English

Complexity and Operator Growth in Holographic 6d SCFTs

High Energy Physics - Theory 2026-05-08 v2

Abstract

We study Krylov (spread) complexity in strongly coupled six-dimensional N=(1,0){\cal N}=(1,0) superconformal field theories with holographic duals in massive type IIA supergravity. Extending recent holographic proposals relating Krylov complexity growth to the proper momentum of an infalling particle, we analyse the dynamics of massive geodesic probes in these geometries. In our setup, the bulk particle is allowed to move along three directions: the radial AdS coordinate, the internal S2S^2 associated with the SU(2)RSU(2)_R symmetry, and the coordinate parametrising the quiver. In the dual field theory these motions encode, respectively, operator growth, the presence of R-symmetry charges, and spreading across different nodes of the quiver. We analyse the geodesic motion both analytically and numerically for representative quiver configurations. The motion along the quiver direction is typically damped and localised at early times, while the late-time behaviour is dominated by the radial AdS motion. As a consequence, the generalised proper momentum grows linearly at late times, consistent with expectations for Krylov complexity in conformal theories. The inclusion of angular momentum (SU(2)RSU(2)_R charge) introduces additional constraints on the allowed motion and modifies the early-time dynamics while leaving the asymptotic behaviour unchanged. These results provide a first exploration of Krylov complexity in higher-dimensional holographic conformal theories and reveal how operator growth can probe both internal symmetries and quiver structure in strongly coupled conformal field theories.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.10106,
  title  = {Complexity and Operator Growth in Holographic 6d SCFTs},
  author = {Ali Fatemiabhari and Carlos Nunez and Ricardo T. Santamaria},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.10106},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

20 pages, various figures. Journal version

R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:13:41.460Z