${\mathcal{W}}_P$, gives rise to a universal mild singularity structure for robust singularities, ones whose leading singular behavior is state-independent. I make non-trivial predictions for all black hole Cauchy horizon singularities using this, and discuss extending the results beyond robust singularities and the strict near Cauchy horizon limit.

black holes↗
DOE OSTI2017

Holographic reconstruction of AdS exchanges from crossing symmetry

Motivated by AdS/CFT, we address the following outstanding question in large N conformal field theory: given the appearance of a single-trace operator in the O x O OPE of a scalar primary O, what is its total contribution to the vacuum four-point function (OOOO) as dictated by crossing symmetry? We solve this problem in 4d conformal field theories at leading order in 1/N. Viewed holographically, this provides a field theory reconstruction of crossing-symmetric, four-point exchange amplitudes in AdS 5 . Our solution takes the form of a resummation of the large spin solution to the crossing equations, supplemented by corrections at finite spin, required by crossing. The method can be applied to the exchange of operators of arbitrary twist τ and spin s, although it vastly simplifies for even-integer twist, where we give explicit results. The output is the set of OPE data for the exchange of all double-trace operators [OO] n,ℓ . We find that the double-trace anomalous dimensions γ n,ℓ are negative, monotonic and convex functions of ℓ, for all n and all ℓ > s. This constitutes a holographic signature of bulk causality and classical dynamics of even-spin fields. We also find that the “derivative relation” between double-trace anomalous dimensions and OPE coefficients does not hold in general, and derive the explicit form of the deviation in several cases. Finally, we study large n limits of γ n,ℓ , relevant for the Regge and bulk-point regimes.

1/N expansion↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantum error correction from complexity in Brownian SYK

We study the robustness of quantum error correction in a one-parameter ensemble of codes generated by the Brownian SYK model, where the parameter quantifies the encoding complexity. The robustness of error correction by a quantum code is upper bounded by the “mutual purity” of a certain entangled state between the code subspace and environment in the isometric extension of the error channel, where the mutual purity of a density matrix ρAB is the difference $\mathcal{F}$ p ($A : B$) ≡ $\mathrm{T}$r $p^{2}_{AB}$ - $\mathrm{T}$r $p^{2}_{A}$ $\mathrm{T}$r $p^{2}_{B}$. We show that when the encoding complexity is small, the mutual purity is O(1) for the erasure of a small number of qubits (i.e., the encoding is fragile). However, this quantity decays exponentially, becoming O(1/N) for O(log N) encoding complexity. Further, at polynomial encoding complexity, the mutual purity saturates to a plateau of O(e -N ). We also find a hierarchy of complexity scales associated to a tower of subleading contributions to the mutual purity that quantitatively, but not qualitatively, adjust our error correction bound as encoding complexity increases. In the AdS/CFT context, our results suggest that any portion of the entanglement wedge of a general boundary subregion A with sufficiently high encoding complexity is robustly protected against low-rank errors acting on A with no prior access to the encoding map. From the bulk point of view, we expect such bulk degrees of freedom to be causally inaccessible from the region A despite being encoded in it.

1/N expansion↗
DOE OSTI2024

Security of quantum position-verification limits Hamiltonian simulation via holography

We investigate the link between quantum position-verification (QPV) and holography established in [1] using holographic quantum error correcting codes as toy models. By inserting the “temporal” scaling of the AdS metric by hand via the bulk Hamiltonian interaction strength, we recover a toy model with consistent causality structure. This leads to an interesting implication between two topics in quantum information: if position-based verification is secure against attacks with small entanglement then there are new fundamental lower bounds for resources required for one Hamiltonian to simulate another.

AdS-CFT Correspondence↗
DOE OSTI2024

Higher-order tails and RG flows due to scattering of gravitational radiation from binary inspirals

Abstract We establish and develop a novel methodology to treat higher-order non-linear effects of gravitational radiation that is scattered from binary inspirals, which employs modern scattering-amplitudes methods on the effective picture of the binary as a composite particle. We spell out our procedure to study such effects: assembling tree amplitudes via generalized-unitarity methods and employing the closed-time-path formalism to derive the causal effective actions, which encompass the full conservative and dissipative dynamics. We push through to a new state of the art for these higher-order effects, up to the third subleading tail effect, at order$$ {G}_N^5 $$ G N 5 and the 5-loop level, which corresponds to the 8.5PN order. We formulate the consequent dissipated energy for these higher-order corrections, and carry out a renormalization analysis, where we uncover new subleading RG flow of the quadrupole coupling. For all higher-order tail effects we find perfect agreement with partial observable results in PN and self-force theories, where available.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2017

An effective formalism for testing extensions to General Relativity with gravitational waves

The recent direct observation of gravitational waves (GW) from merging black holes opens up the possibility of exploring the theory of gravity in the strong regime at an unprecedented level. It is therefore interesting to explore which extensions to General Relativity (GR) could be detected. We construct an Effective Field Theory (EFT) satisfying the following requirements. It is testable with GW observations; it is consistent with other experiments, including short distance tests of GR; it agrees with widely accepted principles of physics, such as locality, causality and unitarity; and it does not involve new light degrees of freedom. The most general theory satisfying these requirements corresponds to adding to the GR Lagrangian operators constructed out of powers of the Riemann tensor, suppressed by a scale comparable to the curvature of the observed merging binaries. The presence of these operators modifies the gravitational potential between the compact objects, as well as their effective mass and current quadrupoles, ultimately correcting the waveform of the emitted GW.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Bulk local states and crosscaps in holographic CFT

In a weakly coupled gravity theory in the anti-de Sitter space, local states in the bulk are linear superpositions of Ishibashi states for a crosscap in the dual conformal field theory. The superposition structure can be constrained either by the microscopic causality in the bulk gravity or the bootstrap condition in the boundary conformal field theory. We show, contrary to some expectation, that these two conditions are not compatible to each other in the weak gravity regime. As a result, we also present an evidence to show that bulk local states in three dimensions are not organized by the Virasoro symmetry.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2018

A conformal collider for holographic CFTs

We develop a formalism to study the implications of causality on OPE coefficients in conformal field theories with large central charge and a sparse spectrum of higher spin operators. The formalism has the interpretation of a new conformal collider-type experiment for these class of CFTs and hence it has the advantage of requiring knowledge only about CFT three-point functions. This is accomplished by considering the holographic null energy operator which was introduced in [ 1 ] as a generalization of the averaged null energy operator. Analyticity properties of correlators in the Regge limit imply that the holographic null energy operator is a positive operator in a subspace of the total CFT Hilbert space. Utilizing this positivity condition, we derive bounds on three-point functions $\langle$ TO 1 O 2 $\rangle$of the stress tensor with various operators for CFTs with large central charge and a sparse spectrum. After imposing these constraints, we also find that the operator product expansions of all primary operators in the Regge limit have certain universal properties. All of these results are consistent with the expectation that CFTs in this class, irrespective of their microscopic details, admit universal gravity-like holographic dual descriptions. Furthermore, this connection enables us to constrain various inflationary observables such as the amplitude of chiral gravity waves, non-gaussanity of gravity waves and tensor-to-scalar ratio.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Regenesis and quantum traversable wormholes

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 phenomenon 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.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Double holography in string theory

We develop the notion of double holography in Type IIB string theory realizations of braneworld models. The Type IIB setups are based on the holographic duals of 4d BCFTs comprising 4d N = 4 SYM on a half space coupled to 3d N = 4 SCFTs on the boundary. Based on the concrete BCFTs and their brane construction, we provide microscopic realizations of the intermediate holographic description, obtained by dualizing only the 3d degrees of freedom. Triggered by recent observations in bottom-up models, we discuss the causal structures in the full BCFT duals and intermediate descriptions. This confirms qualitative features found in the bottom-up models but suggests a refinement of their interpretation.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Segmented strings in AdS 3

We study segmented strings in flat space and in AdS 3 . In flat space, these well known classical motions describe strings which at any instant of time are piecewise linear. In AdS 3 , the worldsheet is composed of faces each of which is a region bounded by null geodesics in an AdS 2 subspace of AdS 3 . The time evolution can be described by specifying the null geodesic motion of kinks in the string at which two segments are joined. The outcome of collisions of kinks on the worldsheet can be worked out essentially using considerations of causality. We study several examples of closed segmented strings in AdS 3 and find an unexpected quasi-periodic behavior. Here, we also work out a WKB analysis of quantum states of yo-yo strings in AdS 5 and find a logarithmic term reminiscent of the logarithmic twist of string states on the leading Regge trajectory.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2014

Infrared consistency and the weak gravity conjecture

The weak gravity conjecture (WGC) asserts that an Abelian gauge theory coupled to gravity is inconsistent unless it contains a particle of charge q and mass m such that q ≥ m/m Pl . This criterion is obeyed by all known ultraviolet completions and is needed to evade pathologies from stable black hole remnants. In this paper, we explore the WGC from the perspective of low-energy effective field theory. Below the charged particle threshold, the effective action describes a photon and graviton interacting via higher-dimension operators. We derive infrared consistency conditions on the parameters of the effective action using i ) analyticity of light-by-light scattering, ii ) unitarity of the dynamics of an arbitrary ultraviolet completion, and iii ) absence of superluminality and causality violation in certain non-trivial backgrounds. For convenience, we begin our analysis in three spacetime dimensions, where gravity is non-dynamical but has a physical effect on photon-photon interactions. We then consider four dimensions, where propagating gravity substantially complicates all of our arguments, but bounds can still be derived. Operators in the effective action arise from two types of diagrams: those that involve electromagnetic interactions (parameterized by a charge-to-mass ratio q/m) and those that do not (parameterized by a coefficient γ). In conclusion, infrared consistency implies that q/m is bounded from below for small γ.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Thermal out-of-time-order correlators, KMS relations, and spectral functions

We describe general features of thermal correlation functions in quantum systems, with specific focus on the fluctuation-dissipation type relations implied by the KMS condition. These end up relating correlation functions with different time ordering and thus should naturally be viewed in the larger context of out-of-time-ordered (OTO) observables. In particular, eschewing the standard formulation of KMS relations where thermal periodicity is combined with time-reversal to stay within the purview of Schwinger-Keldysh functional integrals, we show that there is a natural way to phrase them directly in terms of OTO correlators. We use these observations to construct a natural causal basis for thermal n-point functions in terms of fully nested commutators. We provide several general results which can be inferred from cyclic orbits of permutations, and exemplify the abstract results using a quantum oscillator as an explicit example.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗