Holographic Thermalization
Abstract
Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we probe the scale-dependence of thermalization in strongly coupled field theories following a quench, via calculations of two-point functions, Wilson loops and entanglement entropy in d=2,3,4. In the saddlepoint approximation these probes are computed in AdS space in terms of invariant geometric objects - geodesics, minimal surfaces and minimal volumes. Our calculations for two-dimensional field theories are analytical. In our strongly coupled setting, all probes in all dimensions share certain universal features in their thermalization: (1) a slight delay in the onset of thermalization, (2) an apparent non-analyticity at the endpoint of thermalization, (3) top-down thermalization where the UV thermalizes first. For homogeneous initial conditions the entanglement entropy thermalizes slowest, and sets a timescale for equilibration that saturates a causality bound over the range of scales studied. The growth rate of entanglement entropy density is nearly volume-independent for small volumes, but slows for larger volumes.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1103.2683,
title = {Holographic Thermalization},
author = {Vijay Balasubramanian and Alice Bernamonti and Jan de Boer and Neil B. Copland and Ben Craps and Esko Keski-Vakkuri and Berndt Müller and Andreas Schäfer and Masaki Shigemori and Wieland Staessens},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.2683},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
39 pages, 24 figures