Holographic Butterfly Effect at Quantum Critical Points

When the Lyapunov exponent $\lambda_L$ in a quantum chaotic system saturates the bound $\lambda_L\leqslant 2\pi k_BT$, it is proposed that this system has a holographic dual described by a gravity theory. In particular, the butterfly effect as a prominent phenomenon of chaos can ubiquitously exist in a black hole system characterized by a shockwave solution near the horizon. In this paper we propose that the butterfly velocity can be used to diagnose quantum phase transition (QPT) in holographic theories. We provide evidences for this proposal with an anisotropic holographic model exhibiting metal-insulator transitions (MIT), in which the derivatives of the butterfly velocity with respect to system parameters characterizes quantum critical points (QCP) with local extremes in zero temperature limit. We also point out that this proposal can be tested by experiments in the light of recent progress on the measurement of out-of-time-order correlation function (OTOC).Comment: 7 figures, 15 page

Holographic Metal-Insulator Transition in Higher Derivative Gravity

We introduce a Weyl term into the Einstein-Maxwell-Axion theory in four dimensional spacetime. Up to the first order of the Weyl coupling parameter $\gamma$, we construct charged black brane solutions without translational invariance in a perturbative manner. Among all the holographic frameworks involving higher derivative gravity, we are the first to obtain metal-insulator transitions (MIT) when varying the system parameters at zero temperature. Furthermore, we study the holographic entanglement entropy (HEE) of strip geometry in this model and find that the second order derivative of HEE with respect to the axion parameter exhibits maximization behavior near quantum critical points (QCPs) of MIT. It testifies the conjecture in 1502.03661 and 1604.04857 that HEE itself or its derivatives can be used to diagnose quantum phase transition (QPT).Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures; typo corrected, added 3 references; minor revisio

Note on graph-based BCJ relation for Berends-Giele currents

Graph-based Bern-Carasso-Johansson (BCJ) relation for Berends-Giele currents in bi-adjoint scalar (BS) theory, which is characterized by connected tree graphs, was proposed in an earlier work. In this note, we provide a systematic study of this relation. We first prove the relations based on two special types of graphs: simple chains and star graphs. The general graph-based BCJ relation established by an arbitrary tree graph is further proved, through Berends-Giele recursion. When combined with proper off-shell extended numerators, this relation induces the graph-based BCJ relation for Berends-Giele currents in Yang-Mills theory. The corresponding relations for amplitudes are obtained via on-shell limits.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure