Conjecture on the butterfly velocity across a quantum phase transition

Matteo Baggioli, Bikash Padhi, Philip W. Phillips, Chandan Setty

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

We study an anisotropic holographic bottom-up model displaying a quantum phase transition (QPT) between a topologically trivial insulator and a non-trivial Weyl semimetal phase. We analyze the properties of quantum chaos in the quantum critical region. We do not find any universal property of the Butterfly velocity across the QPT. In particular it turns out to be either maximized or minimized at the quantum critical point depending on the direction of propagation. We observe that instead of the butterfly velocity, it is the dimensionless information screening length that is always maximized at a quantum critical point. We argue that the null-energy condition (NEC) is the underlying reason for the upper bound, which now is just a simple combination of the number of spatial dimensions and the anisotropic scaling parameter.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number49
JournalJournal of High Energy Physics
Volume2018
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 1 2018

Keywords

  • AdS-CFT Correspondence
  • Anomalies in Field and String Theories
  • Holography and condensed matter physics (AdS/CMT)
  • Topological States of Matter

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics

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