2014/06/30 by Kevin Kuns, Donald Marolf
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Boundary (topology) #Boundary conformal field theory #Boundary value problem #Conformal field theory #Conformal map #Conformal symmetry #Euclidean geometry #Infinity #Minkowski space #Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.stat-mech #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep09(2014)082
published as JHEP09(2014)082 · 19 pages, 6 figures; v2: minor changes and updated references
openalex publication_date 2014/09/01 · arxiv created 2014/10/06 · arxiv updated 2014/10/07 · openalex created_date 2019/06/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Cardy has recently observed that certain carefully tuned states of 1+1 CFTs on a timelike strip are periodic with period set by the light-crossing time. The states in question are defined by Euclidean time evolution of conformal boundary states associated with the particular boundary conditions imposed on the edges of the strip. We explain this behavior, and the associated lack of thermalization, by showing that such states are Lorentz-signature conformal transformations of the strip ground state. Taking the long-strip limit implies that states used to model thermalization on the Minkowski plane admit non-thermal conformal extensions beyond future infinity of the Minkowski plane, and thus retain some notion of non-thermal behavior at late times. We also comment on the holographic description of these states.