From confinement to chaos in AdS/CFT correspondence via non-equilibrium local states

Abstract: In this paper, we study excited states in Anti-de Sitter (AdS) space prepared by local operator insertions of a massive scalar field, corresponding to operator quenches for free fields in AdS. Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we compute the time evolution of boundary observables in the dual states. We then introduce a hard wall in AdS Poincare coordinates to impose an infrared cutoff, creating a confining deformation of the dual conformal field theory, and analyze the dynamics of excited states in this confining background. By comparing the evolution of boundary two-point correlation functions in the deformed theory to the statistics of Gaussian random matrix ensembles, we show that for sufficiently heavy operators the fluctuations approach quite close those of the Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE). Finally, we extend our analysis to the compact BTZ black hole and its hard wall deformation, finding qualitatively similar behavior.