Entanglement entropies of equilibrated pure states and replica wormholes

PIRSA ID: 20070031
Event Type: Seminar
Scientific Area(s):
Quantum Gravity
End date:
Speaker(s):
  • Hong Liu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Physics

Consider a quantum many-body system initially in a far-from-equilibrium pure state.

If the system is non-integrable, the state should approach equilibrium after some time.

We develop an approximation to calculate quantum informational properties of such an "equilibrated pure state.” Applied to gravity systems, the approximation leads to a derivation of replica wormholes discussed recently in the context of Page curves for black holes, elucidating their mathematical origin, physical interpretation, and why they lead to answers which are consistent with unitarity.

Based on work to appear with Shreya Vardhan.