TY  - JOUR
PB  - SciPost Foundation
DO  - 10.21468/SciPostPhys.14.3.030
TI  - Non-Hermitian quantum quenches in holography
PY  - 2023/03/10
UR  - https://scipost.org/SciPostPhys.14.3.030
JF  - SciPost Physics
JA  - SciPost Phys.
VL  - 14
IS  - 3
SP  - 030
A1  - Morales-Tejera, Sergio
AU  - Landsteiner, Karl
AB  - The notion of non-Hermitian $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetric quantum theory has recently been generalized to the gauge/gravity duality. 
We study the evolution of such non-Hermitian holographic field theories when the couplings are varied with time with
particular emphasis on the question non-unitary time vs. unitary time evolution. We show that a non-unitary time evolution in the 
dual quantum theory corresponds to a violation of the Null Energy Condition (NEC) in the bulk of the asymptotically AdS spacetime. We find that upon
varying the non-Hermitian coupling the horizon of a bulk AdS black hole shrinks. On the other hand varying the Hermitian coupling in the presence
of a constant non-Hermitian coupling still violates the NEC but results in a growing horizon. We also show that by introducing a non-Hermitian
gauge field the time evolution can be made unitary, e.g. the NEC in the bulk is obeyed and an exactly equivalent purely Hermitian description can be given.
ER  -

@Article{10.21468/SciPostPhys.14.3.030,
	title={{Non-Hermitian quantum quenches in holography}},
	author={Sergio Morales-Tejera and Karl Landsteiner},
	journal={SciPost Phys.},
	volume={14},
	pages={030},
	year={2023},
	publisher={SciPost},
	doi={10.21468/SciPostPhys.14.3.030},
	url={https://scipost.org/10.21468/SciPostPhys.14.3.030},
}