Crosscap Quenches and Entanglement Evolution

TL;DR

This paper introduces the 'crosscap quench' protocol to study entanglement evolution and thermalization in quantum many-body systems, combining conformal field theory analysis, holography, and numerical simulations.

Contribution

It proposes a new quench protocol and provides a comprehensive analysis of entanglement dynamics across different theoretical frameworks and models.

Findings

Universal features in entanglement entropy evolution in CFTs

Analytical insights into chaotic CFTs via holography

Numerical validation in quantum spin systems

Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms by which complex correlations emerge through the dynamics of quantum many-body systems remains a fundamental challenge in modern physics. To address this, quench dynamics starting from nonthermal states have been extensively studied, leading to significant progress. In this paper, we propose a novel quench protocol, termed the "crosscap quench", to investigate how highly structured thermal pure states relax into typical ones. We begin by analyzing conformal field theories (CFTs) and derive universal features in the time evolution of the entanglement entropy. Furthermore, leveraging the AdS/CFT correspondence, we study holographic CFTs, providing an analytically tractable example in chaotic CFTs. Finally, we validate these findings through numerical simulations in both nonintegrable and integrable quantum spin systems.