arXiv subjects

Ning Bao

Publications and source records attributed to Ning Bao.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis and Approximate Quantum Error Correction

The eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) is a powerful conjecture for understanding how statistical mechanics emerges in a large class of many-body quantum systems. It has also been interpreted in a CFT context, and, in particular, holographic CFTs are expected to satisfy ETH. Recently, it was observed that the ETH condition corresponds to a necessary and sufficient condition for an approximate quantum error correcting code (AQECC), implying the presence of AQECCs in systems satisfying ETH. In this paper, we explore the properties of ETH as an error correcting code and show that there exists an explicit universal recovery channel for the code. Based on the analysis, we discuss a generalization that all chaotic theories contain error correcting codes. We then specialize to AdS/CFT to demonstrate the possibility of total bulk reconstruction in black holes with a well-defined macroscopic geometry. When combined with the existing AdS/CFT error correction story, this shows that black holes are enormously robust against erasure errors.

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arXiv2019

Wormhole Traversability via Quantum Random Walks

In this work we seek to generalize the connection between traversable wormholes and quantum channels. We do this via a connection between traversable wormholes and graph geometries on which we can perform quantum random walks for signal transmission. As a proof of principle, we give an example of a geometry for which quantum random walk signal traversal occurs exponentially faster than a standard ballistic classical traversal. We then generalize this connection to superpositions over holographic states, and argue that the quantum random walk/graph geometry picture works to study quantum channel properties of such states.

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arXiv2019

Holographic Tensor Networks in Full AdS/CFT

We present a general procedure for constructing tensor networks for geometric states in the Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence. Given a state in a large-$N$ CFT with a static, semiclassical gravitational dual, our procedure produces a tensor network for the boundary state whose internal geometry matches (a discretization of) the bulk spacetime geometry. By invoking the "holographic entanglement of purification" conjecture, our construction can be made to capture the structure of the bulk spacetime at sub-AdS scales.

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arXiv2019

Entanglement of Purification and Multiboundary Wormhole Geometries

We posit a geometrical description of the entanglement of purification for subregions in a holographic CFT. The bulk description naturally generalizes the two-party case and leads to interesting inequalities among multi-party entanglements of purification that can be geometrically proven from the conjecture. Further, we study the relationship between holographic entanglements of purification in locally-AdS3 spacetimes and entanglement entropies in multi-throated wormhole geometries constructed via quotienting by isometries. In particular, we derive new holographic inequalities for geometries that are locally AdS3 relating entanglements of purification for subregions and entanglement entropies in the wormhole geometries.

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arXiv2018

Minimal Purifications, Wormhole Geometries, and the Complexity=Action Proposal

We define a new criterion for selecting a specific minimal entanglement purification of given mixed states in generic quantum states using the entanglement of purification. We then propose that its holographic dual is the state living on the boundary of the entanglement wedge in the surface-state correspondence. Finally, we make some remarks about the relationship between this and the complexity equals action proposals.

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arXiv2018

Traversable Wormholes as Quantum Channels: Exploring CFT Entanglement Structure and Channel Capacity in Holography

We interpret the traversable wormhole in AdS/CFT in the context of quantum information theory. In particular, we investigate its properties as both a quantum channel and entanglement witness. We define protocols that allow either the bounding of the channel's entanglement capacity or the determination of aspects of the entanglement structure between the two boundary CFTs. Such protocols and connections allow for the use of quantum channel techniques in the study of gravitational physics and vice versa. More generally, our results suggest a purely quantum information-theoretic criterion for recognizing when the product of two boundary theories has a classical bulk interpretation.

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arXiv2018

On the Entropy Cone for Large Regions at Late Times

In this note we show that the holographic entanglement entropy inequalities that hold for constant time slices are also valid for large regions and times in covariant spacetimes containing collapsing black branes, where the leading part of the entropy is computed by the simplified membrane theory of arXiv:1803.10244.

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arXiv2018

Quantum complexity and the virial theorem

It is conjectured that in the geometric formulation of quantum computing, one can study quantum complexity through classical entropy of statistical ensembles established non-relativistically in the group manifold of unitary operators. The kinetic and positional decompositions of statistical entropy are conjectured to correspond to the Kolmogorov complexity and computational complexity, respectively, of corresponding quantum circuits. In this paper, we claim that by applying the virial theorem to the group manifold, one can derive a generic relation between Kolmogorov complexity and computational complexity in the thermal equilibrium.

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arXiv2018

Branches of the Black Hole Wave Function Need Not Contain Firewalls

We discuss the branching structure of the quantum-gravitational wave function that describes the evaporation of a black hole. A global wave function which initially describes a classical Schwarzschild geometry is continually decohered into distinct semiclassical branches by the emission of Hawking radiation. The laws of quantum mechanics dictate that the wave function evolves unitarily, but this unitary evolution is only manifest when considering the global description of the wave function; it is not implemented by time evolution on a single semiclassical branch. Conversely, geometric notions like the position or smoothness of a horizon only make sense on the level of individual branches. We consider the implications of this picture for probes of black holes by classical observers in definite geometries, like those involved in the AMPS construction. We argue that individual branches can describe semiclassical geometries free of firewalls, even as the global wave function evolves unitarily. We show that the pointer states of infalling detectors that are robust under Hamiltonian evolution are distinct from, and incompatible with, those of exterior detectors stationary with respect to the black hole horizon, in the sense that the pointer bases are related to each other via nontrivial transformations that mix the system, apparatus, and environment. This result describes a Hilbert-space version of black hole complementarity.

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arXiv2018

Conditional and Multipartite Entanglements of Purification and Holography

In this work we generalize the entanglement of purification and its conjectured holographic dual to conditional and multipartite versions of the same, where the optimization defining the entanglement of purification is now optimized in either a constrained way or over multiple parties. We separately derive new constraints on both the conditional entanglement of purification and its conjectured holographic dual object that match, further reinforcing the likelihood of this conjecture. We also show that the multipartite objects we define, despite obeying several of the same inequalities, are not holographic duals of each other. Further, we find inequalities that are true only for the bulk objects, and thus could provide additional consistency checks for states dual to (semi)-classical bulk geometries.

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arXiv2018

Puzzles and pitfalls involving Haar-typicality in holography

Holographic states that have a well-defined geometric dual in AdS/CFT are not faithfully represented by Haar-typical states in finite-dimensional models. As such, trying to apply principles and lessons from Haar-random ensembles of states to holographic states can lead to apparent puzzles and contradictions. We point out a handful of these pitfalls.

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arXiv2018

Bulk Connectedness and Boundary Entanglement

We prove, for any state in a conformal field theory defined on a set of boundary manifolds with corresponding classical holographic bulk geometry, that for any bipartition of the boundary into two non-clopen sets, the density matrix cannot be a tensor product of the reduced density matrices on each region of the bipartition. In particular, there must be entanglement across the bipartition surface. We extend this no-go theorem to general, arbitrary partitions of the boundary manifolds into non-clopen parts, proving that the density matrix cannot be a tensor product. This result gives a necessary condition for states to potentially correspond to holographic duals.

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arXiv2018

De Sitter Space as a Tensor Network: Cosmic No-Hair, Complementarity, and Complexity

We investigate the proposed connection between de Sitter spacetime and the MERA (Multiscale Entanglement Renormalization Ansatz) tensor network, and ask what can be learned via such a construction. We show that the quantum state obeys a cosmic no-hair theorem: the reduced density operator describing a causal patch of the MERA asymptotes to a fixed point of a quantum channel, just as spacetimes with a positive cosmological constant asymptote to de Sitter. The MERA is potentially compatible with a weak form of complementarity (local physics only describes single patches at a time, but the overall Hilbert space is infinite-dimensional) or, with certain specific modifications to the tensor structure, a strong form (the entire theory describes only a single patch plus its horizon, in a finite-dimensional Hilbert space). We also suggest that de Sitter evolution has an interpretation in terms of circuit complexity, as has been conjectured for anti-de Sitter space.

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arXiv2017

Holographic Inequalities and Entanglement of Purification

We study the conjectured holographic duality between entanglement of purification and the entanglement wedge cross-section. We generalize both quantities and prove several information theoretic inequalities involving them. These include upper bounds on conditional mutual information and tripartite information, as well as a lower bound for tripartite information. These inequalities are proven both holographically and for general quantum states. In addition, we use the cyclic entropy inequalities to derive a new holographic inequality for the entanglement wedge cross-section, and provide numerical evidence that the corresponding inequality for the entanglement of purification may be true in general. Finally, we use intuition from bit threads to extend the conjecture to holographic duals of suboptimal purifications.

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arXiv2017

On Distinguishability of Black Hole Microstates

We use the Holevo information to estimate distinguishability of microstates of a black hole in anti-de Sitter space by measurements one can perform on a subregion of a Cauchy surface of the dual conformal field theory. We find that microstates are not distinguishable at all until the subregion reaches a certain size and that perfect distinguishability can be achieved before the subregion covers the entire Cauchy surface. We will compare our results with expectations from the entanglement wedge reconstruction, tensor network models, and the bit threads interpretation of the Ryu-Takayanagi formula.

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arXiv2017

Entanglement entropy from SU(2) Chern-Simons theory and symmetric webs

A path integral on a link complement of a three-sphere fixes a vector (the "link state") in Chern-Simons theory. The link state can be written in a certain basis with the colored link invariants as its coefficients. We use symmetric webs to systematically compute the colored link invariants, by which we can write down the multi-partite entangled state of any given link. It is still unknown if a product state necessarily implies that the corresponding components are unlinked, and we leave it as a conjecture.

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arXiv2017

Fast optimization algorithms and the cosmological constant

Denef and Douglas have observed that in certain landscape models the problem of finding small values of the cosmological constant is a large instance of an NP-hard problem. The number of elementary operations (quantum gates) needed to solve this problem by brute force search exceeds the estimated computational capacity of the observable universe. Here we describe a way out of this puzzling circumstance: despite being NP-hard, the problem of finding a small cosmological constant can be attacked by more sophisticated algorithms whose performance vastly exceeds brute force search. In fact, in some parameter regimes the average-case complexity is polynomial. We demonstrate this by explicitly finding a cosmological constant of order $10^{-120}$ in a randomly generated $10^9$-dimensional ADK landscape.

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arXiv2017

Quantum voting and violation of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem

We propose a quantum voting system, in the spirit of quantum games such as the quantum Prisoner's Dilemma. Our scheme enables a constitution to violate a quantum analog of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem. Arrow's Theorem is a claim proved deductively in economics: Every (classical) constitution endowed with three innocuous-seeming properties is a dictatorship. We construct quantum analogs of constitutions, of the properties, and of Arrow's Theorem. A quantum version of majority rule, we show, violates this Quantum Arrow Conjecture. Our voting system allows for tactical-voting strategies reliant on entanglement, interference, and superpositions. This contribution to quantum game theory helps elucidate how quantum phenomena can be harnessed for strategic advantage.

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