Holographic complexity: braneworld gravity versus the Lloyd bound

Abstract

We explore the complexity equals volume proposal for planar black holes in anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime in 2+1 dimensions, with an end of the world (ETW) brane behind the horizon. We allow for the possibility of intrinsic gravitational dynamics in the form of Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity to be localized on the brane. We compute the asymptotic rate of change of volume complexity analytically and obtain the full time dependence using numerical techniques. We find that the inclusion of JT gravity on the brane leads to interesting effects on time dependence of holographic complexity. We identify the region in parameter space (the brane location and the JT coupling) for which the rate of change of complexity violates the Lloyd bound. In an equivalent description of the model in terms of an asymptotically AdS wormhole, we connect the violation of the Lloyd bound to the violation of a suitable energy condition in the bulk that we introduce. We also compare the Lloyd bound constraints to previously derived constraints on the bulk parameters in this model that are based on bounds on entanglement growth in the dual CFT state.