Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we probe the scale dependence of thermalization in strongly coupled field theories following a sudden injection of energy via calculations of two-point functions, Wilson loops, and entanglement entropy in $d=2$, 3, 4. In the saddle-point approximation these probes are computed in AdS space in terms of invariant geometric objects---geodesics, minimal surfaces, and minimal volumes. Our calculations for two-dimensional field theories are analytical. In our strongly coupled setting, all probes in all dimensions share certain universal features in their thermalization: (1) a slight delay in the onset of thermalization, (2) an apparent nonanalyticity at the endpoint of thermalization, (3) top-down thermalization where the UV thermalizes first. For homogeneous initial conditions the entanglement entropy thermalizes slowest and sets a timescale for equilibration that saturates a causality bound over the range of scales studied. The growth rate of entanglement entropy density is nearly volume-independent for small volumes, but slows for larger volumes.
Institutions: University of Pennsylvania, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, International Solvay Institutes, Institute for Theoretical Physics Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Uppsala University, University of Helsinki, Helsinki Institute of Physics, Duke University, University of Regensburg, Kobayashi-Maskawa Institute for the Origin of Particles and the Universe, Nagoya University
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3037795170