A Chaotic Form Factor in Topological Gravity

Ahmed I. Abdalla (UC, Berkeley)

Fri Jul 31, 05:00-06:00 (3 days from now)

Abstract: Ergodicity encourages us to define a quantum system as chaotic insofar as its observables are typical. Thermalization takes a given state of a system and renders it indistinguishable from a typical state. We might thus conclude that thermal systems are chaotic. Verifying this conjecture requires an ansatz for typicality. A common choice is the eigenstate thermalization hypothesis (ETH) and its various generalizations. In this talk, we describe such a generalization suited to the computation of multi-trace observables. This multi-trace ETH posits a form for the statistics of operator matrix elements. It follows from modest assumptions on random matrices and implies properties that were elsewhere derived semiclassically using periodic orbits. Perhaps surprisingly, we find that the muli-trace ETH ansatz is realized exactly in 2- and 3-dimensional holographic models of gravity. This is accomplished (1) by computing various Euclidean saddles of the gravitational path integral and (2) by studying universal properties of holographic conformal field theories. Our main techniques in this regard are Virasoro TQFT and Mean Field Theory.

Base on work in progress with G. di Ubaldo and E. Tabor. Note the unusual time.

condensed mattergeneral relativity and quantum cosmologyHEP - theorymathematical physicsdifferential geometry

Audience: advanced learners


Europe and Pacific Theoretical Physics

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