Emergent Holographic Forces from Tensor Networks and Criticality

Abstract

The AdS/CFT correspondence stipulates a duality between conformal field theories and certain theories of quantum gravity in one higher spatial dimension. However, probing this conjecture on contemporary classical or quantum computers is challenging. We formulate an efficiently implementable multi-scale entanglement renormalization ansatz (MERA) model of AdS/CFT providing a mapping between a (1+1)-dimensional critical spin system and a (2+1)-dimensional bulk theory. Using a combination of numerics and analytics, we show that the bulk theory arising from this optimized tensor network furnishes excitations with attractive interactions. Remarkably, these excitations have one- and two-particle energies matching the predictions for matter coupled to AdS gravity at long distances, thus displaying key features of AdS physics. We show that these potentials arise as a direct consequence of entanglement renormalization and discuss how this approach can be used to efficiently simulate bulk dynamics using realistic quantum devices.