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Johanna Erdmenger

Publications and source records attributed to Johanna Erdmenger.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
arXiv2020

Information geometry in quantum field theory: lessons from simple examples

Motivated by the increasing connections between information theory and high-energy physics, particularly in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence, we explore the information geometry associated to a variety of simple systems. By studying their Fisher metrics, we derive some general lessons that may have important implications for the application of information geometry in holography. We begin by demonstrating that the symmetries of the physical theory under study play a strong role in the resulting geometry, and that the appearance of an AdS metric is a relatively general feature. We then investigate what information the Fisher metric retains about the physics of the underlying theory by studying the geometry for both the classical 2d Ising model and the corresponding 1d free fermion theory, and find that the curvature diverges precisely at the phase transition on both sides. We discuss the differences that result from placing a metric on the space of theories vs. states, using the example of coherent free fermion states. We compare the latter to the metric on the space of coherent free boson states and show that in both cases the metric is determined by the symmetries of the corresponding density matrix. We also clarify some misconceptions in the literature pertaining to different notions of flatness associated to metric and non-metric connections, with implications for how one interprets the curvature of the geometry. Our results indicate that in general, caution is needed when connecting the AdS geometry arising from certain models with the AdS/CFT correspondence, and seek to provide a useful collection of guidelines for future progress in this exciting area.

hep-th↗
arXiv2020

Entwinement as a possible alternative to complexity

Unlike the standard entanglement entropy considered in the holographic context, entwinement measures entanglement between degrees of freedom that are not associated to a spatial subregion. Entwinement is defined for two-dimensional CFTs with a discrete $\mathbb{Z}_N$ gauge symmetry. Since the Hilbert space of these CFTs does not factorize into tensor products, even the entanglement entropy associated to a spatial subregion cannot be defined as the von Neumann entropy of a reduced density matrix. While earlier works considered embedding the density matrix into a larger, factorizing Hilbert space, we apply a gauge invariant approach by using a density matrix uniquely defined through its relation to the local algebra of observables. We furthermore obtain a fully gauge invariant definition of entwinement valid for general CFTs with $\mathbb{Z}_N$ gauge symmetry in terms of all observables acting on the degrees of freedom considered. Holographically, entwinement is dual to the length of non-minimal geodesics present for conical defects or black holes. In this context, we propose a definition of entwinement for thermal states dual to the BTZ black hole. Our results show that "entwinement is enough" to describe the full bulk geometry for the conical defect and provide strong hints that the same holds true for the BTZ black hole. Thus, it provides an alternative to holographic complexity for the theories considered.

hep-th↗
arXiv2019

Turbulent hydrodynamics in strongly correlated Kagome metals

A current challenge in condensed matter physics is the realization of strongly correlated, viscous electron fluids. These fluids are not amenable to the perturbative methods of Fermi liquid theory, but can be described by holography, that is, by mapping them onto a weakly curved gravitational theory via gauge/gravity duality. The canonical system considered for realizations has been graphene, which possesses Dirac dispersions at low energies as well as significant Coulomb interactions between the electrons. In this work, we show that Kagome systems with electron fillings adjusted to the Dirac nodes of their band structure provide a much more compelling platform for realizations of viscous electron fluids, including non-linear effects such as turbulence. In particular, we find that in stoichiometric Scandium (Sc) Herbertsmithite, the fine-structure constant, which measures the effective Coulomb interaction and hence reflects the strength of the correlations, is enhanced by a factor of about 3.2 as compared to graphene, due to orbital hybridization. We employ holography to estimate the ratio of the shear viscosity over the entropy density in Sc-Herbertsmithite, and find it about three times smaller than in graphene. These findings put, for the first time, the turbulent flow regime described by holography within the reach of experiments.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2019

Light composite fermions from holography

Motivated by Beyond the Standard Model theories of composite fermions or top partners, we propose a holographic mechanism that generates light baryonic states in a strongly coupled gauge theory. The starting point are the fermionic fluctuations of massive probe branes embedded into AdS$_5 \times S^5$. We first consider the D3/probe D7-brane system. We derive in detail the fermionic fluctuation equations and show the supersymmetric degeneracy of the mesinos with the mesons. Here we view the fermionic mesinos as potential realizations of composite fermions or top partners. We then add higher dimension operators and study their impact on the mesino spectrum. In particular we show that the ground state mesino mass can be pushed to an arbitrarily light value by a suitable choice of the coupling of the higher dimension operator, $g$. No matter the value of $g$, the masses of higher excited states never fall below the mass of the ground state at $g=0$. We also present similar results for the supersymmetric D3/D3 and D3/D5 systems.

hep-th↗
arXiv2019

Functional dependence of the Hall viscosity-induced transverse voltage in two-dimensional Fermi liquids

The breaking of parity and time-reversal symmetry in two-dimensional Fermi liquids gives rise to non-dissipative transport features characterized by the Hall viscosity. In magnetic fields, the Hall viscous force directly competes with the Lorentz force, since both mechanisms contribute to the Hall voltage. In this work, we present a channel geometry that allows us to uniquely distinguish these two contributions and derive, for the first time, their functional dependency on all external parameters. We show that the ratio of the Hall viscous to the Lorentz force contribution is negative and that its modulus decreases with increasing width, slip-length and carrier density, while it increases with the electron-electron mean free path of our channel. In typical materials such as GaAs the Hall viscous contribution can dominate the Lorentz signal up to a few tens of millitesla until the total Hall voltage vanishes and subsequently is overcome by the Lorentz contribution. Moreover, we prove that the total Hall electric field is parabolic due to Lorentz effects, whereas the offset of this parabola is characterized by the Hall viscosity. Hence, our results pave the way to measure and identify the Hall viscosity via both global and local voltage measurements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2018

Chirality Josephson current due to a novel quantum anomaly in inversion-asymmetric Weyl semimetals

We study Josephson junctions based on inversion-asymmetric but time-reversal symmetric Weyl semimetals under the influence of Zeeman fields. We find that, due to distinct spin textures, the Weyl nodes of opposite chirality respond differently to an external magnetic field. Remarkably, a Zeeman field perpendicular to the junction direction results in a phase shift of opposite sign in the current-phase relations of opposite chirality. This leads to a finite chirality Josephson current (CJC) even in the absence of a phase difference across the junction. This feature could allow for applications in chiralitytronics. In the long junction and zero temperature limit, the CJC embodies a novel quantum anomaly of Goldstone bosons at $π$ phase difference which is associated with a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry at low energies. It can be detected experimentally via an anomalous Fraunhofer pattern.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2018

Holographic Subregion Complexity from Kinematic Space

We consider the computation of volumes contained in a spatial slice of AdS$_3$ 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 the spatial slice 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.

hep-th↗
arXiv2018

Renormalization of lattice field theories with infinite-range wavelets

We present a new exact renormalization approach for quantum lattice models leading to long-range interactions. The renormalization scheme is based on wavelets with an infinite support in such a way that the excitation spectrum at the fixed point coincides with the spectrum of the associated short-range continuum model in an energy range below an upper cutoff imposed by the lattice spacing. As a consequence, the conformal towers of spectrum are exactly realized on the lattice up to a certain energy scale. We exemplify our approach by applying it to free bosons and to free fermions in $1+1$ dimensions, as well as to the Ising model. The analysis is also motivated by tensor network approaches to the AdS/CFT correspondence since our results may be useful for a qualitatively new construction of holographic duals complementary to previous approaches based on finite-range wavelets.

hep-th↗
arXiv2018

Strongly coupled electron fluids in the Poiseuille regime

In the context of describing electrons in solids as a fluid in the hydrodynamic regime, we consider a flow of electrons in a channel of finite width, i.e.~a Poiseuille flow. The electrons are accelerated by a constant electric field. We develop the appropriate relativistic hydrodynamic formalism in 2+1 dimensions and show that the fluid has a finite dc conductivity due to boundary-induced momentum relaxation, even in the absence of impurities. We use methods involving the AdS/CFT correspondence to examine the system in the strong-coupling regime. We calculate and study velocity profiles across the channel, from which we obtain the differential resistance $dV/dI$. We find that $dV/dI$ decreases with increasing current $I$ as expected for a Poiseuille flow, also at strong coupling and in the relativistic velocity regime. Moreover, we vary the coupling strength by varying $η/s$, the ratio of shear viscosity over entropy density. We find that $dV/dI$ decreases when the coupling is increased. We also find that strongly coupled fluids are more likely to become ultra-relativistic and turbulent. These conclusions are insensitive to the presence of impurities. In particular, we predict that in channels which are clearly in the hydrodynamic regime already at small currents, the DC channel resistance strongly depends on $η/s$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2018

Properties of Modular Hamiltonians on Entanglement Plateaux

The modular Hamiltonian of reduced states, given essentially by the logarithm of the reduced density matrix, plays an important role within the AdS/CFT correspondence in view of its relation to quantum information. In particular, it is an essential ingredient for quantum information measures of distances between states, such as the relative entropy and the Fisher information metric. However, the modular Hamiltonian is known explicitly only for a few examples. For a family of states $ρ_λ$ that is parametrized by a scalar $λ$, the first order contribution in $\tildeλ=λ-λ_0$ of the modular Hamiltonian to the relative entropy between $ρ_λ$ and a reference state $ρ_{λ_0}$ is completely determined by the entanglement entropy, via the first law of entanglement. For several examples, e.g. for ball-shaped regions in the ground state of CFTs, higher order contributions are known to vanish. In these cases the modular Hamiltonian contributes to the Fisher information metric in a trivial way. We investigate under which conditions the modular Hamiltonian provides a non-trivial contribution to the Fisher information metric, i.e. when the contribution of the modular Hamiltonian to the relative entropy is of higher order in $\tildeλ$. We consider one-parameter families of reduced states on two entangling regions that form an entanglement plateau, i.e. the entanglement entropies of the two regions saturate the Araki-Lieb inequality. We show that in general, at least one of the relative entropies of the two entangling regions is expected to involve $\tildeλ$ contributions of higher order from the modular Hamiltonian. Furthermore, we consider the implications of this observation for prominent AdS/CFT examples that form entanglement plateaux in the large $N$ limit.

hep-th↗
arXiv2018

Introduction to Gauge/Gravity Duality (TASI Lectures 2017)

We review how the AdS/CFT correspondence is motivated within string theory, and discuss how it is generalized to gauge/gravity duality. In particular, we highlight the relation to quantum information theory by pointing out that the Fisher information metric of a Gaussian probability distribution corresponds to an Anti-de Sitter space. As an application example of gauge/gravity duality, we present a holographic Kondo model. The Kondo model in condensed matter physics describes a spin impurity interacting with a free electron gas: At low energies, the impurity is screened and there is a logarithmic rise of the resistivity. In quantum field theory, this amounts to a negative beta function for the impurity coupling and the theory flows to a non-trivial IR fixed point. For constructing a gravity dual, we consider a large $N$ version of this model in which the ambient electrons are strongly coupled even before the interaction with the impurity is switched on. We present the brane construction which motivates a gravity dual Kondo model and use this model to calculate the impurity entanglement entropy and the resistivity, which has a power-law behaviour. We also study quantum quenches, and discuss the relation to the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model.

hep-th↗
arXiv2018

Connecting Fisher information to bulk entanglement in holography

In the context of relating AdS/CFT to quantum information theory, we propose a holographic dual of Fisher information metric for mixed states in the boundary field theory. This amounts to a holographic measure for the distance between two mixed quantum states. For a spherical subregion in the boundary we show that this is related to a particularly regularized volume enclosed by the Ryu-Takayanagi surface. We further argue that the quantum correction to the proposed Fisher information metric is related to the quantum correction to the boundary entanglement entropy. We discuss consequences of this connection.

hep-th↗
arXiv2018

Topological Complexity in AdS3/CFT2

We consider subregion complexity within the AdS3/CFT2 correspondence. We rewrite the volume proposal, according to which the complexity of a reduced density matrix is given by the spacetime volume contained inside the associated Ryu-Takayanagi (RT) surface, in terms of an integral over the curvature. Using the Gauss-Bonnet theorem we evaluate this quantity for general entangling regions and temperature. In particular, we find that the discontinuity that occurs under a change in the RT surface is given by a fixed topological contribution, independent of the temperature or details of the entangling region. We offer a definition and interpretation of subregion complexity in the context of tensor networks, and show numerically that it reproduces the qualitative features of the holographic computation in the case of a random tensor network using its relation to the Ising model. Finally, we give a prescription for computing subregion complexity directly in CFT using the kinematic space formalism, and use it to reproduce some of our explicit gravity results obtained at zero temperature. We thus obtain a concrete matching of results for subregion complexity between the gravity and tensor network approaches, as well as a CFT prescription.

hep-th↗
arXiv2017

Non-local observables at finite temperature in AdS/CFT

Within gauge/gravity duality, we consider the AdS-Schwarzschild metric in arbitrary dimensions. We obtain analytical closed-form results for the two-point function, Wilson loop and entanglement entropy for strip geometries in the finite-temperature field-theory dual. According to the duality, these are given by the area of minimal surfaces of different dimension in the gravity background. Our analytical results involve generalised hypergeometric functions. We show that they reproduce known numerical results to great accuracy. Our results allow to identify new physical behaviour: For instance, we consider the entanglement density, i.e. the difference of entanglement entropies at finite and vanishing temperature divided by the volume of the entangling region. For field theories of dimension seven or higher, we find that the entanglement density displays non-monotonic behaviour as function of l*T, with l the strip width and T the temperature. This implies that the area theorem, proven for RG flows in general dimensions, does not apply here. This may signal the emergence of new degrees of freedom for AdS Schwarzschild black holes in eight or more dimensions.

hep-th↗
arXiv2017

Time dependence of entanglement for steady state formation in AdS$_3$/CFT$_2$

We consider a holographic model of two 1+1-dimensional heat baths at different temperatures joined at time $t=0$, such that a steady state heat-current region forms and expands in space for times $t>0$. After commenting on the causal structure of the dual 2+1-dimensional spacetime, we present how to calculate the time-dependent entanglement entropy of the boundary system holographically. We observe that the increase rate of the entanglement entropy satisfies certain bounds known from the literature on entanglement tsunamis. Furthermore, we check the validity of several non-trivial entanglement inequalities in this dynamic system.

hep-th↗
arXiv2017

Time evolution of entanglement for holographic steady state formation

Within gauge/gravity duality, we consider the local quench-like time evolution obtained by joining two 1+1-dimensional heat baths at different temperatures at time t=0. A steady state forms and expands in space. For the 2+1-dimensional gravity dual, we find that the shockwaves expanding the steady-state region are of spacelike nature in the bulk despite being null at the boundary. However, they do not transport information. Moreover, by adapting the time-dependent Hubeny-Rangamani-Takayanagi prescription, we holographically calculate the entanglement entropy and also the mutual information for different entangling regions. For general temperatures, we find that the entanglement entropy increase rate satisfies the same bound as in the "entanglement tsunami" setups. For small temperatures of the two baths, we derive an analytical formula for the time dependence of the entanglement entropy. This replaces the entanglement tsunami-like behaviour seen for high temperatures. Finally, we check that strong subadditivity holds in this time-dependent system, as well as further more general entanglement inequalities for five or more regions recently derived for the static case.

hep-th↗
arXiv2017

Holographic Kondo and Fano Resonances

We use holography to study a $(1+1)$-dimensional Conformal Field Theory (CFT) coupled to an impurity. The CFT is an $SU(N)$ gauge theory at large $N$, with strong gauge interactions. The impurity is an $SU(N)$ spin. We trigger an impurity Renormalization Group (RG) flow via a Kondo coupling. The Kondo effect occurs only below the critical temperature of a large-$N$ mean-field transition. We show that at all temperatures $T$, impurity spectral functions exhibit a Fano resonance, which in the low-$T$ phase is a large-$N$ manifestation of the Kondo resonance. We thus provide an example in which the Kondo resonance survives strong correlations, and uncover a novel mechanism for generating Fano resonances, via RG flows between $(0 + 1)$-dimensional fixed points

hep-th↗