CFT States Research Articles

Four-point correlators in N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 SYM from AdS5 bubbling geometries

Four-point correlation functions are observables of significant interest in holographic field theories. We compute an infinite family of four-point correlation functions of operators in short multiplets of 4D N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 super Yang-Mills theory in the supergravity regime, by studying the quadratic fluctuations around non-trivial supergravity backgrounds. The supergravity backgrounds are supersymmetric smooth geometries in the family derived by Lin, Lunin and Maldacena. The light probes comprise an infinite sequence of Kaluza-Klein harmonics of the dilaton/axion. For generic parameter values, the supergravity backgrounds are dual to heavy CFT states. However we focus on the limit in which the dual CFT states become light single-particle states. The resulting all-light four-point correlators are related by superconformal Ward identities to previously known four-point correlators of half-BPS chiral primary operators. By verifying that the Ward identities are satisfied, we confirm the validity of the supergravity method.

A new observable for holographic cosmology

The double-cone geometry is a saddle of the gravitational path integral, which explains the chaotic statistics of the spectrum of black hole microstates. This geometry is the usual AdS-Schwarzschild black hole, but with a periodic identification of the time coordinate; the resulting singularity at the black hole horizon is regulated by making the geometry slightly complex. Here, we consider generalizations of the double-cone geometry which include the Lorentzian cosmology that sits between the event horizon and the black hole singularity. We analyze this in two and three dimensions, where the cosmology has compact spatial sections and big bang/crunch singularities. These singularities are regulated in the same way by slightly complexifying the metric. We show that this is possible while satisfying the Kontsevich-Segal criterion, implying that these geometries can be interpreted as perturbatively stable saddle points in general relativity. This procedure leads to a novel description of the cosmology in terms of standard observables in the dual boundary CFT. In three dimensions, the cosmological solution gives a new contribution to the two-point function of the density of states in the boundary CFT. Unlike the usual double cone, it describes correlations between black hole microstates with different masses, and in a limit describes correlations between the statistics of heavy states and states near the BTZ threshold.

Black hole singularity from OPE

Eternal asymptotically AdS black holes are dual to thermofield double states in the boundary CFT. It has long been known that black hole singularities have certain signatures in boundary thermal two-point functions related to null geodesics bouncing off the singularities (bouncing geodesics). In this paper we shed light on the manifestations of black hole singularities in the dual CFT. We decompose the boundary CFT correlator of scalar operators using the Operator Product Expansion (OPE) and focus on the contributions from the identity, the stress tensor, and its products. We show that this part of the correlator develops singularities precisely at the points that are connected by bulk bouncing geodesics. Black hole singularities are thus encoded in the analytic behavior of the boundary correlators determined by multiple stress tensor exchanges. Furthermore, we show that in the limit where the conformal dimension of the operators is large, the sum of multi-stress-tensor contributions develops a branch point singularity as predicted by the geodesic analysis. We also argue that the appearance of complexified geodesics, which play an important role in computing the full correlator, is related to the contributions of the double-trace operators in the boundary CFT.

Vector superstrata. Part II

Microstate geometries are proposed microstates of black holes which can be described within supergravity. Even though their number may not reproduce the full entropy of black holes with finite-sized horizons, they still offer a glimpse into the microscopic structure of black holes. In this paper we construct a new set of microstate geometries of the supersymmetric D1-D5-P black hole, where the momentum charge is carried by a vector field, as seen from the perspective of six-dimensional supergravity. To aid our construction, we develop an algorithm which solves a complicated partial differential equation using the regularity of the geometries. The new solutions are asymptotically AdS3 × S3, and have a long, but finite AdS2 throat that caps off without ever developing a horizon. These microstate geometries have a holographic interpretation as coherent superpositions of heavy states in the boundary D1-D5 CFT. We identify the states which are dual to our newly constructed solutions and carry out some basic consistency checks to support our identification.

Topological equivalence and phase transition rate in holographic thermodynamics of regularized Maxwell theory

Utilizing the holographic dictionary from the proposal that treats Newton’s constant as a thermodynamic variable, we establish a thermodynamic topological equivalence between the AdS black holes in the bulk and the thermal states in the dual CFT. The findings further reveal that the thermodynamic topological characteristics of the RegMax AdS black holes are strongly influenced by the characteristic parameter of the regularized Maxwell theory. Additionally, we investigate the phase transition between low and high entropy thermal states within a canonical ensemble in the dual CFT. Our observations indicate that the phase transition behavior of the thermal states mirrors that of the black holes. By modeling the phase transition process as a stochastic process, we are able to calculate the rates of phase transition between the thermal states. This result enhances our understanding of the dominant processes involved in the phase transition of the thermal states in the dual CFT.

Heavy states in 3d gravity and 2d CFT

We discuss correlators of light fields in heavy states in AdS3 gravity and holographic 2d CFTs. In the bulk, the propagator of free fields in AdS backgrounds containing a conical defect or a BTZ black hole can be obtained by solving a wave equation, as well as by the method of images. On the boundary, these geometries are sourced by heavy operator insertions, and the propagator is dual to a heavy-light (HHLL) correlator. By matching its expansion in Virasoro blocks to our bulk results, we determine the OPE coefficients of all contributing states in both the s and t channels. In the s channel, these states are excitations of the light field on top of the heavy state, and their OPE coefficients are the amplitudes to create them. The t-channel OPE is dominated by the Virasoro vacuum block, but there is also an infinite family of light two-particle states that contribute to the correlator. The OPE coefficients that couple these states to heavy operators represent their expectation values in heavy backgrounds. We determine them exactly, derive their asymptotic form at large twist, and discuss their behavior near and above the BTZ threshold, where they become thermal one-point functions.

Holographic thermodynamics of a charged AdS black holes with global monopole

Abstract By regarding the Newton constant GN and cosmological constant Λ as variables, we in this paper study the thermodynamics and phase transition of Reissner-Nordström anti-de Sitter (RN-AdS) black hole with global monopole in the framework of AdS/CFT correspondence. It is found that there are interesting critical phenomena and phase behaviors in the (grand) canonical ensembles of fixed (Q, V, C), (Φ, V, C) and (Q, V, μ). When the other parameters are fixed, the free energy increases with the global monopole increases. In (Q, V, C) ensemble, the range of unstable region increases with the increase of global monopole. In (Φ, V, C) ensemble, when Φ<Φc, the free energy appears two branches, the upper and lower branches correspond to low entropy and high entropy respectively. When (Q, V, μ) is fixed, a new zero-order phase transition occurs in the high-entropy phase and the low-entropy phase at certain μ-dependent temperatures. When μ increases to a certain value, this zero-order phase transition disappears. This certain value is positively related to the magnitude of the global monopole. Finally, we find that p-V criticality does not appear with the change of global monopole. Therefore, it is important to note that the CFT states of charged black holes with global monopole do not correspond to Van der Waals fluids. Finally, we find that charged black holes with global monopoles can better reflect thermodynamic phase transitions and critical phenomena under the AdS/CFT correspondence. By adjusting the change of the global monopole, the thermodynamic phase transition will also change.

Relational bulk reconstruction from modular flow

The entanglement wedge reconstruction paradigm in AdS/CFT states that for a bulk qudit within the entanglement wedge of a boundary subregion A¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\overline{A} $$\\end{document}, operators acting on the bulk qudit can be reconstructed as CFT operators on A¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\overline{A} $$\\end{document}. This naturally fits within the framework of quantum error correction, with the CFT states containing the bulk qudit forming a code protected against the erasure of the boundary subregion A. In this paper, we set up and study a framework for relational bulk reconstruction in holography: given two code subspaces both protected against erasure of the boundary region A, the goal is to relate the operator reconstructions between the two spaces. To accomplish this, we assume that the two code subspaces are smoothly connected by a one-parameter family of codes all protected against the erasure of A, and that the maximally-entangled states on these codes are all full-rank. We argue that such code subspaces can naturally be constructed in holography in a “measurement-based” setting. In this setting, we derive a flow equation for the operator reconstruction of a fixed code subspace operator using modular theory which can, in principle, be integrated to relate the reconstructed operators all along the flow. We observe a striking resemblance between our formulas for relational bulk reconstruction and the infinite-time limit of Connes cocycle flow, and take some steps towards making this connection more rigorous. We also provide alternative derivations of our reconstruction formulas in terms of a canonical reconstruction map we call the modular reflection operator.

Thermodynamics of black holes with probe D-branes

Understanding how the thermodynamic properties of a black hole are modified when probed by D-branes is an important problem in AdS/CFT. This work focuses on a recently proposed black hole/D3-brane system in AdS5×S5, which is dual to four-dimensional N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 SYM in the presence of a two-dimensional surface defect. The Laplace transform that extracts the asymptotic growth of states in this defect CFT naturally defines a thermodynamic approach in the gravitational side of the duality for which charges and entropy are real. Studying the superconformal defect index in a large-charge expansion for all values of N, we compute the leading correction to the entropy of the combined system, which matches precisely with its gravity counterpart.

Beyond the tensionless limit: integrability in the symmetric orbifold

The symmetric orbifold of \U0001d54b4 is exactly dual to string theory on AdS3 × S3 × \U0001d54b4 with minimal (k = 1) NS-NS flux. In this paper we study the perturbation of the symmetric orbifold that is dual to switching on R-R flux, and hence to deforming the theory away from the tensionless point. More specifically, we determine systematically the action of a centrally extended supersymmetry algebra on the CFT states, and deduce from it the anomalous conformal dimensions. In the w-twisted sector with large w the structure is similar to what was found for N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 SYM: the basic excitations are multi-magnons whose individual dispersion relation is fixed by symmetry, and the comparison with the BMN answer suggests that the result is true to all orders in perturbation theory. Finally we show that the multi-magnon states interact via an integrable S-matrix and possess a natural family of bound states.

Euclidean wormholes for individual 2d CFTs

We interpret appropriate families of Euclidean wormhole solutions of AdS3 gravity in individual 2d CFTs as replica wormholes described by branching around the time-symmetric apparent horizons of black holes sourced by the backreaction of heavy point particles. These wormholes help describe a rich formalism to coarse grain pure states in 2d CFTs dual to the black hole geometries because the wormhole amplitudes match with the Renyi entropies of CFT states obtained by decohering the pure states in a specific way. This formalism can be generalised to coarse grain pure states in several copies of the CFT dual to multi-boundary black holes using wormhole solutions with higher genus boundaries using which we illustrate that coarse graining away the interior of multi-boundary black holes sets the mutual information between any two copies of the dual CFT to zero. Furthermore, this formalism of coarse graining pure states can be extended to decohere transition matrices between pure states which helps interpret more general families of wormhole solutions including those with non replica-symmetric boundary conditions in individual CFTs. The pseudo entropy of the decohered transition matrices has interesting holographic interpretation in terms of the area of minimal surfaces on appropriate black hole or wormhole geometries. The wormhole solutions which show up in the coarse graining formalism also compute the Renyi entropies of Hawking radiation after the Page time in a setup which generalizes the West Coast model to 3d gravity. Using this setup, we discuss the evaporation of one-sided black holes sourced by massive point particles and multi-boundary black holes in 3d gravity.

Holographic complexity: braneworld gravity versus the Lloyd bound

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.

Lifting of two-mode states in the D1-D5 CFT

We consider D1-D5-P states in the untwisted sector of the D1-D5 orbifold CFT where one copy of the seed CFT has been excited by a pair of oscillators, each being either bosonic or fermionic. While such states are BPS at the orbifold point, they will in general ‘lift’ as the theory is deformed towards general values of the couplings. We compute the expectation value of this lift at second order in the deformation parameter for the above mentioned states. We write this lift in terms of a fixed number of nested contour integrals on a given integrand; this integrand depends on the mode numbers of the oscillators in the state. We evaluate these integrals to obtain the explicit value of the lift for various subfamilies of states. At large mode numbers one observes a smooth increase of the lift with the dimension of the state h; this increase appears to follow a∼h\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \ extrm{a}\\sim \\sqrt{h} $$\\end{document} behavior similar to that found analytically in earlier computations for other classes of states.

Quantum complexity and bulk timelike singularities

Quantum complexity has already shed light on CFT states dual to bulk geometries containing spacelike singularities [1–3]. In this work, we turn our attention to the quantum complexity of CFT/quantum gravity states which are dual to bulk geometries containing a naked timelike singularity. The appearance of naked timelike singularities in semiclassical gravity is allowed in string theory, particularly in the context of holography, so long as they satisfy the Gubser criterion [4, 5] — those naked timelike singularities which arise as the extremal limits of geometries containing cloaked singularities are admissible. In this work, we use holographic complexity as a probe on geometries containing naked timelike singularities and explore potential relation to the Gubser criterion for detecting allowable naked timelike singularities. We study three specific cases of naked timelike singularities, namely the negative mass Schwarzschild-AdS spacetime, the timelike Kasner-AdS [6] and Einstein-dilaton system [7]. The first two cases are outright ruled out by the Gubser criterion while the third case is more subtle — according to the Gubser criterion the singularity switches from forbidden to admissible as the parameter α is dialed in the range [0, 1] across the transition point at α=1/3\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\alpha =1/\\sqrt{3} $$\\end{document}. We probe all three geometries using two holographic complexity prescriptions, namely CA and CV. For the case of the negative mass SAdS and timelike Kasner-AdS4 the complexities display no sign of pathology (both receive finite contribution from the naked singularity). For the Einstein-Dilaton case, action-complexity does display a sharp transition from physical positive values to patholgical negative divergent values (arising from the singularity) as one transcends the Gubser bound. Our study suggests that neither action-complexity (CA) nor volume-complexity (CV) can serve as a sensitive tool to investigate (naked) timelike singularities.

Bubbles of cosmology in AdS/CFT

Gravitational effective theories associated with holographic CFTs have cosmological solutions, which are typically big-bang/big-crunch cosmologies. These solutions are not asymptotically AdS, so they are not dual to finite-energy states of the CFT. However, we can find solutions with arbitrarily large spherical bubbles of such cosmologies embedded in asymptotically AdS spacetimes where the exterior of the bubble is Schwarzschild-AdS. In this paper, we explore such solutions and their possible CFT dual descriptions. Starting with a cosmological solution with Λ < 0 plus arbitrary matter density, radiation density, and spatial curvature, we show that a comoving bubble of arbitrary size can be embedded in a geometry with AdS-Schwarzschild exterior across a thin-shell domain wall comprised of pressureless matter. We show that in most cases (in particular, for arbitrarily large bubbles with an arbitrarily small negative spatial curvature) the entropy of the black hole exceeds the (radiation) entropy in the cosmological bubble, suggesting that a faithful CFT description is possible. We show that unlike the case of a de Sitter bubble, the Euclidean continuation of these cosmological solutions is sensible and suggests a specific construction of CFT states dual to the cosmological solutions via Euclidean path integral.

Microstrata

Microstrata are the non-extremal analogues of superstrata: they are smooth, non-extremal (non-BPS) solitonic solutions to IIB supergravity whose deep-throat limits approximate black holes. Using perturbation theory and numerical methods, we construct families of solutions using a consistent truncation to three-dimensional supergravity. The most general families presented here involve two continuous parameters, or amplitudes, and four quantized parameters that set the angular momenta and energy levels. Our solutions are asymptotic to the vacuum of the D1-D5 system: AdS3 × S3 × \U0001d54b4. Using holography, we show that the they are dual to multi-particle states in the D1-D5 CFT involving a large number of mutually non-BPS supergravitons and we determine the anomalous dimensions of these states from the binding energies in supergravity. These binding energies are uniformly negative and depend non-linearly on the amplitudes of the states. In one family of solutions, smoothness restricts some of the fields to lie on a special locus of the parameter space. Using precision holography we show that this special locus can be identified with the multi-particle states constructed via the standard OPE of the single-particle constituents. Our numerical analysis shows that microstrata are robust at large amplitudes and the solutions can be obtained to very high precision.

Canonical purification and the quantum extremal shock

We study the canonical purification of pure, bi-partite states (with respect to one of the parties) obtained by turning on sources in the Euclidean path integral. In holographic conformal field theories, the Lorentzian bulk dual of the canonical purification consists of the corresponding entanglement wedge glued to its CRT image at the quantum extremal surface. However, the mismatch in the classical expansions at the QES due to quantum corrections needs to be supported by a shock in the bulk matter stress tensor in order for the bulk to satisfy Einstein’s equations. Working perturbatively to first order in double-trace sources around the thermofield double state, we demonstrate that the state of the bulk matter in the dual to the canonically purified boundary CFT state precisely has this quantum extremal shock in the bulk stress tensor. We interpret our results as the emergence of gravitational physics from the CFT entanglement structure in a context where bulk quantum corrections are important.

Holographic CFT phase transitions and criticality for rotating AdS black holes

Employing the novel exact dictionary between the laws of extended black hole thermodynamics and the laws of the dual CFT, we study the extended thermodynamics for CFT states that are dual to neutral singly-spinning asymptotically AdS black holes in d bulk spacetime dimensions. On the field theory side we include two independent pairs of thermodynamic conjugate variables: the central charge-chemical potential term and the pressure-volume term. In this setting we uncover various phase transitions and critical behaviour in the CFT, focusing on three different thermodynamic ensembles. Namely, for fixed angular momentum and central charge, we show there is a Van der Waals-like criticality for d = 4, 5 and reentrant phase transitions for d ≥ 6. At fixed angular velocity and central charge, there is a first-order (de)confinement phase transition in all dimensions d ≥ 3. Finally, at fixed angular momentum and chemical potential we find a plethora of zero-order phase transitions and unstable phases in both d = 4 and d = 6.

Spacetime topology from holographic entanglement

An asymptotically AdS geometry connecting two or more boundaries is given by a entangled state, that can be expanded in the product basis of the Hilbert spaces of each CFT living on the boundaries. We derive a prescription to compute this expansion for states describing spacetimes with general spatial topology in arbitrary dimension. To large N, the expansion coincides with the Schmidt decomposition and the coefficients are given by n-point correlation functions on a particular Euclidean geometry.We show that this applies to all spacetime that admits a Hartle-Hawking type of wave functional, which via a standard hypothesis on the spatial topology, can be (one to one) mapped to CFT states defined on the asymptotic boundary. It is also observed that these states are endowed with quantum coherence properties.Applying this as holographic engineering, one can to construct an emergent space geometry with certain predetermined topology by preparing an entangled state of the dual quantum system. As an example, we apply the method to calculate the expansion and characterize a spacetime whose initial spatial topology is a (genus one) handlebody.

Toward random tensor networks and holographic codes in CFT

In holographic CFTs satisfying eigenstate thermalization, there is a regime where the operator product expansion can be approximated by a random tensor network. The geometry of the tensor network corresponds to a spatial slice in the holographic dual, with the tensors discretizing the radial direction. In spherically symmetric states in any dimension and more general states in 2d CFT, this leads to a holographic error-correcting code, defined in terms of OPE data, that can be systematically corrected beyond the random tensor approximation. The code is shown to be isometric for light operators outside the horizon, and non-isometric inside, as expected from general arguments about bulk reconstruction. The transition at the horizon occurs due to a subtle breakdown of the Virasoro identity block approximation in states with a complex interior.