26–29 Sept 2017
DESY Hamburg
Europe/Berlin timezone

Circuit complexity in QFT

28 Sept 2017, 16:45
20m
Seminar room 1 (DESY Hamburg)

Seminar room 1

DESY Hamburg

Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg
String & Mathematical Physics Parallel Session: String & Mathematical Physics

Speaker

Ro Jefferson (AEI Golm)

Description

Motivated by recent studies of holographic complexity, we examine the question of circuit complexity in quantum field theory. We provide a quantum circuit model for the preparation of Gaussian states, in particular the ground state, in a free scalar field theory for general dimensions. Applying the geometric approach of Nielsen to this quantum circuit model, the complexity of the state becomes the length of the shortest geodesic in the space of circuits. We compare the complexity of the ground state of the free scalar field to the analogous results from holographic complexity, and find some surprising similarities.

Primary author

Ro Jefferson (AEI Golm)

Presentation materials