arXiv subjects

Shadi Ali Ahmad

Publications and source records attributed to Shadi Ali Ahmad.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Many Faces of Non-invertible Symmetries

We investigate the interplay between algebraic and categorical notions of non-invertible symmetries. In particular, a fusion categorical symmetry $\mathcal{C}$ is shown to induce an algebraic symmetry encoded in a weak Hopf algebra $H$ which is Tannaka-Krein dual to $\mathcal{C}$ in the sense that $\mathcal{C} = \text{Rep}(H^*)$. The latter duality is not unique, and consequently the algebraic symmetry acts on an extended system relative to the categorical one. We present an approach to analyzing the symmetry breaking patterns of weak Hopf algebraic non-invertible symmetries. The central ingredient is a certain conditional expectation, which serves as the analog of a group averaging map for a non-invertible symmetry. The index of this conditional expectation emerges as a quantum information theoretic quantity that determines the extent to which the underlying symmetry can be broken. Ambiguities which ensue from the non-uniqueness of the categorical reconstruction lead to distinct properties of symmetry breaking compared to the invertible case. Finally, we exemplify our approach through topological and conformal quantum field theories in which non-invertible symmetries are naturally interpreted as defect operators and boundary conditions.

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arXiv2026

Continuing past the inner horizon using WKB

Features of the black hole interior can be extracted from the analytic structure of boundary correlation functions. Working in the geodesic approximation, we find analytic continuations that probe the interior of rotating and charged black holes. These generate contributions from timelike geodesics that thread the interior and emerge in a future universe. We implement these continuations on the momentum space two-point function and exemplify this in several black hole backgrounds. We also identify position space analytic continuations achieving the same task that incorporate different continued momentum space correlators. These correspond to non-perturbative corrections to the WKB approximation. We demonstrate this explicitly in the rotating BTZ black hole by showing that the interior geodesics contribute to the continued position space correlator and motivate a picture for how these contributions arise in higher dimensions. For AdS Schwarzschild, we identify the analytically continued solution that captures the bouncing geodesic. We discuss the possibility of using these continuations to probe the instability of inner horizons from the boundary.

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arXiv2025

Algebraic perturbation theory: traversable wormholes and generalized entropy beyond subleading order

The crossed product has recently emerged as an important ingredient in describing algebras of observables for quantum field theory and gravity. We combine this with perturbation theory, and study perturbative crossed product algebras obtained from a unitary deformation of the original system. Motivated by the problem of black hole evaporation, we propose an abstract framework in which black hole information can be transferred to Hawking radiation by passing to a perturbative crossed product exhibiting a degree of non-locality in its modular structure. As both a concrete example and a toy model for evaporation, we analyze the algebra of observables of the traversable wormhole in anti-de-Sitter space. We obtain new contributions to the generalized entropy beyond subleading order relative to the original work by Gao, Jafferis, and Wall. We close with some comments on the potential applicability of the algebraic approach to quantum gravity.

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arXiv2025

$T\overline{T}$ and the black hole interior

There is ample evidence that the bulk dual of a $T\overline{T}$ deformed holographic CFT is a gravitational system with a finite area cutoff boundary. For states dual to black holes, the finite cutoff surface cannot be moved beyond the event horizon. We overcome this by considering an extension of the $T\overline{T}$ deformation with a boundary cosmological constant and a prescription for a sequence of flows that successfully pushes the cutoff boundary past the event horizon and arbitrarily close to the black hole singularity. We show how this sequence avoids the complexification of the deformed boundary energies. The approach to the singularity is reflected on the boundary by the approach of the deformed energies to an accumulation point in the limit of arbitrarily large distance in deformation space. We argue that this sequence of flows is automatically implemented by the gravitational path integral given only the values of the initial ADM charges and the area of the finite cutoff surface, suggesting a similar automatic boundary mechanism that keeps all the deformed energies real at arbitrary values of the deformation parameter. This leads to a natural definition of a deformed boundary canonical ensemble partition function that sums over the entire spectrum and remains real for any value of the deformation parameter. We find that this partition function displays Hagedorn growth at the scale set by the deformation parameter, which we associate to the region near the inner horizon in the bulk dual.

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arXiv2025

The building blocks of asymptotically flat spacetimes

The classification of all possible induced representations arising from theories admitting a Poincaré symmetry has molded our very conception of particles in flat space. In this note, we argue that if one takes the same viewpoint on the asymptotic symmetry group instead of the global one, the familiar relativistic classification is enhanced to provide a new notion of excitations in asymptotically flat spacetimes. These excitations blur the line between the quantum description of a particle and a spacetime geometry, and will appear in any theory with the same symmetry. By interacting together, they produce both the geometry of and propagating particles in spacetime.

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arXiv2025

Extensions from within

Inclusions and extensions lie at the heart of physics and mathematics. The most relevant kind of inclusion in quantum systems is that of a von Neumann subalgebra, which is the focus of this work. We propose an object intrinsic to a given algebra that indexes its potential extensions into larger algebras. We refer to this object as a spatial Q-system, since it is inspired by the Q-system construction of Longo and others that has been used to categorify finite index inclusions for properly infinite algebras. The spatial Q-system broadens the usefulness of the Q-system by extending its applicability to the context of possibly infinite index inclusions admitting only operator valued weights rather than conditional expectations. An immediate physical motivation for the spatial Q-system arises in the form of the crossed product, which is a method for extending a given algebra by the generators of a locally compact group which acts upon it. If the group in question is not finite, the inclusion of the original algebra into its crossed product will be of infinite index and admit only an operator valued weight. Such an extension cannot be described by a standard Q-system. The spatial Q-system covers this case and, in fact, may be regarded as a far reaching generalization of the crossed product in which an algebra is extended by a collection of operators that possess a closed product structure compatible with the original algebra, but need not generate a symmetry object. We comment upon the categorical interpretation of the spatial Q-system, and describe how it may be interpreted as instantiating a protocol for approximate, or non-isometric, quantum error correction or in terms of quantum reference frames. We conclude by identifying a series of physical applications including the study of generalized symmetries, non-perturbative quantum gravity, black hole evaporation and interiors, and holography.

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arXiv2025

Semifinite von Neumann algebras in gauge theory and gravity

von Neumann algebras have been playing an increasingly important role in the context of gauge theories and gravity. The crossed product presents a natural method for implementing constraints through the commutation theorem, rendering it a useful tool for constructing gauge invariant algebras. The crossed product of a Type III algebra with its modular automorphism group is semifinite, which means that the crossed product regulates divergences in local quantum field theories. In this letter, we find a sufficient condition for the semifiniteness of the crossed product of a type III algebra with any locally compact group containing the modular automorphism group. Our condition surprisingly implies the centrality of the modular flow in the symmetry group, and we provide evidence for the necessity of this condition. Under these conditions, we construct an associated trace which computes physical expectation values. We comment on the importance of this result and and its implications for subregion physics in gauge theory and gravity.

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arXiv2024

Emergent Geometry from Quantum Probability

Carrying the insights of conditional probability to the quantum realm is notoriously difficult due to the non-commutative nature of quantum observables. Nevertheless, conditional expectations on von Neumann algebras have played a significant role in the development of quantum information theory, and especially the study of quantum error correction. In quantum gravity, it has been suggested that conditional expectations may be used to implement the holographic map algebraically, with quantum error correction underlying the emergence of spacetime through the generalized entropy formula. However, the requirements for exact error correction are almost certainly too strong for realistic theories of quantum gravity. In this note, we present a relaxed notion of quantum conditional expectation which implements approximate error correction. We introduce a generalization of Connes' spatial theory adapted to completely positive maps, and derive a chain rule allowing for the non-commutative factorization of relative modular operators into a marginal and conditional part, constituting a quantum Bayes' law. This allows for an exact quantification of the information gap occurring in the data processing inequality for arbitrary quantum channels. When applied to algebraic inclusions, this also provides an approach to factorizing the entropy of states into a sum of terms which, in the gravitational context, may be interpreted as a generalized entropy. We illustrate that the emergent area operator is fully non-commutative rather than central, except under the conditions of exact error correction. We provide some comments on how this result may be used to construct a fully algebraic quantum extremal surface prescription and to probe the quantum nature of black holes.

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arXiv2024

Relational Quantum Geometry

A common feature of the extended phase space of gauge theory, the crossed product of quantum theory, and quantum reference frames (QRFs) is the adjoining of degrees of freedom followed by a constraining procedure for the resulting total system. Building on previous work, we identify non-commutative or quantum geometry as a mathematical framework which unifies these three objects. We first provide a rigorous account of the extended phase space, and demonstrate that it can be regarded as a classical principal bundle with a Poisson manifold base. We then show that the crossed product is a trivial quantum principal bundle which both substantiates a conjecture on the quantization of the extended phase space and facilitates a relational interpretation. Combining several crossed products with possibly distinct structure groups into a single object, we arrive at a novel definition of a quantum orbifold. We demonstrate that change of frame maps within the quantum orbifold correspond to quantum gauge transformations, which are QRF preserving maps between crossed product algebras. Finally, we conclude that the quantum orbifold is equivalent to the G-framed algebra proposed in prior work, thereby placing systems containing multiple QRFs squarely in the context of quantum geometry.

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arXiv2024

Quantum Reference Frames from Top-Down Crossed Products

All physical observations are made relative to a reference frame, which is a system in its own right. If the system of interest admits a group symmetry, the reference frame observing it must transform commensurately under the group to ensure the covariance of the combined system. We point out that the crossed product is a way to realize quantum reference frames from the bottom-up; adjoining a quantum reference frame and imposing constraints generates a crossed product algebra. We provide a top-down specification of crossed product algebras and show that one cannot obtain inequivalent quantum reference frames using this approach. As a remedy, we define an abstract algebra associated to the system and symmetry group built out of relational crossed product algebras associated with different choices of quantum reference frames. We term this object the G-framed algebra, and show how potentially inequivalent frames are realized within this object. We comment on this algebra's analog of the classical Gribov problem in gauge theory, its importance in gravity where we show that it is relevant for semiclassical de Sitter and potentially beyond the semiclassical limit, and its utility for understanding the frame-dependence of physical notions like observables, density states, and entropies.

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arXiv2024

Crossed product algebras and generalized entropy for subregions

An early result of algebraic quantum field theory is that the algebra of any subregion in a QFT is a von Neumann factor of type III$_1$, in which entropy cannot be well-defined because such algebras do not admit a trace or density states. However, associated to the algebra is a modular group of automorphisms characterizing the local dynamics of degrees of freedom in the region, and the crossed product of the algebra with its modular group yields a type II$_\infty$ factor, in which traces and hence von Neumann entropy can be well-defined. In this work, we generalize recent constructions of the crossed product algebra for the TFD to, in principle, arbitrary spacetime regions in arbitrary QFTs, paving the way to the study of entanglement entropy without UV divergences. In contrast to previous works, we emphasize that this construction is independent of gravity. In this sense, the crossed product construction represents a refinement of Haag's assignment of nets of observable algebras to spacetime regions by providing a natural construction of a type II factor. We present several concrete examples: a QFT in Rindler space, a CFT in an open ball of Minkowski space, and arbitrary boundary subregions in AdS/CFT. In the holographic setting, we provide a novel argument for why the bulk dual must be the entanglement wedge, and discuss the distinction arising from boundary modular flow between causal and entanglement wedges for excited states and disjoint regions.

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arXiv2022

Quantum Relativity of Subsystems

One of the most basic notions in physics is the partitioning of a system into subsystems, and the study of correlations among its parts. In this work, we explore these notions in the context of quantum reference frame (QRF) covariance, in which this partitioning is subject to a symmetry constraint. We demonstrate that different reference frame perspectives induce different sets of subsystem observable algebras, which leads to a gauge-invariant, frame-dependent notion of subsystems and entanglement. We further demonstrate that subalgebras which commute before imposing the symmetry constraint can translate into non-commuting algebras in a given QRF perspective after symmetry imposition. Such a QRF perspective does not inherit the distinction between subsystems in terms of the corresponding tensor factorizability of the kinematical Hilbert space and observable algebra. Since the condition for this to occur is contingent on the choice of QRF, the notion of subsystem locality is frame-dependent.

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arXiv2022

Finite resolution ancilla-assisted measurements of quantum work distributions

Work is an observable quantity associated with a process, however there is no Hermitian operator associated with its measurement. We consider an ancilla-assisted protocol measuring the work done on a quantum system driven by a time-dependent Hamiltonian via two von-Neumann measurements of the system's energy carried out by a measuring apparatus modeled as a free particle of finite localization and interaction time with the system. We consider system Hamiltonians which both commute and do not commute at different times, finding corrections to fluctuation relations like the Jarzynski equality and the Crooks relation. This measurement model allows us to quantify the effect that measuring has on the estimated work distribution, and associated average work done on the system and average heat exchanged with the measuring apparatus.

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arXiv2020

Gravitational waves affect vacuum entanglement

The entanglement harvesting protocol is an operational way to probe vacuum entanglement. This protocol relies on two atoms, modelled by Unruh-DeWitt detectors, that are initially unentangled. These atoms then interact locally with the field and become entangled. If the atoms remain spacelike separated, any entanglement between them is a result of entanglement that is `harvested' from the field. Thus, quantifying this entanglement serves as a proxy for how entangled the field is across the regions in which the atoms interacted. Using this protocol, it is demonstrated that while the transition probability of an individual inertial atom is unaffected by the presence of a gravitational wave, the entanglement harvested by two atoms depends sensitively on the frequency of the gravitational wave, exhibiting novel resonance effects when the energy gap of the detectors is tuned to the frequency of the gravitational wave. This suggests that the entanglement signature left by a gravitational wave may be useful in characterizing its properties, and potentially useful in exploring the gravitational-wave memory effect and gravitational-wave induced decoherence.

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