On Entanglement Dynamics in Holographic Theories
Abstract
Entanglement entropy (EE) is central to modern theoretical physics, yet its calculation in interacting theories with nontrivial time dependence remains challenging. In this thesis, we investigate the real-time dynamics of EE in strongly coupled quantum field theories (QFTs) using the Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence. We first examine EE evolution in an exactly solvable two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) with an inhomogeneous sine-square deformation (SSD). We argue that the unconventional time evolution driven by the SSD Hamiltonian can be viewed as a change in spacetime foliation, producing new horizons in the dual three-dimensional bulk. Holographic EE calculations agree with CFT results in all comparable cases. We then study entanglement dynamics in generic chaotic quantum many-body systems. In the limit of late time and large regions, these dynamics are believed to admit an effective entanglement membrane description. In 2d CFTs, a degenerate membrane tension reproduces several entropy dynamics results, unlike the non-degenerate tension in higher dimensions. Using holography, we show that capturing reflected entropy in 2d CFT requires an additional degree of freedom in the membrane description. We further show that a conventional non-degenerate tension emerges when the CFT undergoes a relevant deformation, holographically dual to a planar Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole with scalar hair and an interior Kasner universe. We then develop a membrane effective theory for reflected entropy dynamics in higher dimensions. Finally, we apply the membrane theories for reflected entropy to study the time evolution of multipartite entanglement signals. We found that scrambling dynamics generate multipartite entanglement with rich structures.
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BibTeX
@misc{jiang2026entanglement,
title = {{On Entanglement Dynamics in Holographic Theories}},
author = {Hanzhi Jiang},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.07010},
eprint = {2611.07010},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07010},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - On Entanglement Dynamics in Holographic Theories
AU - Hanzhi Jiang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.07010
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07010
AB - Entanglement entropy (EE) is central to modern theoretical physics, yet its calculation in interacting theories with nontrivial time dependence remains challenging. In this thesis, we investigate the real-time dynamics of EE in strongly coupled quantum field theories (QFTs) using the Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence. We first examine EE evolution in an exactly solvable two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) with an inhomogeneous sine-square deformation (SSD). We argue that the unconventional time evolution driven by the SSD Hamiltonian can be viewed as a change in spacetime foliation, producing new horizons in the dual three-dimensional bulk. Holographic EE calculations agree with CFT results in all comparable cases. We then study entanglement dynamics in generic chaotic quantum many-body systems. In the limit of late time and large regions, these dynamics are believed to admit an effective entanglement membrane description. In 2d CFTs, a degenerate membrane tension reproduces several entropy dynamics results, unlike the non-degenerate tension in higher dimensions. Using holography, we show that capturing reflected entropy in 2d CFT requires an additional degree of freedom in the membrane description. We further show that a conventional non-degenerate tension emerges when the CFT undergoes a relevant deformation, holographically dual to a planar Banados-Teitelboim-Zanelli (BTZ) black hole with scalar hair and an interior Kasner universe. We then develop a membrane effective theory for reflected entropy dynamics in higher dimensions. Finally, we apply the membrane theories for reflected entropy to study the time evolution of multipartite entanglement signals. We found that scrambling dynamics generate multipartite entanglement with rich structures.
ER -