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Lashkari, Nima

Publications and source records attributed to Lashkari, Nima.

Local Poincaré algebra from quantum chaos

The local two-dimensional Poincaré algebra near the horizon of an eternal AdS black hole, or in proximity to any bifurcate Killing horizon, is generated by the Killing flow and outward null translations on the horizon. In holography, this local Poincaré algebra is reflected as a pair of unitary flows in the boundary Hilbert space whose generators under modular flow grow and decay exponentially with a maximal Lyapunov exponent. This is a universal feature of many geometric vacua of quantum gravity. To explain this universality, we show that a two-dimensional Poincaré algebra emerges in any quantum system that has von Neumann subalgebras associated with half-infinite modular time intervals (modular future and past subalgebras) in a limit analogous to the near-horizon limit. In ergodic theory, quantum dynamical systems with future or past algebras are called quantum K-systems. The surprising statement is that modular K-systems are always maximally chaotic. Interacting quantum systems in the thermodynamic limit and large N theories above the Hawking-Page phase transition are examples of physical theories with future/past subalgebras. We prove that the existence of (modular) future/past von Neumann subalgebras also implies a second law of (modular) thermodynamics and the exponential decay of (modular) correlators. We generalize our results from the modular flow to any dynamical flow with a positive generator and interpret the positivity condition as quantum detailed balance.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Perturbation theory for the logarithm of a positive operator

In various contexts in mathematical physics, such as out-of-equilibrium physics and the asymptotic information theory of many-body quantum systems, one needs to compute the logarithm of a positive unbounded operator. Examples include the von Neumann entropy of a density matrix and the flow of operators with the modular Hamiltonian in the Tomita-Takesaki theory. Often, one encounters the situation where the operator under consideration, which we denote by ∆, can be related by a perturbative series to another operator ∆ 0 , whose logarithm is known. We set up a perturbation theory for the logarithm log ∆. It turns out that the terms in the series possess a remarkable algebraic structure, which enables us to write them in the form of nested commutators plus some “contact terms”.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Information loss, mixing and emergent type III 1 factors

A manifestation of the black hole information loss problem is that the two-point function of probe operators in a large Anti-de Sitter black hole decays in time, whereas, on the boundary CFT, it is expected to be an almost periodic function of time. We point out that the decay of the two-point function (clustering in time) holds important clues to the nature of observable algebras, states, and dynamics in quantum gravity. We call operators that cluster in time “mixing” and explore the necessary and sufficient conditions for mixing. The information loss problem is a special case of the statement that in type I algebras, there exists no mixing operators. We prove that, in a thermofield double state (KMS state), if mixing operators form an algebra (close under multiplication), the resulting algebra must be a von Neumann type III 1 factor. In other words, the physically intuitive requirement that all nonconserved operators should exponentially mix is so strong that it fixes the observable algebra to be an exotic algebra called a type III1 factor. More generally, for an arbitrary out-of-equilibrium state of a general quantum system (von Neumann algebra), we show that if the set of operators that mix under modular flow forms an algebra, it is a type III1 von Neumann factor.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Monotonic multi-state quantum f -divergences

We use the Tomita–Takesaki modular theory and the Kubo–Ando operator mean to write down a large class of multi-state quantum f-divergences and prove that they satisfy the data processing inequality. For two states, this class includes the (α, z)-Rényi divergences, the f-divergences of Petz, and the Rényi Belavkin-Staszewski relative entropy as special cases. The method used is the interpolation theory of non-commutative Lωp spaces, and the result applies to general von Neumann algebras, including the local algebra of quantum field theory. We conjecture that these multi-state Rényi divergences have operational interpretations in terms of the optimal error probabilities in asymmetric multi-state quantum state discrimination.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Modular flow of excited states

We develop new techniques for studying the modular and the relative modular flows of general excited states. We show that the class of states obtained by acting on the vacuum (or any cyclic and separating state) with invertible operators from the algebra of a region is dense in the Hilbert space. This enables us to express the modular and the relative modular operators, as well as the relative entropies of generic excited states in terms of the vacuum modular operator and the operator that creates the state. In particular, the modular and the relative modular flows of any state can be expanded in terms of the modular flow of operators in vacuum. We illustrate the formalism with simple examples including states close to the vacuum, and coherent and squeezed states in generalized free field theory.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗