arXiv subjects

K. Narayan

Publications and source records attributed to K. Narayan.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

N-level ghost-spins and entanglement

Ghost-spins, 2-level spin-like variables with indefinite norm have been studied in previous work. Here we explore various $N$-level generalizations of ghost-spins. First we discuss a flavoured generalization comprising $N$ copies of the ghost-spin system, as well as certain ghost-spin chains which in the continuum limit lead to 2-dim $bc$-ghost CFTs with $O(N)$ flavour symmetry. Then we explore a symplectic generalization that involves antisymmetric inner products, and finally a ghost-spin system exhibiting $N$ irreducible levels. We also study entanglement properties. In all these cases, we show the existence of positive norm "correlated ghost-spin" states in two copies of ghost-spin ensembles obtained by entangling identical ghost-spins from each copy: these exhibit positive entanglement entropy.

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arXiv2019

On $AdS_2$ holography from redux, renormalization group flows and $c$-functions

Extremal black branes upon compactification in the near horizon throat region are known to give rise to $AdS_2$ dilaton-gravity-matter theories. Away from the throat region, the background has nontrivial profile. We interpret this as holographic renormalization group flow in the 2-dim dilaton-gravity-matter theories arising from dimensional reduction of the higher dimensional theories here. The null energy conditions allow us to formulate a holographic c-function in terms of the 2-dim dilaton for which we argue a c-theorem subject to appropriate boundary conditions which amount to restrictions on the ultraviolet theories containing these extremal branes. At the infrared $AdS_2$ fixed point, the c-function becomes the extremal black brane entropy. We discuss the behaviour of this inherited c-function in various explicit examples, in particular compactified nonconformal branes, and compare it with other discussions of holographic c-functions. We also adapt the holographic renormalization group formulated in terms of radial Hamiltonian flow to 2-dim dilaton-gravity-scalar theories, which while not Wilsonian, gives qualitative insight into the flow equations and $β$-functions.

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arXiv2018

$AdS_2$ dilaton gravity from reductions of some nonrelativistic theories

We study dilaton-gravity theories in 2-dimensions obtained by dimensional reduction of higher dimensional nonrelativistic theories. Focussing on certain families of extremal charged hyperscaling violating Lifshitz black branes in Einstein-Maxwell-scalar theories with an extra gauge field in 4-dimensions, we obtain $AdS_2$ backgrounds in the near horizon throats. We argue that these backgrounds can be obtained in equivalent theories of 2-dim dilaton-gravity with an extra scalar, descending from the higher dimensional scalar, and an interaction potential with the dilaton. A simple subcase here is the relativistic black brane in Einstein-Maxwell theory. We then study linearized fluctuations of the metric, dilaton and the extra scalar about these $AdS_2$ backgrounds. The coefficient of the leading Schwarzian derivative term is proportional to the entropy of the (compactified) extremal black branes.

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arXiv2018

On extremal surfaces and de Sitter entropy

We study extremal surfaces in the static patch coordinatization of de Sitter space, focussing on the future and past universes. We find connected timelike codim-2 surfaces on a boundary Euclidean time slice stretching from the future boundary $I^+$ to the past boundary $I^-$. In a limit, these surfaces pass through the bifurcation region and have minimal area with a divergent piece alone, whose coefficient is de Sitter entropy in 4-dimensions. These are reminiscent of rotated versions of certain surfaces in the $AdS$ black hole. We close with some speculations on a possible $dS/CFT$ interpretation of 4-dim de Sitter space as dual to two copies of ghost-CFTs in an entangled state. For a simple toy model of two copies of ghost-spin chains, we argue that similar entangled states always have positive norm and positive entanglement.

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arXiv2017

Hyperscaling violation, quasinormal modes and shear diffusion

We study quasinormal modes of shear gravitational perturbations for hyperscaling violating Lifshitz theories, with Lifshitz and hyperscaling violating exponents $z$ and $θ$. The lowest quasinormal mode frequency yields a shear diffusion constant which is in agreement with that obtained in previous work by other methods. In particular for theories with $z< d_i+2-θ$ where $d_i$ is the boundary spatial dimension, the shear diffusion constant exhibits power-law scaling with temperature, while for $z=d_i+2-θ$, it exhibits logarithmic scaling. We then calculate certain 2-point functions of the dual energy-momentum tensor holographically for $z\leq d_i+2-θ$, identifying the diffusive poles with the quasinormal modes above. This reveals universal behaviour $η/s=1/4π$ for the viscosity-to-entropy-density ratio for all $z\leq d_i+2-θ$.

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arXiv2017

Entangled spins and ghost-spins

We study patterns of quantum entanglement in systems of spins and ghost-spins regarding them as simple quantum mechanical toy models for theories containing negative norm states. We define a single ghost-spin as in arXiv:1602.06505 [hep-th] as a 2-state spin variable with an indefinite inner product in the state space. We find that whenever the spin sector is disentangled from the ghost-spin sector (both of which could be entangled within themselves), the reduced density matrix obtained by tracing over all the ghost-spins gives rise to positive entanglement entropy for positive norm states, while negative norm states have an entanglement entropy with a negative real part and a constant imaginary part. However when the spins are entangled with the ghost-spins, there are new entanglement patterns in general. For systems where the number of ghost-spins is even, it is possible to find subsectors of the Hilbert space where positive norm states always lead to positive entanglement entropy after tracing over the ghost-spins. With an odd number of ghost-spins however, we find that there always exist positive norm states with negative real part for entanglement entropy after tracing over the ghost-spins.

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arXiv2017

Ghost-spin chains, entanglement and $bc$-ghost CFTs

We study 1-dimensional chains of ghost-spins with nearest neighbour interactions amongst them, developing further the study of ghost-spins in previous work, defined as 2-state spin variables with indefinite norm. First we study finite ghost-spin chains with Ising-like nearest neighbour interactions: this helps organize and clarify the study of entanglement earlier and we develop this further. Then we study a family of infinite ghost-spin chains with a different Hamiltonian containing nearest neighbour hopping-type interactions. By defining fermionic ghost-spin variables through a Jordan-Wigner transformation, we argue that these ghost-spin chains lead in the continuum limit to the $bc$-ghost CFTs.

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arXiv2017

Notes on hyperscaling violating Lifshitz and shear diffusion

We explore in greater detail our investigations of shear diffusion in hyperscaling violating Lifshitz theories in arXiv:1604.05092 [hep-th]. This adapts and generalizes the membrane-paradigm-like analysis of Kovtun, Son and Starinets for shear gravitational perturbations in the near horizon region given certain self-consistent approximations, leading to the shear diffusion constant on an appropriately defined stretched horizon. In theories containing a gauge field, some of the metric perturbations mix with some of the gauge field perturbations and the above analysis is somewhat more complicated. We find a similar near-horizon analysis can be obtained in terms of new field variables involving a linear combination of the metric and the gauge field perturbation resulting in a corresponding diffusion equation. Thereby as before, for theories with Lifshitz and hyperscaling violating exponents $z, θ$ satisfying $z<4-θ$ in four bulk dimensions, our analysis here results in a similar expression for the shear diffusion constant with power-law scaling with temperature suggesting universal behaviour in relation to the viscosity bound. For $z=4-θ$, we find logarithmic behaviour.

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arXiv2016

On $dS_4$ extremal surfaces and entanglement entropy in some ghost CFTs

In arXiv:1501.03019 [hep-th], the areas of certain complex extremal surfaces in de Sitter space were found to have resemblance with entanglement entropy in appropriate dual Euclidean non-unitary CFTs, with the area being real and negative in $dS_4$. In this paper, we study some toy models of 2-dim ghost conformal field theories with negative central charge with a view to exploring this further from the CFT point of view. In particular we consider $bc$-ghost systems with central charge $c=-2$ and study the replica formulation for entanglement entropy for a single interval, and associated issues arising in this case, notably pertaining to (i) the $SL(2)$ vacuum coinciding with the ghost ground state, and (ii) the background charge inherent in these systems which leads to particular forms for the norms of states (involving zero modes). This eventually gives rise to negative entanglement entropy. We also discuss a (logarithmic) CFT of anti-commuting scalars, with similarities in some features. Finally we discuss a simple toy model of two "ghost-spins" which mimics some of these features.

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arXiv2016

Hyperscaling violation and the shear diffusion constant

We consider holographic theories in bulk $(d+1)$-dimensions with Lifshitz and hyperscaling violating exponents $z,θ$ at finite temperature. By studying shear gravitational modes in the near-horizon region given certain self-consistent approximations, we obtain the corresponding shear diffusion constant on an appropriately defined stretched horizon, adapting the analysis of Kovtun, Son and Starinets. For generic exponents with $d-z-θ>-1$, we find that the diffusion constant has power law scaling with the temperature, motivating us to guess a universal relation for the viscosity bound. When the exponents satisfy $d-z-θ=-1$, we find logarithmic behaviour. This relation is equivalent to $z=2+d_{eff}$ where $d_{eff}=d_i-θ$ is the effective boundary spatial dimension (and $d_i=d-1$ the actual spatial dimension). It is satisfied by the exponents in hyperscaling violating theories arising from null reductions of highly boosted black branes, and we comment on the corresponding analysis in that context.

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arXiv2015

de Sitter space and extremal surfaces for spheres

Following arXiv:1501.03019 [hep-th], we study de Sitter space and spherical subregions on a constant boundary Euclidean time slice of the future boundary in the Poincare slicing. We show that as in that case, complex extremal surfaces exist here as well: for even boundary dimensions, we isolate the universal coefficient of the logarithmically divergent term in the area of these surfaces. There are parallels with analytic continuation of the Ryu-Takayanagi expressions for holographic entanglement entropy in $AdS/CFT$. We then study the free energy of the dual Euclidean CFT on a sphere holographically using the $dS/CFT$ dictionary with a dual de Sitter space in global coordinates, and a classical approximation for the wavefunction of the universe. For even dimensions, we again isolate the coefficient of the logarithmically divergent term which is expected to be related to the conformal anomaly. We find agreement including numerical factors between these coefficients.

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arXiv2015

de Sitter extremal surfaces

We study extremal surfaces in de Sitter space in the Poincare slicing in the upper patch, anchored on spatial subregions at the future boundary ${\cal I}^+$, restricted to constant boundary Euclidean time slices (focussing on strip subregions). We find real extremal surfaces of minimal area as the boundaries of past lightcone wedges of the subregions in question: these are null surfaces with vanishing area. We also find complex extremal surfaces as complex extrema of the area functional, and the area is not always real-valued. In $dS_4$ the area is real. The area has structural resemblance with entanglement entropy in a dual $CFT$. There are parallels with analytic continuation from the Ryu-Takayanagi expressions for holographic entanglement entropy in $AdS$. We also discuss extremal surfaces in the $dS$ black brane and the de Sitter "bluewall" studied previously. The $dS_4$ black brane complex surfaces exhibit a real finite cutoff-independent extensive piece. In the bluewall geometry, there are real surfaces that go from one asymptotic universe to the other through the Cauchy horizons.

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arXiv2015

On a lightlike limit of entanglement

We study certain classes of $g_{++}$ deformations of theories arising in gauge/string realizations of nonrelativistic holography, some of which pertain to $z=2$ Lifshitz theories while others (pertaining to hyperscaling violation) comprise certain classes of excited states. Building on previous work, we consider holographic entanglement entropy for spacelike strip subsystems in a highly boosted (lightlike) limit, where the strip is stretched along the null $x^+$-plane. The leading divergence in entanglement in this null limit for these excited states is milder than the usual area law for spacelike subsystems in ground states. For ground states, the entanglement vanishes, perhaps consistent with ultralocality. We discuss this briefly from a field theory perspective. We also present some simple free lightfront field theory examples in excited states where correlators are nonvanishing.

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arXiv2014

AdS plane waves, entanglement and mutual information

$AdS$ plane wave backgrounds are dual to CFT excited states with energy momentum density $T_{++}=Q$. Building on previous work on entanglement entropy in these and nonconformal brane plane wave backgrounds, we first describe a phenomenological scaling picture for entanglement in terms of "entangling partons". We then study aspects of holographic mutual information in these backgrounds for two strip shaped subsystems, aligned parallel or orthogonal to the flux. We focus on the wide ($Ql^d\gg 1$) and narrow ($Ql^d\ll 1$) strip regimes. In the wide strip regime, mutual information exhibits growth with the individual strip sizes and a disentangling transition as the separation between the strips increases, whose behaviour is distinct from the ground and thermal states. In the narrow strip case, our calculations have parallels with "entanglement thermodynamics" for these $AdS$ plane wave deformations. We also discuss some numerical analysis.

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arXiv2014

dS/CFT at uniform energy density and a de Sitter "bluewall"

We describe a class of spacetimes that are asymptotically de Sitter in the Poincare slicing. Assuming that a dS/CFT correspondence exists, we argue that these are gravity duals to a CFT on a circle leading to uniform energy-momentum density, and are equivalent to an analytic continuation of the Euclidean AdS black brane. These are solutions with a complex parameter which then gives a real energy-momentum density. We also discuss a related solution with the parameter continued to a real number, which we refer to as a de Sitter "bluewall". This spacetime has two asymptotic de Sitter universes and Cauchy horizons cloaking timelike singularities. We argue that the Cauchy horizons give rise to a blue-shift instability.

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arXiv2013

Non-conformal brane plane waves and entanglement entropy

Following [arXiv:1202.5935 [hep-th]] and [arXiv:1212.4328 [hep-th]], we study non-conformal brane plane wave backgrounds dual to strongly coupled gauge theories with constant energy flux and holographic entanglement entropy for strip subsystems in them. We find that for the strip direction along the direction of the energy flux, the finite cutoff-independent part of entanglement entropy can be estimated in terms of a dimensionless combination of the energy density and the strip dimensions, alongwith an effective scale-dependent number of degrees of freedom. For the strip orthogonal to the flux direction, there are indications of phase transitions. We also briefly discuss NS5-brane backgrounds corresponding to plane wave states in little string theories.

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arXiv2013

AdS plane waves and entanglement entropy

AdS plane waves describe simple backgrounds which are dual to anisotropically excited systems with energy fluxes. Upon dimensional reduction, they reduce to hyperscaling violating spacetimes: in particular, the $AdS_5$ plane wave is known to exhibit logarithmic behavior of the entanglement entropy. In this paper, we carry out an extensive study of the holographic entanglement entropy for strip-shaped subsystems in AdS plane wave backgrounds. We find that the results depend crucially on whether the strip is parallel or orthogonal to the energy current. In the latter case, we show that there is a phenomenon analogous to a phase transition.

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arXiv2012

AdS null deformations with inhomogeneities

We study $AdS\times X$ null deformations arising as near horizon limits of D3-brane analogs of inhomogenous plane waves. Restricting to normalizable deformations for the $AdS_5$ case, these generically correspond in the dual field theory to SYM states with lightcone momentum density $T_{++}$ varying spatially, the homogenous case studied in arXiv:1202.5935 [hep-th] corresponding to uniform $T_{++}$. All of these preserve some supersymmetry. Generically these inhomogenous solutions exhibit analogs of horizons in the interior where a timelike Killing vector becomes null. From the point of view of $x^+$-dimensional reduction, the circle pinches off on these horizon loci in the interior. We discuss similar inhomogenous solutions with asymptotically Lifshitz boundary conditions, as well as aspects of Lifshitz singularities in string constructions involving $AdS$ null deformations. We also briefly discuss holographic entanglement entropy for some of these.

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