arXiv subjects

Stephen H. Shenker

Publications and source records attributed to Stephen H. Shenker.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

BPS Chaos

Black holes are chaotic quantum systems that are expected to exhibit random matrix statistics in their finite energy spectrum. Lin, Maldacena, Rozenberg and Shan (LMRS) have proposed a related characterization of chaos for the ground states of BPS black holes with finite area horizons. On a separate front, the "fuzzball program" has uncovered large families of horizon-free geometries that account for the entropy of holographic BPS systems, but only in situations with sufficient supersymmetry to exclude finite area horizons. The highly structured, non-random nature of these solutions seems in tension with strong chaos. We verify this intuition by performing analytic and numerical calculations of the LMRS diagnostic in the corresponding boundary quantum system. In particular we examine the 1/2 and 1/4-BPS sectors of $\mathcal{N}=4$ SYM, and the two charge sector of the D1-D5 CFT. We find evidence that these systems are only weakly chaotic, with a Thouless time determining the onset of chaos that grows as a power of $N$. In contrast, finite horizon area BPS black holes should be strongly chaotic, with a Thouless time of order one. In this case, finite energy chaotic states become BPS as $N$ is decreased through the recently discovered "fortuity" mechanism. Hence they can plausibly retain their strongly chaotic character.

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arXiv2022

Snowmass White Paper: Quantum Aspects of Black Holes and the Emergence of Spacetime

Black holes provide a window into the microscopic structure of spacetime in quantum gravity. Recently the quantum information contained in Hawking radiation has been calculated, verifying a key aspect of the consistency of black hole evaporation with quantum mechanical unitarity. This calculation relied crucially on recent progress in understanding the emergence of bulk spacetime from a boundary holographic description. Spacetime wormholes have played an important role in understanding the underpinnings of this result, and the precision study of such wormholes, in this and other contexts, has been enabled by the development of low-dimensional models of holography. In this white paper we review these developments and describe some of the deep open questions in this subject. These include the nature of the black hole interior, potential applications to quantum cosmology, the gravitational explanation of the fine structure of black holes, and the development of further connections to quantum information and laboratory quantum simulation.

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arXiv2021

Wormholes without averaging

After averaging over fermion couplings, SYK has a collective field description that sometimes has "wormhole" solutions. We study the fate of these wormholes when the couplings are fixed. Working mainly in a simple model, we find that the wormhole saddles persist, but that new saddles also appear elsewhere in the integration space -- "half-wormholes." The wormhole contributions depend only weakly on the specific choice of couplings, while the half-wormhole contributions are strongly sensitive. The half-wormholes are crucial for factorization of decoupled systems with fixed couplings, but they vanish after averaging, leaving the non-factorizing wormhole behind.

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arXiv2020

Replica wormholes and the black hole interior

Recent work has shown how to obtain the Page curve of an evaporating black hole from holographic computations of entanglement entropy. We show how these computations can be justified using the replica trick, from geometries with a spacetime wormhole connecting the different replicas. In a simple model, we study the Page transition in detail by summing replica geometries with different topologies. We compute related quantities in less detail in more complicated models, including JT gravity coupled to conformal matter and the SYK model. Separately, we give a direct gravitational argument for entanglement wedge reconstruction using an explicit formula known as the Petz map; again, a spacetime wormhole plays an important role. We discuss an interpretation of the wormhole geometries as part of some ensemble average implicit in the gravity description.

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arXiv2019

A semiclassical ramp in SYK and in gravity

In finite entropy systems, real-time partition functions do not decay to zero at late time. Instead, assuming random matrix universality, suitable averages exhibit a growing "ramp" and "plateau" structure. Deriving this non-decaying behavior in a large $N$ collective field description is a challenge related to one version of the black hole information problem. We describe a candidate semiclassical explanation of the ramp for the SYK model and for black holes. In SYK, this is a two-replica nonperturbative saddle point for the large $N$ collective fields, with zero action and a compact zero mode that leads to a linearly growing ramp. In the black hole context, the solution is a two-sided black hole that is periodically identified under a Killing time translation. We discuss but do not resolve some puzzles that arise.

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arXiv2019

JT gravity as a matrix integral

We present exact results for partition functions of Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) gravity on two-dimensional surfaces of arbitrary genus with an arbitrary number of boundaries. The boundaries are of the type relevant in the NAdS${}_2$/NCFT${}_1$ correspondence. We show that the partition functions correspond to the genus expansion of a certain matrix integral. A key fact is that Mirzakhani's recursion relation for Weil-Petersson volumes maps directly onto the Eynard-Orantin "topological recursion" formulation of the loop equations for this matrix integral. The matrix integral provides a (non-unique) nonperturbative completion of the genus expansion, sensitive to the underlying discreteness of the matrix eigenvalues. In matrix integral descriptions of noncritical strings, such effects are due to an infinite number of disconnected worldsheets connected to D-branes. In JT gravity, these effects can be reproduced by a sum over an infinite number of disconnected geometries -- a type of D-brane logic applied to spacetime.

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arXiv2019

Onset of Random Matrix Behavior in Scrambling Systems

The fine grained energy spectrum of quantum chaotic systems is widely believed to be described by random matrix statistics. A basic scale in such a system is the energy range over which this behavior persists. We define the corresponding time scale by the time at which the linearly growing ramp region in the spectral form factor begins. We call this time $t_{\rm ramp}$. The purpose of this paper is to study this scale in many-body quantum systems that display strong chaos, sometimes called scrambling systems. We focus on randomly coupled qubit systems, both local and $k$-local (all-to-all interactions) and the Sachdev--Ye--Kitaev (SYK) model. Using numerical results for Hamiltonian systems and analytic estimates for random quantum circuits we find the following results. For geometrically local systems with a conservation law we find $t_{\rm ramp}$ is determined by the diffusion time across the system, order $N^2$ for a 1D chain of $N$ qubits. This is analogous to the behavior found for local one-body chaotic systems. For a $k$-local system with conservation law the time is order $\log N$ but with a different prefactor and a different mechanism than the scrambling time. In the absence of any conservation laws, as in a generic random quantum circuit, we find $t_{\rm ramp} \sim \log N$, independent of connectivity.

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arXiv2018

Black Holes and Random Matrices

We argue that the late time behavior of horizon fluctuations in large anti-de Sitter (AdS) black holes is governed by the random matrix dynamics characteristic of quantum chaotic systems. Our main tool is the Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev (SYK) model, which we use as a simple model of a black hole. We use an analytically continued partition function $|Z(β+it)|^2$ as well as correlation functions as diagnostics. Using numerical techniques we establish random matrix behavior at late times. We determine the early time behavior exactly in a double scaling limit, giving us a plausible estimate for the crossover time to random matrix behavior. We use these ideas to formulate a conjecture about general large AdS black holes, like those dual to 4D super-Yang-Mills theory, giving a provisional estimate of the crossover time. We make some preliminary comments about challenges to understanding the late time dynamics from a bulk point of view.

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arXiv2016

Chaos in Classical D0-Brane Mechanics

We study chaos in the classical limit of the matrix quantum mechanical system describing D0-brane dynamics. We determine a precise value of the largest Lyapunov exponent, and, with less precision, calculate the entire spectrum of Lyapunov exponents. We verify that these approach a smooth limit as $N \rightarrow \infty$. We show that a classical analog of scrambling occurs with fast scrambling scaling, $t_* \sim \log S$. These results confirm the k-locality property of matrix mechanics discussed by Sekino and Susskind.

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arXiv2015

Stringy effects in scrambling

In [1] we gave a precise holographic calculation of chaos at the scrambling time scale. We studied the influence of a small perturbation, long in the past, on a two-sided correlation function in the thermofield double state. A similar analysis applies to squared commutators and other out-of-time-order one-sided correlators [2-4]. The essential bulk physics is a high energy scattering problem near the horizon of an AdS black hole. The above papers used Einstein gravity to study this problem; in the present paper we consider stringy and Planckian corrections. Elastic stringy corrections play an important role, effectively weakening and smearing out the development of chaos. We discuss their signature in the boundary field theory, commenting on the extension to weak coupling. Inelastic effects, although important for the evolution of the state, leave a parametrically small imprint on the correlators that we study. We briefly discuss ways to diagnose these small corrections, and we propose another correlator where inelastic effects are order one.

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arXiv2015

A bound on chaos

We conjecture a sharp bound on the rate of growth of chaos in thermal quantum systems with a large number of degrees of freedom. Chaos can be diagnosed using an out-of-time-order correlation function closely related to the commutator of operators separated in time. We conjecture that the influence of chaos on this correlator can develop no faster than exponentially, with Lyapunov exponent $λ_L \le 2 πk_B T/\hbar$. We give a precise mathematical argument, based on plausible physical assumptions, establishing this conjecture.

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arXiv2014

Black holes and the butterfly effect

We use holography to study sensitive dependence on initial conditions in strongly coupled field theories. Specifically, we mildly perturb a thermofield double state by adding a small number of quanta on one side. If these quanta are released a scrambling time in the past, they destroy the local two-sided correlations present in the unperturbed state. The corresponding bulk geometry is a two-sided AdS black hole, and the key effect is the blueshift of the early infalling quanta relative to the $t = 0$ slice, creating a shock wave. We comment on string- and Planck-scale corrections to this setup, and discuss points that may be relevant to the firewall controversy.

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arXiv2014

Multiple Shocks

Using gauge/gravity duality, we explore a class of states of two CFTs with a large degree of entanglement, but with very weak local two-sided correlation. These states are constructed by perturbing the thermofield double state with thermal-scale operators that are local at different times. Acting on the dual black hole geometry, these perturbations create an intersecting network of shock waves, supporting a very long wormhole. Chaotic CFT dynamics and the associated fast scrambling time play an essential role in determining the qualitative features of the resulting geometries.

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arXiv2012

Light States in Chern-Simons Theory Coupled to Fundamental Matter

Motivated by developments in vectorlike holography, we study SU(N) Chern-Simons theory coupled to matter fields in the fundamental representation on various spatial manifolds. On the spatial torus T^2, we find light states at small `t Hooft coupling λ=N/k, where k is the Chern-Simons level, taken to be large. In the free scalar theory the gaps are of order \sqrt λ/N and in the critical scalar theory and the free fermion theory they are of order λ/N. The entropy of these states grows like N Log(k). We briefly consider spatial surfaces of higher genus. Based on results from pure Chern-Simons theory, it appears that there are light states with entropy that grows even faster, like N^2 Log(k). This is consistent with the log of the partition function on the three sphere S^3, which also behaves like N^2 Log(k). These light states require bulk dynamics beyond standard Vasiliev higher spin gravity to explain them.

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arXiv2012

The Three Faces of a Fixed Point

It has been argued that the only mathematically precise quantum descriptions of gravitating systems are from vantage points which allow an unbounded amount of information to be gathered. For an eternally inflating universe that means a hat, i.e., the asymptotic future of a flat FRW universe. The boundary of the hat (the place where it enters the bulk geometry) is the seat of the FRW/CFT duality. In this paper we discuss the perturbative and non-perturbative fixed points of FRW/CFT as seen from the three regions which share this boundary. Perturbatively, there is nothing universal about the FRW duality; there is a separate construction for each possible initial vacuum. We explain how bubble collisions induce a non-perturbative flow to a universal fixed point which contains information about the entire landscape. We also argue that there is a duality between the landscape of de Sitter vacua and a discretuum of very low-dimension relevant operators in the FRW/CFT spectrum. In principle this provides us with a precise definition of unstable de Sitter vacua. Along the way we show that BPS domain walls play a special role in reinforcing the "persistence of memory" and breaking the symmetries of the hat.

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arXiv2011

Vector Models in the Singlet Sector at Finite Temperature

We study the thermal properties of the O(N) vector-like scalar theory in the singlet sector in 2+1 dimensions. This theory is conjectured to be the AdS/CFT dual of Vasiliev higher spin gravity. We find that a large N transition occurs but only at a very high temperature of order \sqrt{N}. This corresponds to the bulk Planck energy. The transition signals a decrease in the number of degrees of freedom from that expected in the simple higher spin gas, due to relations among the O(N) bilinear invariants.

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arXiv1997

Issues in M(atrix) Theory Compactification

We discuss issues concerning M(atrix) theory compactifications on curved spaces. We argue from the form of the graviton propagator on curved space that excited string states do not decouple from the annulus D0-brane $v^4$ amplitude, unlike the flat space case. This argument shows that a large class of quantum mechanical systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom cannot reproduce supergravity answers. We discuss the specific example of an ALE space and suggest sources of possible higher derivative terms that might help reproduce supergravity results.

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arXiv1996

D-branes and Short Distances in String Theory

We study the behavior of D-branes at distances far shorter than the string length scale~$l_s$. We argue that short-distance phenomena are described by the IR behavior of the D-brane world-volume quantum theory. This description is valid until the brane motion becomes relativistic. At weak string coupling $\gs$ this corresponds to momenta and energies far above string scale. We use 0-brane quantum mechanics to study 0-brane collisions and find structure at length scales corresponding to the eleven-dimensional Planck length ($\lp11 \sim \gs^{1/3} l_s$) and to the radius of the eleventh dimension in M-theory ($\R11 \sim \gs l_s$). We use 0-branes to probe non-trivial geometries and topologies at sub-stringy scales. We study the 0-brane 4-brane system, calculating the 0-brane moduli space metric, and find the bound state at threshold, which has characteristic size $\lp11$. We examine the blowup of an orbifold and are able to resolve the resulting $S^2$ down to size $\lp11$. A 0-brane with momentum approaching $1/\R11$ is able to explore a larger configuration space in which the blowup is embedded. Analogous phenomena occur for small instantons. We finally turn to 1-branes and calculate the size of a bound state to be $\sim \gs^{1/2} l_s$, the 1-brane tension scale.

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