Space-time Degrees Of Freedom Research Articles

Exponential convergence of hp-time-stepping in space-time discretizations of parabolic PDES

For linear parabolic initial-boundary value problems with self-adjoint, time-homogeneous elliptic spatial operator in divergence form with Lipschitz-continuous coefficients, and for incompatible, time-analytic forcing term in polygonal/polyhedral domains D, we prove time-analyticity of solutions. Temporal analyticity is quantified in terms of weighted, analytic function classes, for data with finite, low spatial regularity and without boundary compatibility. Leveraging this result, we prove exponential convergence of a conforming, semi-discrete hp-time-stepping approach. We combine this semi-discretization in time with first-order, so-called “h-version’’ Lagrangian Finite Elements with corner-refinements in space into a tensor-product, conforming discretization of a space-time formulation. We prove that, under appropriate corner- and corner-edge mesh-refinement of D, error vs. number of degrees of freedom in space-time behaves essentially (up to logarithmic terms), to what standard FEM provide for one elliptic boundary value problem solve in D. We focus on two-dimensional spatial domains and comment on the one- and the three-dimensional case.

Entanglement Membrane in Chaotic Many-Body Systems

In certain analytically-tractable quantum chaotic systems, the calculation of out-of-time-order correlation functions, entanglement entropies after a quench, and other related dynamical observables, reduces to an effective theory of an ``entanglement membrane'' in spacetime. These tractable systems involve an average over random local unitaries defining the dynamical evolution. We show here how to make sense of this membrane in more realistic models, which do not involve an average over random unitaries. Our approach relies on introducing effective pairing degrees of freedom in spacetime, describing a pairing of forward and backward Feynman trajectories, inspired by the structure emerging in random unitary circuits. This provides a framework for applying ideas of coarse-graining to dynamical quantities in chaotic systems. We apply the approach to some translationally invariant Floquet spin chains studied in the literature. We show that a consistent line tension may be defined for the entanglement membrane, and that there are qualitative differences in this tension between generic models and ``dual-unitary'' circuits. These results allow scaling pictures for out-of-time-order correlators and for entanglement to be taken over from random circuits to non-random Floquet models. We also provide an efficient numerical algorithm for determining the entanglement line tension in 1+1D.