Chaos in Celestial CFT

TL;DR

This paper explores how celestial conformal field theories encode maximal quantum chaos through soft sector dynamics, revealing backreaction effects linked to celestial symmetries and Rindler observer perspectives.

Contribution

It demonstrates that celestial CFT soft sectors exhibit chaos-like behavior due to symmetry breaking and shockwave interactions, connecting bulk Rindler physics to boundary correlator dynamics.

Findings

Celestial CFT soft sector encodes maximal quantum chaos.

Shockwave interactions induce Lyapunov behavior in Rindler particles.

Superrotation Goldstone modes influence celestial Virasoro representations.

Abstract

Celestial holography proposes a duality between gravitational scattering in asymptotically flat space-time and a conformal field theory living on the celestial sphere. Its dictionary relates the infinite dimensional space-time symmetry group to Ward identities of the CFT. The spontaneous breaking of these asymptotic symmetries governs the dynamics of the soft sector in the CFT. Here we show that this sector encodes non-trivial backreaction effects that exhibit characteristics of maximal quantum chaos. A key element in the derivation is the identification of the Hilbert space of celestial CFT, defined through radial quantization, with that of a constantly accelerating Rindler observer. From the point of view of the bulk, Rindler particles exhibit Lyapunov behavior due to shockwave interactions that shift the observer horizon. From the point of view of the boundary, the superrotation Goldstone modes affect the relevant representations of the celestial Virasoro symmetry in a manner that induces Lyapunov behavior of out-of-time-ordered celestial correlators.