Pole-skipping in non-maximal quantum chaotic systems and stringy horizons

by Prof. Ping Gao (UCAS)

Thursday 11 Dec 2025, 15:10 → 16:10 Asia/Shanghai

B105 (CHEP)

Pole-skipping is an independent probe of quantum chaos beyond the Lyapunov exponent. In this talk, I will explain the pole-skipping of higher spin operators in a higher-dimensional CFT with large N. For such a CFT in the Regge limit, we will have non-maximal quantum chaos, which is associated with the leading Regge trajectory. For generic spin J, there exists a nontrivial two-piece rule for the distribution of pole-skipping points at both positive and negative imaginary frequencies. For the pole-skipping of an individual spin J operator, it has nothing to do with the non-maximal Lyapunov exponent. However, if we combine the infinite pole-skipping points with the largest imaginary frequency, we will surprisingly find that they form an analytic trajectory, which gives the non-maximal Lyapunov exponent. We conjecture this property holds for generic non-maximal chaotic systems and verify this conjecture in large q SYK chain. This leads to some nontrivial features of stringy horizons as the self-consistency in a complete theory of quantum gravity.

Bio:
Ping Gao is an assistant professor at Kalvi Institute for Theoretical Sciences of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received PhD from Harvard in 2019, and worked as a postdoc at MIT in 2019-2023, and at Rutgers in 2023-2025. His research interest includes quantum gravity, holographic duality, quantum chaos, quantum information, and effective field theory.

Tencent Meeting: 881-360-848