Information loss, mixing and emergent type III$_1$ factors

Abstract

A manifestation of the black hole information loss problem is that the two-point function of probe operators in a large Anti-de Sitter black hole decays in time, whereas, on the boundary CFT, it is expected to be an almost periodic function of time. We point out that the decay of the two-point function (clustering in time) holds important clues to the nature of observable algebras, states, and dynamics in quantum gravity. We call operators that cluster in time "mixing" and explore the necessary and sufficient conditions for mixing. The information loss problem is a special case of the statement that in type I algebras, there exists no mixing operators. We prove that, in a thermofield double (KMS state), if mixing operators form an algebra (close under multiplication) the resulting algebra must be a von Neumann type III$_1$ factor. In other words, the physically intuitive requirement that all non-conserved operators should diffuse is so strong that it fixes the observable algebra to be an exotic algebra called a type III$_1$ factor. More generally, for an arbitrary out-of-equilibrium state of a general quantum system (von Neumann algebra), we show that if the set of operators that mix under modular flow forms an algebra it is a type III$_1$ von Neumann factor. In a theory of Generalized Free Fields (GFF), we show that if the two-point function of GFF clusters in time all operators are mixing, and the algebra is a type III$_1$ factor. For instance, in $\mathscr{N=4}$ SYM, above the Hawking-Page phase transition, clustering of the single trace operators implies that the algebra is a type III$_1$ factor, settling a recent conjecture of Leutheusser and Liu. We explicitly construct the C$^*$-algebra and von Neumann subalgebras of GFF associated with time bands and more generally, open sets of the bulk spacetime using the HKLL reconstruction map.