Bulk Geodesics Research Articles

Multi-entropy at low Renyi index in 2d CFTs

For a static time slice of AdS_33 we describe a particular class of minimal surfaces which form trivalent networks of geodesics. Through geometric arguments we provide evidence that these surfaces describe a measure of multipartite entanglement. By relating these surfaces to Ryu-Takayanagi surfaces it can be shown that this multipartite contribution is related to the angles of intersection of the bulk geodesics. A proposed boundary dual [Phys. Rev. D 106, 126001 (2022), J. High Energy Phys. 08, 202 (2023), J. High Energy Phys. 05, 008 (2023)], the multi-entropy, generalizes replica trick calculations involving twist operators by considering monodromies with finite group symmetry beyond the cyclic group used for the computation of entanglement entropy. We make progress by providing explicit calculations of Renyi multi-entropy in two dimensional CFTs and geometric descriptions of the replica surfaces for several cases with low genus. We also explore aspects of the free fermion and free scalar CFTs. For the free fermion CFT we examine subtleties in the definition of the twist operators used for the calculation of Renyi multi-entropy. In particular the standard bosonization procedure used for the calculation of the usual entanglement entropy fails and a different treatment is required.

On Minimal Entanglement Wedge Cross Section for Holographic Entanglement Negativity

We demonstrate the equivalence of two different conjectures in the literature for the holographic entanglement negativity in AdS3/CFT2, modulo certain constants. These proposals involve certain algebraic sums of bulk geodesics homologous to specific combinations of subsystems, and the entanglement wedge cross section (EWCS) backreacted by a cosmic brane for the conical defect geometry in the bulk gravitational path integral. It is observed that the former conjectures reproduce the field theory replica technique results in the large central charge limit whereas the latter involves constants related to the Markov gap. In this context, we establish an alternative construction for the EWCS of a single interval in a CFT2 at a finite temperature to resolve an issue for the latter proposal involving thermal entropy elimination for holographic entanglement negativity. Our construction for the EWCS correctly reproduces the corresponding field theory results modulo the Markov gap constant in the large central charge limit.

Geometrizing the partial entanglement entropy: from PEE threads to bit threads

We give a scheme to geometrize the partial entanglement entropy (PEE) for holographic CFT in the context of AdS/CFT. More explicitly, given a point x we geometrize the two-point PEEs between x and any other points in terms of the bulk geodesics connecting these two points. We refer to these geodesics as the PEE threads, which can be naturally regarded as the integral curves of a divergenceless vector field Vxμ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {V}_{\ extbf{x}}^{\\mu } $$\\end{document}, which we call PEE thread flow. The norm of Vxμ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {V}_{\ extbf{x}}^{\\mu } $$\\end{document} that characterizes the density of the PEE threads can be determined by some physical requirements of the PEE. We show that, for any static interval or spherical region A, a unique bit thread configuration can be generated from the PEE thread configuration determined by the state. Hence, the non-intrinsic bit threads are emergent from the intrinsic PEE threads. For static disconnected intervals, the vector fields describing a divergenceless flow is no longer suitable to reproduce the RT formula. We weight a PEE thread with the number of times it intersects with any homologous surface. Instead, the RT formula is perfectly reformulated by the minimization of the summation of PEE threads with all possible assignment of weights.

Thermalization of holographic excited states

We propose a real time holographic framework to study thermalization processes of a family of QFT excited states. The construction builds on Skenderis-van Rees’s holographic duals to QFT Schwinger-Keldysh complex-time ordered paths. Thermalization is explored choosing a set of observables Fn which essentially isolate the excited state contribution. Focusing on theories defined on compact manifolds and with excited states defined in terms of Euclidean path integrals, we identify boundary conditions that allow to avoid any number of modes in the initial field state. In the large conformal dimensions regime, we give precise prescriptions on how to compute the observables in terms of bulk geodesics.

Localized states in global AdS space

We construct both local states and scattering states with finite energy in global AdS by inserting properly regularized operators in the CFT of arbitrary conformal dimension $(\Delta)$ at an instant of time. We give the state fixed angular momentum $(\ell)$ by integrating the result over a sphere with appropriate spherical harmonics. The energy of the states and their angular resolution is computed with CFT operator methods and is independent of having an AdS interpretation. In the semiclassical limit of large conformal dimension operators, these correspond to single particles localized within subAdS scales with width $1/\sqrt{\Delta}$ in AdS units, whose subsequent evolution is controlled by bulk geodesics. Our construction allows us to place a particle in any desired geodesic. For radial geodesics, we show that the amplitude to produce the desired state can be thought of as a regularized tunneling amplitude from the boundary to the radial turning point of the radial geodesic, while for other geodesics we argue that the insertion is at the outermost radial turning point of the corresponding geodesic.

Berry curvature, horocycles, and scattering states in AdS3/CFT2

By studying the space of geodesics in $ADS_3/CFT_2$ and quantizing the geodesic motion, we relate scattering data to boundary entanglement of the CFT vacuum. The basic idea is to use a family of plane waves parametrized by coordinates of the space of geodesics i.e. kinematic space. This idea enables a simple calculation of the Berry curvature living on kinematic space. As a result we recover the Crofton form with a coefficient depending on the scattering energy. In arriving at these results the space of horocycles is used. We show that this new space used in concert with kinematic space incorporates naturally the gauge degrees of freedom responsible for an analogue of Berry's Phase. Horocycles also give a new geometric look to the strong subadditivity relation in terms of lambda lengths giving rise to shear coordinates of geodesic quadrangles. A generalization for geodesic polygons then reveals an interesting connection with $A_{n}$ cluster algebras. Here the cluster variables are the lambda lengths related to the regularized entropies of the boundary via the Ryu-Takayanagi relation. An elaboration of this idea indicates that cluster algebras might provide a natural algebraic means for encoding the gauge invariant entanglement patterns of certain boundary entangled states in the geometry of bulk geodesics. Finally using the language of integral geometry we show how certain propagators connected to the bulk, boundary and kinematic spaces are related to data of elementary scattering problems. We also present some hints how these ideas might be generalized for more general holographic scenarios.

Majorana dimers and holographic quantum error-correcting codes

Holographic quantum error-correcting codes have been proposed as toy models that describe key aspects of the AdS/CFT correspondence. In this work, we introduce a versatile framework of Majorana dimers capturing the intersection of stabilizer and Gaussian Majorana states. This picture allows for an efficient contraction with a simple diagrammatic interpretation and is amenable to analytical study of holographic quantum error-correcting codes. Equipped with this framework, we revisit the recently proposed hyperbolic pentagon code (HyPeC). Relating its logical code basis to Majorana dimers, we efficiently compute boundary state properties even for the non-Gaussian case of generic logical input. The dimers characterizing these boundary states coincide with discrete bulk geodesics, leading to a geometric picture from which properties of entanglement, quantum error correction, and bulk/boundary operator mapping immediately follow. We also elaborate upon the emergence of the Ryu-Takayanagi formula from our model, which realizes many of the properties of the recent bit thread proposal. Our work thus elucidates the connection between bulk geometry, entanglement, and quantum error correction in AdS/CFT, and lays the foundation for new models of holography.

Holographic subregion complexity from kinematic space

We consider the computation of volumes contained in a spatial slice of AdS3 in terms of observables in a dual CFT. Our main tool is kinematic space, defined either from the bulk perspective as the space of oriented bulk geodesics, or from the CFT perspective as the space of entangling intervals. We give an explicit formula for the volume of a general region in a spatial slice of AdS3 as an integral over kinematic space. For the region lying below a geodesic, we show how to write this volume purely in terms of entangling entropies in the dual CFT. This expression is perhaps most interesting in light of the complexity = volume proposal, which posits that complexity of holographic quantum states is computed by bulk volumes. An extension of this idea proposes that the holographic subregion complexity of an interval, defined as the volume under its Ryu-Takayanagi surface, is a measure of the complexity of the corresponding reduced density matrix. If this is true, our results give an explicit relationship between entanglement and subregion complexity in CFT, at least in the vacuum. We further extend many of our results to conical defect and BTZ black hole geometries.

Kinematic space for conical defects

Kinematic space can be used as an intermediate step in the AdS/CFT dictionary and lends itself naturally to the description of diffeomorphism invariant quantities. From the bulk it has been defined as the space of boundary anchored geodesics, and from the boundary as the space of pairs of CFT points. When the bulk is not globally AdS3 the appearance of non-minimal geodesics leads to ambiguities in these definitions. In this work conical defect spacetimes are considered as an example where non-minimal geodesics are common. From the bulk it is found that the conical defect kinematic space can be obtained from the AdS3 kinematic space by the same quotient under which one obtains the defect from AdS3. The resulting kinematic space is one of many equivalent fundamental regions. From the boundary the conical defect kinematic space can be determined by breaking up OPE blocks into contributions from individual bulk geodesics. A duality is established between partial OPE blocks and bulk fields integrated over individual geodesics, minimal or non-minimal.

The gravity dual of boundary causality

In gauge/gravity duality, points which are not causally related on the boundary cannot be causally related through the bulk; this is the statement of boundary causality. By the Gao–Wald theorem, the averaged null energy condition in the bulk is sufficient to ensure this property. Here we proceed in the converse direction: we derive a necessary as well as sufficient condition for the preservation of boundary causality under perturbative (quantum or stringy) corrections to the bulk. The condition that we find is a (background-dependent) constraint on the amount by which light cones can ‘open’ over all null bulk geodesics. We show that this constraint is weaker than the averaged null energy condition.

Tensor networks from kinematic space

We point out that the MERA network for the ground state of a 1+1-dimensional conformal field theory has the same structural features as kinematic space---the geometry of CFT intervals. In holographic theories kinematic space becomes identified with the space of bulk geodesics studied in integral geometry. We argue that in these settings MERA is best viewed as a discretization of the space of bulk geodesics rather than of the bulk geometry itself. As a test of this kinematic proposal, we compare the MERA representation of the thermofield-double state with the space of geodesics in the two-sided BTZ geometry, obtaining a detailed agreement which includes the entwinement sector. We discuss how the kinematic proposal can be extended to excited states by generalizing MERA to a broader class of compression networks.

Witten diagrams revisited: the AdS geometry of conformal blocks

We develop a new method for decomposing Witten diagrams into conformal blocks. The steps involved are elementary, requiring no explicit integration, and operate directly in position space. Central to this construction is an appealingly simple answer to the question: what object in AdS computes a conformal block? The answer is a "geodesic Witten diagram," which is essentially an ordinary exchange Witten diagram, except that the cubic vertices are not integrated over all of AdS, but only over bulk geodesics connecting the boundary operators. In particular, we consider the case of four-point functions of scalar operators, and show how to easily reproduce existing results for the relevant conformal blocks in arbitrary dimension.

Entanglement entropy in a holographic Kondo model

We calculate entanglement and impurity entropies in a recent holographic model of a magnetic impurity interacting with a strongly coupled system. There is an RG flow to an IR fixed point where the impurity is screened, leading to a decrease in impurity degrees of freedom. This information loss corresponds to a volume decrease in our dual gravity model, which consists of a codimension one hypersurface embedded in a BTZ black hole background in three dimensions. There are matter fields defined on this hypersurface which are dual to Kondo field theory operators. In the large N limit, the formation of the Kondo cloud corresponds to the condensation of a scalar field. The entropy is calculated according to the Ryu‐Takayanagi prescription. This requires to determine the backreaction of the hypersurface on the BTZ geometry, which is achieved by solving the Israel junction conditions. We find that the larger the scalar condensate gets, the more the volume of constant time slices in the bulk is reduced, shortening the bulk geodesics and reducing the impurity entropy. This provides a new non‐trivial example of an RG flow satisfying the g‐theorem. Moreover, we find explicit expressions for the impurity entropy which are in agreement with previous field theory results for free electrons. This demonstrates the universality of perturbing about an IR fixed point.

Integral geometry and holography

We present a mathematical framework which underlies the connection be- tween information theory and the bulk spacetime in the AdS3/CFT2 correspondence. A key concept is kinematic space: an auxiliary Lorentzian geometry whose metric is defined in terms of conditional mutual informations and which organizes the entanglement pattern of a CFT state. When the field theory has a holographic dual obeying the Ryu-Takayanagi proposal, kinematic space has a direct geometric meaning: it is the space of bulk geodesics studied in integral geometry. Lengths of bulk curves are computed by kinematic volumes, giving a precise entropic interpretation of the length of any bulk curve. We explain how basic geometric concepts - points, distances and angles - are reflected in kinematic space, allowing one to reconstruct a large class of spatial bulk geometries from boundary entan- glement entropies. In this way, kinematic space translates between information theoretic and geometric descriptions of a CFT state. As an example, we discuss in detail the static slice of AdS3 whose kinematic space is two-dimensional de Sitter space.

Boundary definition of a multiverse measure

We propose to regulate the infinities of eternal inflation by relating a late time cut-off in the bulk to a short distance cut-off on the future boundary. The light-cone time of an event is defined in terms of the volume of its future light-cone on the boundary. We seek an intrinsic definition of boundary volumes that makes no reference to bulk structures. This requires taming the fractal geometry of the future boundary, and lifting the ambiguity of the conformal factor. We propose to work in the conformal frame in which the boundary Ricci scalar is constant. We explore this proposal in the FRW approximation for bubble universes. Remarkably, we find that the future boundary becomes a round three-sphere, with smooth metric on all scales. Our cut-off yields the same relative probabilities as a previous proposal that defined boundary volumes by projection into the bulk along timelike geodesics. Moreover, it is equivalent to an ensemble of causal patches defined without reference to bulk geodesics. It thus yields a holographically motivated and phenomenologically successful measure for eternal inflation.

Plausible “faster-than-light” displacements in a two-sheeted spacetime

In this paper, we explore the implications of a two-point discretization of an extra dimension in a five-dimensional quantum setup. We adopt a pragmatic attitude by considering the dynamics of spin-half particles through the simplest possible extension of the existing Dirac and Pauli equations. It is shown that the benefit of this approach is to predict new physical phenomena while maintaining the number of constitutive hypotheses at minimum. As the most striking feature of the model, we demonstrate the possibility of fermionic matter oscillations between the two four-dimensional sections and hyperfast displacements in case of asymmetric warping (without conflicting special relativity). This result, similar to previous reported ones in braneworld theories, is completely original as it is derived by using quantum mechanics only without recourse to general relativity and bulk geodesics calculation. The model allows causal contact between normally disconnected regions. If it proves to be physically founded, its practical aspects could have deep implications for the search of extra dimensions.

Brane world black rings

Five dimensional neutral rotating black rings are described from a Randall-Sundrum brane world perspective in the bulk black string framework. To this end we consider a rotating black string extension of a five dimensional black ring into the bulk of a six dimensional Randall-Sundrum brane world with a single four brane. The bulk solution intercepts the four brane in a five dimensional black ring with the usual curvature singularity on the brane. The bulk geodesics restricted to the plane of rotation of the black ring are constructed and their projections on the four brane match with the usual black ring geodesics restricted to the same plane. The asymptotic nature of the bulk geodesics are elucidated with reference to a bulk singularity at the AdS horizon. We further discuss the description of a brane world black ring as a limit of a boosted bulk black 2 brane with periodic identification.

Extra Force from an Extra Dimension: Comparison Between Brane Theory, Space-Time-Matter Theory, and Other Approaches

We investigate the question of how an observer in 4D perceives the five-dimensional geodesic motion. We consider the interpretation of null and non-null bulk geodesics in the context of brane theory, space-time-matter theory (STM) and other non-compact approaches. We develop a “frame-invariant” formalism that allows the computation of the rest mass and its variation as observed in 4D. We find the appropriate expression for the four-acceleration and thus obtain the extra force observed in 4D. Our formulae extend and generalize all previous results in the literature. An important result here is that the extra force in brane-world models with Z2-symmetry is continuous and well defined across the brane. This is because the momentum component along the extra dimension is discontinuous across the brane, which effectively compensates the discontinuity of the extrinsic curvature. We show that brane theory and STM produce identical interpretation of the bulk geodesic motion. This holds for null and non-null bulk geodesics. Thus, experiments with test particles are unable to distinguish whether our universe is described by the brane world scenario or by STM. However, they do discriminate between the brane/STM scenario and other non-compact approaches. Among them the canonical and embedding approaches, which we examine in detail here.

Holography of asymmetrically warped space–times

We study the holographic dual of asymmetrically warped space–times, which are asymptotically AdS. The self-tuning of the cosmological constant is reinterpreted as a cancellation of the visible sector stress-energy tensor by the contribution of a hidden CFT, charged under a spontaneously broken global symmetry. The apparent violation of 4D causality due to bulk geodesics is justified by considering that the CFT feels the background metric as smeared out over a length of the order of the AdS radius.