New horizons for inhomogeneous quenches and Floquet CFT

TL;DR

This paper explores the dynamics of inhomogeneous and periodically driven 2D conformal field theories using geometric and holographic methods, revealing new horizons in the dual spacetime and insights into operator reconstruction.

Contribution

It introduces a solvable model of Floquet-driven 2D CFTs with conformal Hamiltonians, linking quantum dynamics to geometry and holography, and uncovers new horizons in the dual spacetime.

Findings

Identification of new horizons in the holographic dual spacetime.

Demonstration that bulk operators behind these horizons are reconstructable via modular flow.

Establishment of a geometric understanding of inhomogeneous quenches and Floquet dynamics in CFTs.

Abstract

A fruitful avenue in investigating out-of-equilibrium quantum many-body systems is to abruptly change their Hamiltonian and study the subsequent evolution of their quantum state. If this is done once, the setup is called a quench, while if it is done periodically, it is called Floquet driving. We consider the solvable setup of a two-dimensional CFT driven by Hamiltonians built out of conformal symmetry generators: in this case, the quantum dynamics can be understood using two-dimensional geometry. We investigate how the dynamics is reflected in the holographic dual three-dimensional spacetime and find new horizons. We argue that bulk operators behind the new horizons are reconstructable by virtue of modular flow.