Journal of High Energy Physics (Feb 2019)

How to build the thermofield double state

  • William Cottrell,
  • Ben Freivogel,
  • Diego M. Hofman,
  • Sagar F. Lokhande

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP02(2019)058
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2019, no. 2
pp. 1 – 43

Abstract

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Abstract Given two copies of any quantum mechanical system, one may want to prepare them in the thermofield double state for the purpose of studying thermal physics or black holes. However, the thermofield double is a unique entangled pure state and may be difficult to prepare. We propose a local interacting Hamiltonian for the combined system whose ground state is approximately the thermofield double. The energy gap for this Hamiltonian is of order the temperature. Our construction works for any quantum system satisfying the Eigenvalue Thermalization Hypothesis.

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