Free Scalar Field Theory Research Articles

Entanglement in ( 1+1 )-dimensional free scalar field theory: Tiptoeing between continuum and discrete formulations

We review some classic works on ground state entanglement entropy in (1+1)-dimensional free scalar field theory. We point out identifications between the methods for the calculation of entanglement entropy and we show how the formalism developed for the discretized theory can be utilized in order to obtain results in the continuous theory. We specify the entanglement spectrum and we calculate the entanglement entropy for the theory defined on an interval of finite length L. Finally, we derive the modular Hamiltonian directly, without using the modular flow, via the continuum limit of the expressions obtained in the discretized theory. In a specific coordinate system, the modular Hamiltonian assumes the form of a free field Hamiltonian on the Rindler wedge. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Correlation Functions Involving Dirac Fields from Homotopy Algebras II: The Interacting Theory

Abstract We extend the formula for correlation functions of free scalar field theories and Dirac field theories in terms of quantum $A_{\infty }$ algebras presented in arXiv:2305.11634 to general scalar-Dirac systems. We obtain the result that the same formula as in the previous paper holds in this case. We show that correlation functions from our formula satisfy the Schwinger–Dyson equations. We therefore confirm that correlation functions from our formula express correlation functions from the ordinary approach of quantum field theory.

Free scalar field theory on a Sobolev space over a bounded interval

This paper discusses several functional analytic issues relevant for field theories in the context of the Hamiltonian formulation for a free, massless, scalar field defined on a closed interval of the real line. The fields that we use belong to a Sobolev space with a scalar product. As we show this choice is useful because it leads to an explicit representation of the points in the fibers of the phase space (the cotangent bundle of the configuration space). The dynamical role of the boundary of the spatial manifold where the fields are defined is analyzed.

The discreet charm of the discrete series in dS2

We study quantum field theories placed on a two-dimensional de Sitter spacetime (dS2) with an eye on the group-theoretic organization of single and multi-particle states. We explore the distinguished role of the discrete series unitary irreducible representation (UIR) in the Hilbert space. By employing previous attempts to realize these states in free tachyonic scalar field theories, we propose how the discrete series may contribute to the Källén–Lehmann decomposition of an interacting scalar two-point function. We also study BF gauge theories with SL(N,R) gauge group in dS2 and establish a relation between the discrete series UIRs and the operator content of these theories. Although present at the level of the operators, states carrying discrete series quantum numbers are projected out of the gauge-invariant Hilbert space. This projection is reminiscent of what happens for quantum field theories coupled to semiclassical de Sitter gravity, where we must project onto the subspace of de Sitter invariant states. We discuss how to impose the diffeomorphism constraints on local field-theory operators coupled to two-dimensional gravity in de Sitter, with particular emphasis on the role of contact terms. Finally, we discuss an SYK-type model with a random two-body interaction that encodes an infinite tower of discrete series operators. We speculate on its potential microscopic connection to the SL(N,R) BF theory in the large-N limit.

Constructing Carrollian field theories from null reduction

In this paper, we propose a novel way to construct off-shell actions of d-dimensional Carrollian field theories by considering the null-reduction of the Bargmann invariant actions in d +1 dimensions. This is based on the fact that d-dimensional Carrollian symmetry is the restriction of the (d + 1)-dimensional Bargmann symmetry to a null hypersurface. We focus on free scalar field theory and electromagnetic field theory, and show that the electric sectors and the magnetic sectors of these theories originate from different Bargmann invariant actions in one higher dimension. In the cases of massless free scalar field and d = 4 electromagnetic field, we verify the Carrollian conformal invariance of the resulting theories, and find that there appear naturally chain representations and staggered modules of Carrollian conformal algebra.

Entanglement of harmonic systems in squeezed states

The entanglement entropy of a free scalar field in its ground state is dominated by an area law term. It is noteworthy, however, that the study of entanglement in scalar field theory has not advanced far beyond the ground state. In this paper, we extend the study of entanglement of harmonic systems, which include free scalar field theory as a continuum limit, to the case of the most general Gaussian states, namely the squeezed states. We find the eigenstates and the spectrum of the reduced density matrix and we calculate the entanglement entropy. We show that our method is equivalent to the correlation matrix method. Finally, we apply our method to free scalar field theory in 1+1 dimensions and show that, for very squeezed states, the entanglement entropy is dominated by a volume term, unlike the ground-state case. Even though the state of the system is time-dependent in a non-trivial manner, this volume term is time-independent. We expect this behaviour to hold in higher dimensions as well, as it emerges in a large-squeezing expansion of the entanglement entropy for a general harmonic system.

State dependence of Krylov complexity in 2d CFTs

We compute the Krylov Complexity of a light operator O\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O} $$\\end{document}L in an eigenstate of a 2d CFT at large central charge c. The eigenstate corresponds to a primary operator O\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O} $$\\end{document}H under the state-operator correspondence. We observe that the behaviour of K-complexity is different (either bounded or exponential) depending on whether the scaling dimension of O\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O} $$\\end{document}H is below or above the critical dimension hH = c/24, marked by the 1st order Hawking-Page phase transition point in the dual AdS3 geometry. Based on this feature, we hypothesize that the notions of operator growth and K-complexity for primary operators in 2d CFTs are closely related to the underlying entanglement structure of the state in which they are computed, thereby demonstrating explicitly their state-dependent nature. To provide further evidence for our hypothesis, we perform an analogous computation of K-complexity in a model of free massless scalar field theory in 2d, and in the integrable 2d Ising CFT, where there is no such transition in the spectrum of states.

Modular Hamiltonian of the scalar in the semi infinite line: dimensional reduction for spherically symmetric regions

We focus our attention on the one dimensional scalar theories that result from dimensionally reducing the free scalar field theory in arbitrary d dimensions. As is well known, after integrating out the angular coordinates, the free scalar theory can be expressed as an infinite sum of theories living in the semi-infinite line, labeled by the angular modes left{ell, overrightarrow{m}right} . We show that their modular Hamiltonian in an interval attached to the origin is, in turn, the one obtained from the dimensional reduction of the modular Hamiltonian of the conformal parent theory in a sphere. Remarkably, this is a local expression in the energy density, as happens in the conformal case, although the resulting one-dimensional theories are clearly not conformal. We support this result by analyzing the symmetries of these theories, which turn out to be a portion of the original conformal group, and proving that the reduced modular Hamiltonian is in fact the operator generating the modular flow in the interval. By studying the spectrum of these modular Hamiltonians, we also provide an analytic expression for the associated entanglement entropy. Finally, extending the radial regularization scheme originally introduced by Srednicki, we sum over the angular modes to successfully recover the conformal anomaly in the entropy logarithmic coefficient in even dimensions, as well as the universal constant F term in d = 3.

Krylov Complexity in Quantum Field Theory

In this paper, we study the Krylov complexity in quantum field theory and make a connection with the holographic “Complexity equals Volume” conjecture. When Krylov basis matches with Fock basis, for several interesting settings, we observe that the Krylov complexity equals the average particle number showing that complexity scales with volume. Using similar formalism, we compute the Krylov complexity for free scalar field theory and find surprising similarities with holography. We also extend this framework for field theory where an inverted oscillator appears naturally and explore its chaotic behavior.

Carroll covariant scalar fields in two dimensions

Conformal Carroll symmetry generically arises on null manifolds and is important for holography of asymptotically flat spacetimes, generic black hole horizons and tensionless strings. In this paper, we focus on two dimensional (2d) null manifolds and hence on the 2d Conformal Carroll or equivalently the 3d Bondi-Metzner-Sachs (BMS) algebra. Using Carroll covariance, we write the most general free massless Carroll scalar field theory and discover three inequivalent actions. Of these, two viz. the time-like and space-like actions, have made their appearance in literature before. We uncover a third that we call the mixed-derivative theory. As expected, all three theories enjoy off-shell BMS invariance. Interestingly, we find that the on-shell symmetry of mixed derivative theory is a single Virasoro algebra instead of the full BMS. We discuss potential applications to tensionless strings and flat holography.

The Massless Modular Hamiltonian

We compute the vacuum local modular Hamiltonian associated with a space ball region in the free scalar massless Quantum Field Theory. We give an explicit expression on the one particle Hilbert space in terms of the higher dimensional Legendre differential operator. The quadratic form of the massless modular Hamiltonian is expressed in terms of an integral of the energy density with the parabolic distribution. We then get the formula for the local entropy of a wave packet. This gives the vacuum relative entropy of a coherent state on the double cone von Neumann algebras associated with the free scalar QFT. Among other points, we provide the passivity characterisation of the modular Hamiltonian within the standard subspace setup.

Pseudocomplexity of purification for free scalar field theories

We compute the pseudo complexity of purification corresponding to the reduced transition matrices for free scalar field theories with an arbitrary dynamical exponent. We plot the behaviour of complexity with various parameters of the theory under study and compare it with the complexity of purification of the reduced density matrices of the two states $|\psi_1\rangle$ and $|\psi_2\rangle$ that constitute the transition matrix. We first find the transition matrix by reducing to a small number ($1$ and $2$) of degrees of freedom in lattice from a lattice system with many lattice points and then purify it by doubling the degrees of freedom ($2$ and $4$ respectively) for this reduced system. This is a primary step towards the natural extension to the idea of the complexity of purification for reduced density matrices relevant for the studies related to post-selection.

Modular Operator for Null Plane Algebras in Free Fields

We consider the algebras generated by observables in quantum field theory localized in regions in the null plane. For a scalar free field theory, we show that the one-particle structure can be decomposed into a continuous direct integral of lightlike fibres and the modular operator decomposes accordingly. This implies that a certain form of QNEC is valid in free fields involving the causal completions of half-spaces on the null plane (null cuts). We also compute the relative entropy of null cut algebras with respect to the vacuum and some coherent states.

Dynamics of charge imbalance resolved negativity after a global quench in free scalar field theory

In this paper, we consider the time evolution of charge imbalance resolved negativity after a global quench in the 1+1 dimensional complex Klein-Gordon theory. We focus on two types of global quenches which are called boundary state quench and mass quench respectively. We first study the boundary state quench where the post-quench dynamic is governed by a massless Hamiltonian. In this case, the temporal evolution of charged imbalance resolved negativity can be obtained first by evaluating the correlators of the fluxed twist field in the upper half plane and then applying Fourier transformation. We test our analytical formulas in the underlying lattice model numerically. We also study the mass quench in the complex harmonic chain where the system evolves according to a massive Hamiltonian after the quench. We argue that our results can be understood in the framework of quasi-particle picture.

Nearly Optimal Quantum Algorithm for Generating the Ground State of a Free Quantum Field Theory

Generating the ground state of a free massive scalar bosonic quantum field theory: two quantum algorithms with nearly optimal runtimes are devised, delivering super-quadratic speedup over the state-of-the-art.

Weyl covariance and the energy momentum tensors of higher-derivative free conformal field theories

Energy momentum tensors of higher-derivative free scalar conformal field theories in flat spacetime are discussed. Two algorithms for the computation of energy momentum tensors are described, which accomplish different goals: the first is brute-force and highlights the complexity of the energy momentum tensors, while the second displays some features of their geometric origin as variations of Weyl invariant curved-space actions. New compact expressions for energy momentum tensors are given and specific obstructions to defining them as conformal primary operators in some spacetime dimensions are highlighted. Our discussion is also extended to higher-derivative free spinor theories, which are based on higher-derivative generalizations of the Dirac action and provide interesting examples of conformal field theories in dimension higher than two.

A wavelet-based set of constructive masses for the Minkowskian Feynman propagator

We continue our pursuit of Minkowskian quantum field theory—specifically, a nonperturbative analysis of the characteristic functional generating the time-ordered Wightman distributions for the quartic scalar field interaction. As in a previous paper, our starting point is the Minkowskian Feynman propagator for the free scalar field theory analyzed by a system of expansion functions in space-time. Here, we choose a significantly different system of expansion functions. We start with an L2-orthonormal wavelet basis {Ψw:w∈W}, where each Ψw has the properties of a Daubechies wavelet in the temporal coordinate and the properties of a Meyer wavelet in the spatial coordinates. We consider the matrix elements Gww′(m) of the mass-m Feynman propagator based on the expansion functions vw=Lw−1Ψw, where Lw denotes the length scale of w∈W. For every finite Λ⊂W, we let GΛ(m) denote the Λ × Λ matrix of such elements. We define a constructive mass to be any value of m such that GΛ(m) is nonsingular for each finite Λ⊂W. We prove that the set of such masses is at least co-countable (although we expect every mass value to be constructive). For an arbitrary constructive mass m and an arbitrary finite Λ⊂W, we rigorously construct the interacting characteristic functional as an integral in amplitudes, where the Λ-cutoff on the quartic interaction is supplemented by a cutoff on the free-field action defined by GΛ(m)−1.

Odd entanglement entropy and logarithmic negativity for thermofield double states

We investigate the time evolution of odd entanglement entropy (OEE) and logarithmic negativity (LN) for the thermofield double (TFD) states in free scalar quantum field theories using the covariance matrix approach. To have mixed states, we choose non-complementary subsystems, either adjacent or disjoint intervals on each side of the TFD. We find that the time evolution pattern of OEE is a linear growth followed by saturation. On a circular lattice, for longer times the finite size effect demonstrates itself as oscillatory behavior. In the limit of vanishing mass, for a subsystem containing a single degree of freedom on each side of the TFD, we analytically find the effect of zero-mode on the time evolution of OEE which leads to logarithmic growth in the intermediate times. Moreover, for adjacent intervals we find that the LN is zero for times t < β/2 (half of the inverse temperature) and after that, it begins to grow linearly. For disjoint intervals at fixed temperature, the vanishing of LN is observed for times t < d/2 (half of the distance between intervals). We also find a similar delay to see linear growth of ∆S = SOEE− SEE. All these results show that the dynamics of these measures are consistent with the quasi-particle picture, of course apart from the logarithmic growth.

Aspects of pseudoentropy in field theories

In this article, we explore properties of pseudo entropy [1] in quantum field theories and spin systems from several approaches. Pseudo entropy is a generalization of entanglement entropy such that it depends on both an initial and final state and has a clear gravity dual via the AdS/CFT. We numerically analyze a class of free scalar field theories and the XY spin model. This reveals the basic properties of pseudo entropy in many-body systems, namely, the area law behavior, the saturation behavior, and the non-positivity of difference between the pseudo entropy and averaged entanglement entropy in the same quantum phase. In addition, our numerical analysis finds an example where the strong subadditivity of pseudo entropy gets violated. Interestingly we find that the non-positivity of the difference can be violated only if the initial and final states belong to different quantum phases. We also present analytical arguments which support these properties by both conformal field theoretic and holographic calculations. When the initial and final states belong to different topological phases, we expect a gapless mode localized along an interface, which enhances the pseudo entropy leading to the violation of the non-positivity of the difference. Moreover, we also compute the time evolution of pseudo entropy after a global quench, were we observe that the imaginary part of pseudo entropy shows interesting characteristc behavior.

Scaling functions for eigenstate entanglement crossovers in harmonic lattices

For quantum matter, eigenstate entanglement entropies obey an area law or log-area law at low energies and small subsystem sizes and cross over to volume laws for high energies and large subsystems. This transition is captured by crossover functions, which assume a universal scaling form in quantum critical regimes. We demonstrate this for the harmonic lattice model, which describes quantized lattice vibrations and is a regularization for free scalar field theories, modeling, e.g., spin-0 bosonic particles. In one dimension, the ground-state entanglement obeys a log-area law. For dimensions $d\ensuremath{\ge}2$, it displays area laws, even at criticality. The distribution of excited-state entanglement entropies is found to be sharply peaked around subsystem entropies of corresponding thermodynamic ensembles in accordance with the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis. Numerically, we determine crossover scaling functions for the quantum critical regime of the model and do a large-deviation analysis. We show how infrared singularities of the system can be handled and how to access the thermodynamic limit using a perturbative trick for the covariance matrix. Eigenstates for quasi-free bosonic systems are not Gaussian. We resolve this problem by considering appropriate squeezed states instead. For these, entanglement entropies can be evaluated efficiently.